Hurricane Katrina and the Command Relationship in the
Defense Support of Civil Authorities
During August of 2005 Hurricane Katrina was a building storm, which would soon change the way our Government manages relief for natural disasters. Once the Category 3 storm hit New Orleans, Louisiana the damage to the levees, the floods throughout the city, and the loss of life launched the leadership at all levels into a helpless directions. The lack coordination and hubris of local leadership prevented a proper evacuation and protection within the city. Local, State, and Federal agencies all failed to provide adequate support and effective response to Hurricane Katrina. DSCA will more effectively respond to the needs created by a natural disaster
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The revision of the Defense Support of Civil Authorities prevents these toxic command relationships and work as a guide of how we are to work together under a unified command. In a unified command approach, representatives of the entities meet to set goals and decide how each can contribute to the achievement of those goals (Carwile, 2005). This unified command will fall under the lead of a civilian agency or command as the priority effort of any support mission. There are three primary documents, which encompass our doctrine, The National Preparedness Goal, The National Incident Management System, and the National Response Framework. These lay the guidelines with how the military will work with Civil Authorities (2006). How the Army supports the US policies is broken down in ADP 3-28 Defense Support of Civil …show more content…
Both the State and Federal government have control of their own military force. The ADP on DSCA states, that the Governor commands the National Guard in state active and the National Guard under title 31 and the President commands the Regular Army, Army Reserve and National Guard under title 10 (pg. 10). The support roles in which the army could fall under are domestic disasters, CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and Nuclear incidents), and domestic law enforcement. The National Guard under control of the Governor is the only one authorized to conduct domestic law enforcement support. An example of this would be if the law enforcement in New Orleans required help to fight the increase in crime the governor could allow the National Guard to assist the police department in law enforcement