Ethical Case Of Hurricane Katrina

In August of 2005 the strongest hurricane ever recorded to make landfall, struck the Gulf Coast of the United States. When Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana in the early morning of August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina was thought to be a Category 3 Hurricane bringing winds sustained at 100-140 miles per hour, but when landfall was made it peaked at a Category 5 hurricane with winds up to 175 miles per hour and was measured about 400 miles across (history.com).
On August 29, 2005 the New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issues the New Orleans its first mandatory evacuation order and evacuations began for residents; they were sadly informed that the area of the Gulf Coast would be virtually inhabitable for weeks or longer. Hurricane Katrina
affected over 15 million people with 705 people missing and 1,836 people dead (dosomething.org). Residents of the Gulf Coast evacuated north to locations in Arkansas, Northern Mississippi and Tennessee; some found refuge near-by and some attempted to wait out the storm at home.
In this case, it tells us about an ethical battle between Brian Johnson, a hotel owner off of Interstate 55 near McComb, Mississippi and the hotel manager, Lily.
As you would have known, people affected by Hurricane Katrina searched for shelter and as shelter became scarce and vacancies began to dwindle, Mr. Johnson looked for an opportunity to make a profit at his Hotel. A normal rate for Mr. Johnson’s hotel was $55.00 per night; due to the influx of occupants, he decided to raise the price to $200.00 per night.

His manager, Lily, stood against his decision of taking advantage of the vulnerabilities of peoples; saw this action from her manager as ethically wrong and without wavering her principles she decided to quit her job at Mr. Johnson’s hotel. Here we have two different types of ethical beliefs; Mr. Johnson would be viewed as an “ethical egoist”; someone “claims that it is necessary and sufficient for an action to be morally right that it maximizes one’s self interest (Stanford University, 2002)”. Mr. Johnson thought this to be the right decision in raising prices of his rooms for self-interest and in the best interest of his hotel. Lily has a complete different mindset and her ethical values are of complete opposite from those of Mr. Johnson; Lily looks for the greater good for people and felt that those actions would not provide happiness to those that would be affected by Mr. Johnson’s
decision. Lily went back to Mr. Johnson 3 months after Hurricane Katrina and Mr. Johnson doesn’t know if he should give her job back to her. In my opinion Mr. Johnson should not give Lily her job back. There is no moral or ethical decision to be made now because those choices have been already been made. Here is why I feel this way; Mr.
Johnson is the owner of the hotel and can quite frankly, run it how he sees fit; wither is profits himself or others, it is his hotel and he can make those calls. Lily however is the complete opposite, she looks to find ways to help people and looks to how she can bring happiness to others, not just herself. Lily quit her job, and I feel that she did the right thing, as a very ethical person, she stood for her morals and principles in life. If I were Lily, I would not want the job back. As I mentioned, Mr. Johnson can do this whenever he wants to, it is his Hotel, if he decides to raise prices again if a disaster happens, will she quit again? Lily should surround herself with people like
her. Mr. Johnson should not feel obligated to give Lily her job back; she quit. However Mr. Johnson should want a manager like that managing his hotel; Lily is dedicated to making people happy and looking for the greater good in situations. If it were up to Lily, I believe she would have lowered the prices. Lily is a Utilitarian; she looks at how these vulnerable people can be affected in the long run. With the cost of food, fuel and everything possibly taken away from them, she looks to see how to help them for the future. In the end, Mr. Johnson only raised the price of his hotel rooms to $125 vice the original $200 he originally wanted to; Mr. Johnson obviously applied some type of ethical decision when making his adjustment. I have no doubt that people looking for shelter stayed at Mr. Johnson’s hotel for $125 and I hope he did make a profit; however, my ethical decision and principles tell me that this was wrong. There are families to this day that are still being affected by Hurricane Katrina; Hurricane Katrina caused $81 billion in property damage and the total economic impact on both Louisiana and Mississippi exceeded $150 Billion; it affected 1 million non-agriculture jobs and displaced hundreds of thousands of employments that are still affected today. If Mr. Johnson would have raised his prices, that $70.00 in price difference, could have made a difference for the better for that one family.