NationStates Jolt Archive

COMMENTARY: Several agencies involved in the Katrina operations seem to have stumbled badly. Perhaps they should take their cue from the way the Coast Guard operated.


Coast Guard's Response to Katrina a Silver Lining in the Storm (http://www.military.com/earlybrief/0,,,00.html)

By Stephen Barr
Tuesday, September 6, 2005; Page B02

Let's have a round of cheers for the U.S. Coast Guard.

Hurricane Katrina wiped out Coast Guard stations in Gulfport and Pascagoula, Miss., and looters wrecked part of its New Orleans base. But that did not stop the Coast Guard from sending out rescue helicopters and cutters on dangerous and exhausting missions to save lives and clear waterways after the hurricane ravaged the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29.

"We started the night that the storm hit," Jason Shepard , a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, said yesterday in an interview from Mobile, Ala., one of the agency's staging bases for Katrina.

Shepard, who carries the formal title of aviation survival technician first class and has served in the Coast Guard for 18 years, called the Katrina rescue effort "probably the biggest thing that has happened in our careers."

Coast Guard crews have rescued 22,000 people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, Petty Officer Andrew Kendrick , a Coast Guard spokesman in St. Louis, estimated yesterday.

The Coast Guard, in many ways, is a model agency. It is relatively small -- with about 45,000 uniformed and civilian employees -- and believes in "cross-training" so that each employee can perform more than one job.

It also is a part of the Department of Homeland Security, and the Coast Guard's response to Katrina in recent days has again illuminated the importance of capable leadership and a clear chain of command in agencies during a crisis. Hopefully, as Congress moves to probe how the government handled the Katrina crisis, the Coast Guard can serve as a model for fixing what's wrong elsewhere in Homeland Security, including what many perceive as poor leadership at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jim Elliott , who is helping oversee rescues from Mobile, said the agency set up a unified command with states and local industries before the hurricane roared ashore.

"We know how to join with other organizations to get the job done," he said. "We were out the door as soon as the winds died down."

Elliott has been getting by on three to four hours of sleep each day for the past week. Shepard said rescue operations are running round-the-clock, with crews working "anywhere from six- to 18-hour missions, depending on what was going on."

The work is demanding. Rescue crews that normally would be asked to pluck about 20 people from danger on a tough day have been "doing 100 to 120 hoists" in adverse conditions that include heat and humidity and exposure to contaminated water kicked up by chopper rotors, Shepard said.

The work is hazardous. Pilots have had to hover between electrical and phone wires and drop cables from heights of 10 to 180 feet, Shepard said.

The Coast Guard trains personnel to rescue people from buildings, trees, mountain cliffs and sinking ships. While the employees often specialize in certain types of operations, they all train to a standard so that they can form up as teams in emergencies, with each person knowing what each job entails and how it fits into overall operations.

As Katrina approached, the Coast Guard pulled its regional command out of New Orleans and relocated to St. Louis. Aircraft and cutters were dispersed out of the storm's path.

The Coast Guard has put about 100 chopper crews, typically made up of four people, in the air each day for the past week and has flown more than 900 sorties, Kendrick said.

Shepard and Elliott said their great satisfaction has come in helping pull families and children to safety. "It is amazing the lives that we have saved," Elliott said. "It is a great feeling to be a part of this operation."

Pity this kind of thing is rather rare in big bureaucratic governments.

Grats, Coastguard. Let's see some medals, please, if just for the ones who risked themselves the most/got into particularly bad situations.

And, ladies and gentlemen, the US Coast Guard, one of the last remaining true schools of seamanship, second to none in professionalism and one of the world's premier rescue organisations, shows how it's done.

The Coast Guard trains personnel to rescue people from buildings, trees, mountain cliffs and sinking ships. While the employees often specialize in certain types of operations, they all train to a standard so that they can form up as teams in emergencies, with each person knowing what each job entails and how it fits into overall operations.

Train , train, and train again, every day, every week, every year.

May God watch over these hardy souls, and guide their hands as they go in harm's way for their fellow man.

Godspeed.

Congratulations to the Coast Guard. It is wonderful to see this happening. I'm extremely pleased, since obviously, no one else is going to help these people.

*shakes fist at own government for not preparing, pre-aiding, aiding and extracting better*

Pity this kind of thing is rather rare in big bureaucratic governments.
It doesn't have to be. FEMA, not so very long ago, was a solid agency, but the second it became (again) a dumping ground for political cronies, it went to hell. That hasn't happened to the Coast Guard, thankfully.

