Military First Response: Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina battered the central Gulf Coast near New Orleans, Louisiana. Over a twelve day period, some 72,000 men and women in uniform assisted federal, state, and local authorities in recovery efforts. Besides the multitude of federal and state issues regarding cooperation and coordination between the Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA, DHS, State, and local authorities, lessons from Katrina relief operations were also learned within our military. Mr. Paul McHale, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Security, noted in his testimony to the Congressional Committee on Armed Services the need to improve our ability to obtain timely and accurate assessment of damaged areas immediately after an event, examine ways to achieve effective coordination and unity of effort when multiple federal agencies converge on an affected area, enhance our ability to communicate with first responders on the ground, integrate fully both Active Duty and Reserve Components into pre-event and on-scene operational planning for catastrophic events, and re examine the role of the DoD in responding to a catastrophic event.