Although some quarters might disagree in calling Hurricane Katrina’s arrival six years back on the US Gulf Coast as a survival event, it can definitely be seen as such. Most phenomena like Katrina are termed “natural disasters.” While they undoubtedly are, they also hastened the transition into distressed survival conditions mode where survivalist approaches were called for to hurdle the crisis successfully.

Just How Ready Are You For Survival Conditions?

Who could forget the damage Katrina left in its wake? People are still trying to get over the images of lawlessness, mayhem and distress. Looking at the situation from a sociological point of view, it was especially fascinating to observe how swiftly individuals turned on each other. The end-result was a place ruled by anarchy. To think this happened in modern day America – in 2005.

People are used to seeing such images from underdeveloped, unstable nations far from the US, but to actually watch it strike America? Judging from the wreckage, clearly, nobody saw Katrina coming, which makes it even more disturbing that it occurred right inside one of the most popular tourist spots in America.

The lesson from this experience is that when desperation takes hold of a community, its members are likely to act crazy too. On September 2, 2005, the Associated Press put together several quotes and published them in The Seattle Times. This was a few days following the landfall of Katrina in Mississippi and Louisiana.

• From Larry Mitzel, a tourist from Canada who left his business card with a reporter in case he ended up missing while in New Orleans: “I’m not sure I’m going to get out of here alive. I’m scared of the locals. We might get caught in the crossfire.”

• From Washington, Michigan resident Debbie Durso who requested assistance from a cop who responded by telling her to go to hell, that she was on her own like everybody else: “This is just insanity. We have no food, no water … all these trucks and buses go by and they do nothing but wave.”

• From Eddie Compass, a police chief whose subordinate officers dealt with frustrated, enraged mobs inside the convention center: “We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten. Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon.”

Try to remember that the situation of disorder, confusion and hostility that took over most of the affected locations didn’t occur over a span of a couple of weeks or even months. The riot and chaos went down within only a few hours. Should the same survival conditions be witnessed in your neighborhood, what do you think would happen? No doubt, it poses a scary picture and raises many questions. Do you believe you’ll be prepared for whatever comes, be able to handle things and pull through okay?

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Dan Annweiler
CEO & Editor of The Emergency Survival Blog