Chapter Appendix B - What Went Right
Section Department of Defense
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Department of Defense
Well before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, the Department of Defense (DOD) prepared for the 2005 hurricane season. Based on prior assistance for hurricane recovery operations, on August 19th the Secretary of Defense approved a standing order to prepare and organize for severe weather disaster operations. This order expedited the pre-positioning of senior military representatives known as Defense Coordinating Officers, to act as liaisons with other governmental organizations in the projected disaster area prior to an event. The order also authorized the use of DOD installations as logistical staging areas for FEMA. U.S. Northern Command directed a number of emergency deployment readiness exercises prior to FEMA requests, spending training funds to pre-position response capability. Once officially activated and deployed, DOD provided logistics support to FEMA, helping the Agency to track items in motion.23
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers led the removal of 224 billion gallons of water from New Orleans in 43 days, enabling recovery and repair operations. By improving their pumping capacity and efficiency, adding pumps, creating intentional breaches, and developing other on-the-spot workarounds, they were able to reduce the estimated time to clear New Orleans of water by approximately 50 percent.24
U.S. Army soldiers provided a number of services in support of Local, State, Federal, and private-sector activities, including medical treatment (e.g., thousands of immunizations), debris clearing, evacuation, planning, and performance of search and rescue missions.25 The U.S. Marine Corps helped local governments reinvigorate their infrastructures26 and augmented search and rescue operations. In one particularly noteworthy case, two Marines using a borrowed boat rescued 150 people in 36 hours.27 The Mississippi National Guard, supported with Guard members from many other States, performed superbly throughout the response, carrying out a number of duties, including clearing key roads, search and rescue, and getting supplies into the hands of victims as quickly as possible.28 The U.S. Navy mobilized more than 10,000 naval personnel to the affected Gulf coast region, as well as 68 aircraft, and 16 ships,29 including amphibious construction equipment and mobile diving salvage units, particularly useful in flood conditions.30
Prior to Katrina's landfall, twenty-one Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133 and Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 7, led by a Navy Chief Warrant Officer answered the call to vigilantly support the staff and residents of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport, Mississippi. Located about two hundred yards from the Gulf of Mexico, the home had evacuated all but fifty patients in anticipation of Hurricane Katrina. Seabees postured themselves on the ground floor of the building, and began bracing the structure against a thirty foot tidal surge and winds recorded in excess of 120 miles per hour. When the storm surge forced its way into the building, generator power was lost, and in the darkness, amidst rushing water, tidal pull and life-threatening debris, these Seabees as young as 18 years old and hailing from every area of the country, evacuated fifty bed-ridden and wheel-chair bound retirees and numerous staff members, as well as all medical oxygen tanks, to the upper floors of the building. Their actions saved lives and helped prevent the home from succumbing to total physical devastation.
The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (also known as the Hurricane Hunters), of the 403rd Wing, is composed of U.S. Air Force Reservists. Flying out of Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, it is the only military unit flying into hurricanes and tropical storms.31 The unit followed Hurricane Katrina from inception to landfall, and provided critical reconnaissance information to the National Hurricane Center throughout the event.32 They maintained daily hurricane vigilance. Other Air Force personnel supported recovery and relief operations, including transportation of more than 13,000 people, air traffic control, and aerial lift, refueling, photography, search and rescue, and medical evacuation.33
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) started collecting key infrastructure-related information (i.e. on airports, hospitals, police stations, emergency operations centers, highways, schools, etc.) well in advance of landfall and got this information into the hands of Federal, State, and local first responders in the affected region. As the storm was tracked, NGA pre-deployed analysts and mobile systems to the affected areas that provided expertise and information on the ground and facilitated the delivery of additional information from NGA offices elsewhere. Because they had assets in place and focused on the region, NGA provided the first comprehensive overview of the damage resulting from the hurricane and flood. NGA merged imagery with other information, creating hundreds of intelligence products per day that could be used and applied by response professionals to aid in decision-making. NGA assessments were multi-dimensional, timely, relevant, and continuous. They addressed many issues, including but not limited to: recovery planning and operations, transportation infrastructure, critical and catastrophic damage, dike stability and breaches, industry damage, and hazard spills. The NGA World Wide Navigational Warning Service also provided navigation information to the U.S. Navy, Merchant Marine, and Coast Guard, and relayed messages from the National Weather Service to people at sea. NGA also aided in the location and recovery of oil platforms. The imagery activities of NGA were essential to the restoration of critical infrastructure.34
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