Members of Coast Guard Testify on Hurricane Response

Sea Technology, Dec 2005

RAdm. Robert F. Duncan, commander, Eighth Coast Guard District, and Commandant Thomas H. Collins testified last month before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland security and Governmental Affairs about the U.S. Coast Guard's response to hurricane Katrina. Collins' written statement reads:

"The Coast Guard is a small service. With only 39,000 personnel on active duty, a major natural disaster severely strains our capabilities and requires a delicate balancing of risk in other geographic and mission areas. At the peak of Katrina operations, over one-third of all Coast Guard aviation assets were deployed to the Gulf of Mexico coast. We managed the impact on our nationwide readiness posture by incurring additional risk throughout all 50 states."

Duncan's written statement added that, "To best describe our systematic approach to preparing for catastrophic events such as Katrina, I will focus on three key attributes of Coast Guard operations: our multi-mission focus, our organizational flexibility and our continual examination and improvement of exercised plans. Whether we are answering a distress call or responding to an oil spill, response is what we do daily. The operational concept employed throughout the Coast Guard embraces a structured chain of command-while still emphasizing decentralized, on-scene command and control. We routinely delegate authority to qualified people at the lowest possible level because it facilitates rapid response and maximizes effectiveness in dynamic environments.

"Hurricanes are a fact of life along the Gulf of Mexico coast. Each spring, prior to the Official' start of hurricane season, the Eighth District and all of our subordinate units exercise our hurricane plans and make adjustments as needed. This annual exercise is not only an operational check of unit readiness, but also an opportunity to stress the importance of personal and family hurricane plans to all our members. We take hurricanes seriously in the Eighth District, and in the past year we aggressively responded to several significant hurricanes. We visit state, municipal and other emergency operations centers, as well as all our predesignated primary and secondary safe havens in conjunction with these exercises. We validate critical phone numbers, ensure unit materiel readiness and verify that appropriate liaison officer positions are filled. Additionally, we review and exercise our Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) to ensure our uninterrupted ability to maintain essential functions. As crises are dynamic events, we carefully assess our plans during a response to ensure the planning factors fit the situation that is unfolding."

Duncan concluded that, "As Katrina approached the Gulf of Mexico coast, we responded by taking several actions in advance of the storm's projected landfall. I authorized the evacuation of dependents and initiated the COOP to relocate elements of the district staff from New Orleans, Louisiana, to St. Louis, Missouri."