Hurricanes

Citation

(2007), "Hurricanes", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 16 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2007.07316bag.003

Hurricanes

2005 Hurricane Season Response: After Action Report. Emergency Management Assistance Compact, 2006

175 pp. Free onlineEMAC and the National Emergency Management Association: www.emacweb.org/The Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) is a mutual aid agreement and partnership among states through which emergency response and recovery assistance are provided across state lines when disasters occur. This report concludes that, despite demands put on the system by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the EMAC and its leadership effectively delivered unprecedented levels of personnel and resources to the affected areas. The 2005 civilian EMAC response was 23 times larger than the deployment of the previous year. Besides describing the accomplishments of the EMAC during 2005, this evaluation recommends such improvements as:

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  a major educational and public awareness campaign to ensure that all relevant parties understand EMAC’s purpose, restrictions, and operational parameters;

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  improved accountability of personnel deployed under EMAC; and

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  increased funding to maintain EMAC and facilitate its growth.

DHS/FEMA Initial Response Hotwash: Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, DR-1603-LA. 2006

99 pp. Free onlineFederal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), www.disasterthebook.com/docs/Katrina_initial_response_hotwash.pdfIn December 2005 – only a few months after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast – managers of the various federal response teams met to discuss their performance and capture recommendations that would improve future disaster operations. This report summarizes their discussions and conclusions, which focused on six areas: initial response, medical response, mortuary affairs, continuity of government, evacuation, and coordination with local governments. They concluded that:

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  “strike team” concept should be standardized to ensure smooth liaison among governmental units and levels;

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  teams should be constituted, have leaders named, and be in place before hurricane landfall if at all possible;

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  team members should be selected for physical and mental ability to handle the on-the-ground conditions during the immediate response period; and

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  fire-fighters proved to be invaluable team members, and FEMA should continue employing them to augment the response teams.