From our Sponsor

Attend MIT's Acclaimed Crisis Management & Business Resiliency Course! On-Line October 20-24 and 27-30, 2025

MIT’s intensive and extensive program offers an effective combination of lectures, case studies, student activities, and professional networking. Join your peers, industry experts, government responders, and renowned MIT faculty. This is the sixteenth year of MIT’s extremely successful program! And you can do this from your office this fall!

Special this year:

• Business Resiliency and Artificial Intelligence
• Ransomware Executive Tabletop Exercise
• Enhanced Online Crisis Simulation (includes “How to set up your own online simulation”)
• The incredible Panel Session: Response to and Impact of the Los Angeles Wildfires

What a great way to get MIT into your LinkedIn Profile!

Meet the Expert

Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina: Twenty Years Later

Twenty years have passed since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, yet its legacy as a national tragedy and a critical learning moment endures. Beyond the immense human suffering and physical destruction, Katrina exposed deep systemic failures—and, in its aftermath, prompted significant improvements in preparedness, response, and infrastructure.

This catastrophic event left a deep impression on author Kathy Rainey, who was at the time – publisher of the Disaster Resource GUIDE. The reality — human networks and entire social organizations collapsed. These social networks, especially in low-income neighborhoods, were crucial to people’s survival. They were fractured in the storm. Yet, and even today, as Kathy cautions, many vulnerabilities remain unresolved.

Here are 9 lessons learned over the past two decades.