May God watch over these hardy souls, and guide their hands as they go in harm's way for their fellow man.

Godspeed.

That is really all there is to say.

Pity this kind of thing is rather rare in big bureaucratic governments.
Yes, it is unfortunate. Perhaps the Office of Management and Budget should take note, eh? :)

And, ladies and gentlemen, the US Coast Guard, one of the last remaining true schools of seamanship, second to none in professionalism and one of the world's premier rescue organisations, shows how it's done.

Train , train, and train again, every day, every week, every year.

May God watch over these hardy souls, and guide their hands as they go in harm's way for their fellow man.

Godspeed.
Exactly! And the Special Forces is much the same: cross-training, small units, etc. There's a real lesson here.

Actually, there were a huge number of agencies that did tremendous things and jumped right into the fray. Most were non-profit and non-government but the real stand-outs are the utility companies who are sorting out a power-grid mess that makes you want to start all over.

The ineffecency that you allude to is the price of local control. Im most cases the local authorities know more of what needs to be done and how to do it. The problem is that is the locals are incompetent or overwhelmed then the relief efforts - even of great people like the USCG - are screwed up.

Here is the way the system works (this is not academic knowledge - I worked a hurricane in South Carolina as part of the Defense Coordination Element and most recently watch Katrina plow overhead from South Mississippi):

1. Local officials determine a need. Not "We need help" but a specific requirement... ie: "We need food and water for 2,500 people at the convention center." or "We need law enforcement presence for 26 square blocks".

2. If the local resources cannot fill the need the request is given to the state emergency management at the EOC (Emergency Operations Center).

3. The state looks at the request, validates what it is and looks to see if they have assets to fill it. ie: "We have 3 trucks of food from Christians Against Hunger staged nearby - send them to convention center" or "The 999th Military Police Company of our National Guard can be there in 18 hours".

4. If the state cannot meet the requirement they they pass that to the federal operations center - usually to a liason officer located in the state EOC.

5. FEMA takes all requirements (assuming there has been a disaster declaration to give them legal authority) and tasks them to agencies they have control over. ie: "The Salvation Army has a mobile kitchen truck that can go to the convention center." or "Call the Governor of this other state and tell him/her we are asking for 25 state troopers to send here."

6. Note: This is different from the 'My God - there are people in that burning building!' kind of call that gets routed to any and all first responders in the area... but this process is what is used to get long-term capabilities and build a coherent response to a disaster.

7. Most states and specific federal agencies know some common needs and 'push' those to areas hit even without asking. For example no one had to ask for the highways to get cleared -- FEMA tasked the Army to have units ready and within hours of the storm passing National Guard and Active units were cutting thru the blowdown to open up major highways. But that is general 'clear I59' kind of stuff... if locals need the road to a shelter cleared for food trucks the State/Feds dont know that until someone sends up the requirement.

8. Where this gets all screwed up is in the asking. For example if the local city/county/parrish officials dont ASK for something -- they they dont get much. For example if the city does not ask for food at the convention center... then the food convoy will not stop there.

9. The next big problem is with the state EOC. The EOC must be able to take in literally thousands of requests every hour during the start of the emergency.... the staffs must then triage the problems... the electric out in one town is not as important as no power and broken generators at some hospital... workers dispatched to an area must be given routes that are open and clear for the types of trucks they have (18 wheelers are different from Army off-road trucks which are different from pick-ups and small utility vehicles). Any time a state asset is sent somewhere the EOC must make sure the support is there too (the Salvation Army kitchen needs 800lb of propane a day to cook....), and that the aid workers are supported so they dont become part of the problem and need to be rescued themselves.

10. This is a huge job, and very difficult. Decisions made - or not made - by all levels from the guy answering the phone to take the message to the guy prioritizing efforts to the guy in charge and setting the standards all can save or cost lives. Simple errors in locations, quantities, or prioritization have huge impact. Not to mention the fact that a request could get lost in all the paperwork. And remember - most of these are not professional disaster folks, or Army types who work/train under pressure every day. These are normal state employees who are assigned to do the bulk of the work. And the leadership is usually a political job - either elected or patronage - and there is no training requirement for politicians to get their jobs.

11. The same problem applies to the FEMA operations center.... The exception is that the FEMA folks are all professional emergency people. They get specific training on how to run and operate during crisis. And they also travel from hurricanes to ice storms to wildfires so they get practice.

