Hurricane Katrina disaster relief

Three DMATs arrived around 2 am on Wednesday morning, Aug 31, set up a field hospital Base of Operations in Concourse D, began offloading rescuees from helicopters, and provided medical care if necessary.

More than 1,000 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.

Gen. Douglas Pritt of the 41st Brigade Combat Team, Oregon Army National Guard, head of Joint Task Force Rita (formally called JTF Ponchartrain).

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 Department of Homeland Security) 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.

On Friday, August 26, the National Hurricane Center predicted for the first time that Katrina would become a Category 4 storm, and thus exceed the design limits of the New Orleans levees.

Schneider said during an interview today with Fox News the state stood ready to house evacuees at the Superdome "for as long as it takes", reporting that although the massive structure's protective lining tore in the hurricane's Category 4 winds, the roof itself appears to be intact.

The next day, Tuesday, August 30, An estimated 7,500 National Guard troops from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi were on duty, supporting civil authorities, distributing generators, providing medical care, and setting up shelters for displaced residents.

As of 8 a.m., almost 3,800 Louisiana Army and Air Guard members were on duty to remove debris, provide security and shelter, distribute water, food and ice, and offer medical and law-enforcement support.

Joint Task Force Katrina set up at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, as the Defense Department's focal point to support FEMA's relief efforts.

[16] The guardsmen remain under their respective governors' control, which enables them to provide law-enforcement support in the affected regions—something the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits active-duty forces from doing within the United States.

Brown did not give ordinary people the permission to drive the buses delivered by the National Guard - which led to the issue of there being no certified bus drivers.

By Friday, September 2, seven days after firm predictions of a Category 5 hurricane, a convoy of several dozen trucks and buses rolled into New Orleans carrying food, water, and other supplies.

For comparison, when the Indian Ocean earthquake of 2004 tsunami struck the politically fractured city of Banda Aceh without warning, Indonesian officials not only knew about the situation on the ground, but delivered 175 tons of food only 2 days after the disaster.

[19] Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré of the Army was appointed to run a temporary special command, known as Joint Task Force (JTF) Katrina, to coordinate all military responses to the effort, which was based at Camp Shelby in Mississippi.

[20] Since the hurricane passed through, the governors of Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Kansas,[21] Pennsylvania, and Louisiana; as well as California[22] and Texas, collectively called to duty more than 50,000 Guard troops.

The United States Air Force responded by sending search and rescue, aeromedical evacuation, relief supplies as well as medical care to the affected areas.

According to an article in Time, in the famously decimated St. Bernard Parish, east of New Orleans, Sheriff Jack Stephens says the Coast Guard was the only federal agency to provide any significant assistance for a full week after the storm.

[1] Some disaster recovery response to Katrina began before the storm, with Federal Emergency Management Agency preparations that ranged from logistical supply deployments to a mortuary team with refrigerated trucks.

[citation needed] President George W. Bush asked Secretary Michael Chertoff of the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate the Federal response.

Pennsylvanian Republican Representative Curt Weldon stated that he was able to bypass government bureaucracy and obtain the UAVs from an unnamed private company.

[33] The Department of Homeland Security issued these key statistics as of 10 a.m. on September 3, 2005:[30] Several Carnival Cruise ships were chartered by the American government to provide housing for those who required it.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported on September 4, 2005, that the authorities had requested that aid workers not disclose the final destination of those making the transit because a few had caused a ruckus upon finding that they were heading to a location that they held in disfavor.

The crews performed a number of relief tasks for hurricane survivors, including support on the FEMA/Carnival Cruise Lines shelter ship, tarping damaged roofs, and debris removal.

Those efforts include managing and participating in the removal of health and safety hazards from properties throughout St Bernard parish with the assistance of the local, state, federal, volunteer and non-governmental agencies.

The Family International Archived June 12, 2006, at the Wayback Machine has mobilized Christian Counsellors to provide spiritual healing, comfort and encouragement to the evacuees throughout Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi and have launched Katrina Relief Home to share the needs of the victims of this disaster.

The KatrinaHelp wiki is a grassroots effort collating all refugee records from a variety of sites (including Craigslist, et al.) in PFIF format; they offer an elegant search interface to their database.

The Common Ground Collective is a local, community-run organization offering assistance, mutual aid and support to New Orleans communities that have been historically neglected and underserved.

Common Ground's efforts include acting as a hub for medical and health providers, aid workers, community organizers, legal representatives as well as people with a variety of skills.

The Welcome Home Kitchen is serving three meals a day to over 700 people, as well as providing free medical care, a distribution center of clothing and supplies, a community bulletin board and an information table.

Notable offers from international organizations include the United Nations, which was ready to send supply high-energy biscuits, generators, planes, tents along with experienced staff members; and Paris-based International Energy Agency agreeing to make 60 million barrels oil available to help the United States weather the economic problems caused by Hurricane Katrina.