The U.S. military and the federal government often are blamed for the slow and disorganized response to Hurricane Katrina. A common political plank is the “we will not let it happen again”. I am not going to tell you that everything went perfectly, or even well. I would like to say that the U.S. military did much better than could have been expected under the circumstances. I will give examples of how the U.S. Army, Navy, and National Guard came together and gave light at the end of the tunnel.

I was assigned to the Joint Task Force Civil Support as a logistics planning officer. JTF-CS was tasked to plan for and execute military support to civil authorities during a large scale chemical, biological, nuclear, or high explosive disaster. Although we did not specifically plan for natural disasters such as Katrina, we were one of only a few expert commands on civil support. As such we had a unique view of what happened on the Gulf Coast. These are my thoughts.

At the time that Hurricane Katrina hit, the federal government had just put the finishing touches on the National Response Plan (NRP). The NRP was the base document for how the federal government would support state and local governments during a disaster. The basic assumption in that document was that State and Local governments and their leaders would step up and take charge. This is exactly what occurred under Rudi Giuliani during 911 and the government fully expected it to happen again. In Louisiana, it didn’t. The federal government was thrust into the lead when it had been planning to play a supporting role. The military is the federal government’s last course of action in most cases, so it was at an even greater disadvantage on preparedness. Nonetheless, under the dynamic leadership of LTG Honore, the U.S. military responded quickly and in many ways provided the hope and leadership that the local and state government was not providing. Let me give some examples.

The USS Bataan provided sailors at the superdome with radios who provided air control for hundreds of helicopters flying to and from the site with needed supplies and bringing in survivors from the flood. These sailors did this without any prior request because they knew it needed doing.

The U.S. Army 82d Airborne along with the U.S. Air Force took over and reestablished the New Orleans airport allowing bringing in needed supplies. These same soldiers went door to door in boats rescuing those they could and marking the houses of those that were beyond rescue. It was soldiers that relieved the superdome and provided the ability to evacuate people from that facility to other places.

When confusion set in, LTG Honore became the “John Wayne Dude” as the papers called him. With phrases such as “you’re stuck on stupid!” and “your looking at your calendar, I’m looking at my watch!” he provided the needed inspiration to many that help was coming. It wasn’t his role or responsibility to be the face of the effort, but he became it. He was so successful at this that many feel the military should lead all subsequent efforts. While the military as a whole is flattered by this, it is not the role we really want or should have. We are confident that local leadership will step up in the future.

The national guard from Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Mississippi along with many other states provided the bulk of the relief efforts. Their trucks, helicopters, HMMWVs, and boats were the lifeline for New Orleans. They were there when the police, fire departments, and local governments couldn’t be. They were the face of the State, and they did their states proud. Many of these guardsmen and women had lost property and even loved ones in the disaster. They still stood up. This is assuredly one of their finest moments.

The U.S. Military may not have had plans for what happened, but we “ran to the sounds of the guns” as we always do. We stand ready to respond in the future. You can be assured, between the National Guard, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army we will be there when you need us.

Thanks for that insight.

I remember Mardi Gras in New Orleans
back in 1988. There I was a lowly weatherman1956
out of Galveston...standing on the corner of Boubron and Canal Streets waiting for
the crews parade on the grand night. I was mostly listening to a group of my superiors
discussing a worst case scenario for a direct
hit on N.O. the topics included the population
verses transport ratio of 8 persons to each
car in the city...the flooding potential and only vertical evacuation possible given the '24 hours' of a Hurricane Warning issued to U.S. coastal locations prior to Hurricane Gilbert which was later that year in 1988. (Of course
Gilbert was a Mexican landfalling system.)

That vertical evacuation was to be up into the tall buildings downtown (which N.O. P.D., Blackwater and National Guard made sure did not happen).

Hurricane Katrina's rapid decay along with it's position and speed spared most of the city from
the 100+ mph winds which had raked downtown Houston with Hurricane Alicia back in 1983.
Remember all those skyscraper glass windows popping out?

Hurricane Katrina's resultant flooding came mostly out of Lake Pontchartrain when the old levees were topped and some failed. Direct storm surge flooding from the gulf was mostly held by the coastal defences. Most of the areas flooded were the below sea level areas in the levee systems.

Now Hurricane Rita was quite windy. Whew that was a close one for Galveston and Texas City. Houston would have been bad if Rita had come to town.

See more here:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lix/html/hurricaneinfo.htm

Frostman I'm bett'in you've been chill'in up at Fort Levenworth this past Winter.

And Now...Ahh Kansas during Tornado Season...

'I love the smell of ozone in the amber morn'in! It smells like electricity!'

See ya around Pat O'Brian's somedaze...

I was in Fort Worth as Katrina was supposedly making it's way to Florida. On and on the news went and then suddenly it started it's way to New Orleans ( this was a whole week in advance ). Night after night I would watch it's growth on the web or watch it on the news. One night there stood the Mayor of New Orleans going on and on about how ready his city was while holding a Starbucks Java-Frothball. And then?

The failures of Katrina should squarely fall on the Governors shoulders. She told the President that the levees had not been breached 14 hours after they had. She was the main authority in charge, not the President. Governors across this nation have handled disaster far better than this and to try to blame people a thousand miles away for your failures is pathetic.

The Army's performance was magnificent, despite the critics no one else could have responded with so many so quickly.