On August 25, 2005, winds of 145 miles per hours and rains covered 80 percent of New Orleans with…

On August 25, 2005, winds of 145 miles per hours and rains
covered 80 percent of New Orleans with some areas under 20 feet of water.
Hurricane Katrina dispersed havoc on every corner of New Orleans. In its trail
it left over 1,300 people dead in Louisiana and Mississippi. Katrina will long
be remembered as the costliest and most deadly hurricane ever recorded in the
United States.

Response came from many different groups from within the
country and from other countries. Katrina also drew the largest response of The
National Guard to a national emergency in history. Governors from every
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On August 25, 2005, winds of 145 miles per hours and rains
covered 80 percent of New Orleans with some areas under 20 feet of water.
Hurricane Katrina dispersed havoc on every corner of New Orleans. In its trail
it left over 1,300 people dead in Louisiana and Mississippi. Katrina will long
be remembered as the costliest and most deadly hurricane ever recorded in the
United States.

Response came from many different groups from within the
country and from other countries. Katrina also drew the largest response of The
National Guard to a national emergency in history. Governors from every state
sent National Guard troops to support and assist the state of Mississippi. By
September 8, 51,000 troops were responding to the emergency. Many other
nonprofit groups offered help in a variety of ways—food, shelter, financial,
health care, and transportation. Groups that contributed support have reviewed
their efforts to see what lessons learned can be used to improve future
emergency efforts. The results of the review of The National Guard efforts
follow here: Three of the key lessons from The National Guard retrospective are
described.

• Lack of equipment was one of the biggest problems—
especially communication equipment. Ability to communicate among the many
different support groups (e.g., civilian and military) was thwarted by
incompatible systems or simple lack of availability

Action Item: $1.3 billion has been authorized for new
equipment that is compatible across major emergency groups.

• Lack of protocols and standardization of reports,
graphics, and communication caused delays and poor coordination among the many
support groups.

Action Item: A single standard protocol for all states is
now being applied.

• The National Guard is under state control. Guard troops
integrated quickly into the host-state command structures and cooperation
ensued. Action Item: Maintain status quo

Because Guard soldiers are controlled by the states, they
were empowered to enforce civil laws, something federal troops are prohibited
from doing, except under the provisions of the insurrection laws. Fortunately,
coordination and cooperation among state and federal troop command work
reasonably well. However, the federal agencies (e.g., Homeland Security) need
to incorporate the Guard into planning and preparation for the federal response
to catastrophic disasters.

Lessons learned from the Katrina disaster are not limited to
the military. Almost every agency and support group, such as individuals,
communities, churches, and other groups, have developed lessons learned from
their project response experience. For example, the Red Cross and state guard
have better plans for handling thousands of people problems involving shelter,
evacuation, and medical assistance. These lessons learned from Katrina are
ready to go and should be enormously helpful in future hurricane situations.

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