Army Support during the Hurricane Katrina Disaster

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 storm and was the costliest hurricane as well as one of the five deadliest storms in the history of the United States. It caused extensive destruction along the Gulf coast from central Florida to Texas. The most severe loss of life and property damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana, where the levee system catastrophically failed, flooding the city and large tracts of neighboring parishes. In preparation for and reaction to the hurricane, the United States Northern Command established Joint Task Force Katrina at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, to act as the Active components on-scene commander. Some 22,000 Active-Duty personnel eventually assisted with relief-and-recovery operations in Mississippi and Louisiana. At the same time, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 3 territories sent approximately 50,000 National Guard personnel to deal with the storms aftermath. These men and women were instrumental in the rescue-and-relief mission, often using their own initiative and resources in the chaotic aftermath of the storm. Because the media coverage of this great national disaster tended toward the sensational more than the analytical, many important stories remain to be told in a dispassionate manner. One such story is the response by U.S. Army personnel, both the Active and Reserve components, within the broader governmental effort to mitigate the horrific effects of the storm. James Wombwells study offers just such a dispassionate analysis of the Armys response to the natural disaster by providing a detailed account of the operations in Louisiana and Mississippi. Much good work was done by the Army team, but Wombwell shows that there is still room for improvement.