12. The agencies that FEMA and the state EOC can send vary in their training too... The Salvation Army and the Red Cross for example are very experienced and proactive... tell them to do something and it happens. But other groups may not be so responsive, or might get quickly overwhelmed by requests or for some other reason be slow to respond.

13. A well trained system can get a priority request from a city thru the state to FEMA to an action agency in a couple of hours (not an emergency rescue - thats different, remember?) This sounds long but every stage must validate, look for internal resources available, and assign funding / support to whoever is tasked to do the job. Keeping that staff time down is critical.

14. That was a well-trained staff. A breakdown anywhere -- a confusing request from the city ('Those people downtown need food now!!!'... ah, which people? "The ones downtown dont you watch the news!?"... ah, no we are in an EOC working not watching TV, and the TV doesnt work here anyway) or a bad priority decision or just confusion of who is where and how do they get approval can cost hours or even days for some requests.


I am not trying to make excuses for any level's screw-ups... but figured y'all might want to know how the system works - or doesnt work - in order to make an intelligent assessment of all the news reports and the future hearings.

One last comment tho that is actually in defense of FEMA... Before you condem FEMA for incompetency take a moment to contrast LA and MS... Not only did Mississippi have the entire gulf coast hit with Katrina (something like 90-100,000 people in the coastal counties) but Katrina toured the state - she was hurricane strenght all the way to Meridian over 100 miles inland - destroying power, transportation, communications and causing havoc everywhere. But there is no complaint about FEMA in MS... things happened quickly everywhere and while there is great hardship and loss of life, the response times for state and federal help are short, with appropriate help showing up where needed. The difference is not FEMA... the difference is local and state officials.

GarryOwen']Actually, there were a huge number of agencies that did tremendous things and jumped right into the fray. Most were non-profit and non-government but the real stand-outs are the utility companies who are sorting out a power-grid mess that makes you want to start all over.

< snippage >

One last comment tho that is actually in defense of FEMA... Before you condem FEMA for incompetency take a moment to contrast LA and MS... Not only did Mississippi have the entire gulf coast hit with Katrina (something like 90-100,000 people in the coastal counties) but Katrina toured the state - she was hurricane strenght all the way to Meridian over 100 miles inland - destroying power, transportation, communications and causing havoc everywhere. But there is no complaint about FEMA in MS... things happened quickly everywhere and while there is great hardship and loss of life, the response times for state and federal help are short, with appropriate help showing up where needed. The difference is not FEMA... the difference is local and state officials.
Good analysis. Thank you. Some of those things I hadn't even considered. :)

Their motto says it all: Semper Paratus - Always Ready.

An old high school friend of mine went to the Coast Guard Academy, and while I've lost touch with him, I understand he's got his own ship now. And a friend's son is currently serving with the Coast Guard too. I have nothing but respect for the fine men and women of the Coast Guard; it's a tough, demanding job, and they do it extraordinarily well.

http://assets.jolt.co.uk/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif

i am, well who cares

GarryOwen']One last comment tho that is actually in defense of FEMA... Before you condem FEMA for incompetency take a moment to contrast LA and MS... Not only did Mississippi have the entire gulf coast hit with Katrina (something like 90-100,000 people in the coastal counties) but Katrina toured the state - she was hurricane strenght all the way to Meridian over 100 miles inland - destroying power, transportation, communications and causing havoc everywhere. But there is no complaint about FEMA in MS... things happened quickly everywhere and while there is great hardship and loss of life, the response times for state and federal help are short, with appropriate help showing up where needed. The difference is not FEMA... the difference is local and state officials.
Depends on who you listen to--the locals I've seen quoted in local newspapers have not been kind to FEMA. In fact, the only person I've heard not bitching has been Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi. I know my ex-wife, who lives in Bay St. Louis, is none too pleased with them. She's expecting to rebuild on her own and anything she gets from FEMA will be bonus.

It's nice to see that someone is getting the job done and well. The Cost Guard deserves a lot of respect.

Not only the Coast Guard, but many have shown amazing courage and humanity. My heart goes out to them all.

It's nice to see that someone is getting the job done and well. The Cost Guard deserves a lot of respect.They do. It's important not to lose sight of that. So does Northern Command, who were really positioned to help out and were only delayed because the orders for them to move into action didn't come quickly.