Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief - Overview

Overview

Monetary donations broke records set by the tsunami and 9/11 relief efforts in the U.S. In a reversal of usual positions, the U.S. received international aid and assistance from numerous countries. The National Disaster Medical System had activated essentially all teams in the country, and pre-staged multiple Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs), Disaster Mortuary Assistance Teams (DMORTs), and Veterinary Medicine Response Teams (VMATs)in Houston and Atlanta the day prior to, and the day of, landfall. When the levees were reported to have broken, the DMATs were moved to Baton Rouge on Tuesday, August 30, and as the needs were identified, teams were moved out that afternoon to the Super Dome, and that night to the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Three DMATs arrived around 0200 hours on Wednesday morning, Aug 31st, and set up a field hospital Base of Operations in Concourse D, and began offloading rescuees from helicopters, and providing all levels of medical care. Additional DMATs were deployed there as the volume and tempo of patient arrivals increased, as the hospitals in the city began to evacuate their patients. Over 3,000 patients were cared for, and as DOD Medevac assets began arriving, patients were handed over and moved out to over a dozen cities. This operation peaked during the weekend of September 3 and 4th, and was completed by mid-week. Over 20,000 evacuees were also flown out by the civilian airfleet drafted into service, and 25 deaths occurred there, mostly elderly nursing home and hospice evacuees.

More than 10,000 Army and Air National Guardsmen and 7,200 active-duty troops were stationed in the Gulf Coast region to assist with hurricane relief operations with some remaining several weeks. The military relief effort, known as Joint Task Force Katrina, is being commanded by Lieutenant General Russel L. Honoré, commander of the US First Army. At President Bush's urging, the U.S. Senate quickly approved $10.5 billion in aid for victims September 1, 2005. The U.S. House of Representatives voted and approved on the measure Friday, September 2, 2005 without any debate. President Bush requested an additional $51.8 billion on September 7. Congress approved that funding package the next day.

On September 24, 2005, following the havoc caused by Hurricane Rita, the National Guard named Brig. Gen. Douglas Pritt of the 41st Brigade Combat Team, Oregon Army National Guard, head of Joint Task Force Rita (formally called JTF Ponchartrain). The fourteen hundred Oregonian soldiers and airmen, including the 1st Battalion of the 186th Infantry which is designated a quick response unit, were joined by engineers and military police from Louisiana, a Stryker Brigade from Pennsylvania, and an engineering battalion from Missouri. It is their mission to provide relief support for all of the areas in Texas and Louisiana effected by the two storms and to remove obstructions that might otherwise hinder help to those effected.

Governments of many countries have offered help to the U.S. for disaster relief, including the governments of Canada, France, United Kingdom, Germany and Mexico, with Canada even offering to accept Katrina evacuees. In addition to asking for federal funds, President Bush has enlisted the help of former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush to raise additional voluntary contributions, much as they did after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

Many had been critical of the slow response, with many people (particularly in New Orleans) left without water and food for three to five days after the storm. Among the first to express criticism of the management of the crisis had been The Pentagon, who complained only a day after Katrina hit that bureaucratic red tape from the Bush administration and the FEMA (newly reorganized under the Homeland Security Department) had caused the delay of a scheduled and authorized military hospital ship from Norfolk, Virginia, among other related and prepared active military crisis response procedures.