Snapshots of Naval Services ready-assist

Compiled from federal press releases

In response to Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, the Naval Services borrowed the U.S. Coast Guard motto: "Always Ready." Each of our five service sections was engaged in the Integrated Active and Reserve efforts in the rescue and relief of the devastated Gulf Coast.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was on the scene from the beginning. NOAA P-3 and Gulfstream IV hurricane-hunter aircraft met the storms before each made landfall. Flying inside and around the storm, NOAA aircraft measured its strength, size, and direction. NOAA quickly mobilized a wide range of its resources immediately following Hurricane Katrina's landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

NOAA ships, planes and many experts were helping to assess the damage caused by the powerful storms that were responsible for widespread destruction and loss of life. The Navigational Response Teams used multibeam, sidescan sonars and diving operations to check the port, river or sea bottom for submerged obstructions that could cause hazards to shipping. The NOAA National Geodetic Survey used a NOAA plane to take aerial surveys of the impacted areas to assess damage from erosion, such as occurred to the levees and major evacuation routes. The NOAA Office of Response and Restoration and Damage Assessment Center deployed NOAA scientists and other specialists--in coordination with federal, state and local emergency centers--to assist in evaluating the damages to the many oil and chemical pipelines and platforms in the region.

Over the short duration, this was perhaps the U.S. Coast Guard's "finest hour." They responded immediately and saved more than 33,000 people endangered by Katrina. Some crews were doing 100 to 120 hoists per day in adverse conditions that included heat and humidity and exposure to contaminated water kicked up by chopper rotors. The first week, the USCG flew about 100 chopper crews, typically made up of four people.

More than 4,000 Coast Guard personnel were involved in Gulf operations, about 9 percent of its force. Five hundred USCG Reservists were called up to assist in the recovery activities. The Disaster Area Response Team (DART) was sent to the assist with Hurricane Rita. DART also assisted in West New Orleans by evacuating residents and giving food and water to residents who stayed in New Orleans.

Coast Guard C-130 crews transferred people and supplies into the hurricane areas. With the damage done to oil pipelines and refineries, the Coast Guard coordinated pollution response efforts with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the state of Louisiana, and local industries. The Coast Guard responded to more than 150 pollution reports. The CG continued its missions after Hurricane Rita came ashore.

The U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) deployed more than 1,265 of its members into the hurricane recovery area. Concerned how the hurricanes had damaged health and sanitation systems throughout the Gulf, USPHS aided the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in rebuilding the health infrastructure in the area. More than 22 separate missions were being worked in Louisiana. The USPHS helped reopen five hospitals in New Orleans. Regional immunization teams and primary-care teams were deployed to Louisiana, and 20 environmental health officers are deploying to Jefferson Parish, just south of New Orleans, to perform assessments at 200 schools; 100,000 doses of tetanus/diphtheria were sent into the recovery area.

Commissioned Corps officers have been assigned to each Disaster Portable Morgue Unit DMORT and some of the USPHS officers staffed a DMORT Family Assistance Center in Baton Rouge. Twenty U.S. Public Health Service veterinarians and more than 40 Veterinary Medical Assistance Team (VMAT) vets have seen 4,000-plus animals at two animal recovery sites in Louisiana.

More than 33,000 people volunteered their services on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Web site and toll-free hotline. Nearly 4,500 were cleared to deploy. Some of those volunteers were providing health care in Houston, Texas; Alexandria, La.; and Gulfport, Miss.

The hurricanes tested a new program, which is the HHS Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). More than 500 MRC members volunteered for HHS missions, and another 650-plus MRC members worked with the American Red Cross. The auxiliary volunteers also responded in local communities where 1,423 MRC members helped care for evacuees at shelters and clinics.

The US Marines stormed the beach, providing humanitarian rescue and relief. More than 2,100 Marines were sent to the Gulf Region to help with humanitarian rescue and relief efforts. The support effort was headquartered at Naval Air Station/Joint Reserve Base, Belle Chasse, La., outside New Orleans, supporting Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama

The Marines of 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, teamed up with 4th Assault Reserve Amphibian Battalion to re-trace the track of Katrina in hopes of salvaging lives and assessing the situation for further operations to help the Big Easy get back on its feet. The Marines' assault amphibian vehicle was an unequivocal asset when it came to navigating the hazardous streets of New Orleans; it enables a crew of able-bodied searchers to navigate on land and in the water without changing vehicles.

In the ensuing weeks since Katrina's devastation, USMCR KC-130T Hercules shuttled more than 110 sorties of nearly 1,000 military personnel and 700,000 pounds of gear, ranging from water to forklifts, in and out of the battered region, using New Orleans site NAS-JRB Belle Chase.

Marine Wing Support Squadron teams, consisting of electricians, generator operators, hygiene (water) equipment operators, bulk fuelers, and heavy equipment operators, became a major factor in putting NAS-JRB Belle Chase back into operational status. A small team of non-commissioned officers convoyed to Saint Bernard Parish with a reverse osmosis water purification unit (ROWPU) that converted dangerously contaminated floodwaters into drinkable water for ground elements conducting searches in the area.

More than 250 Marines dispatched to the Gulf Coast for relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina were reassigned to search-and-rescue operations in southwestern Louisiana, after Hurricane Rita came ashore. Members of 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (Anti-Terrorism) and 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion finished their Katrina operations a week before and were moved to Lafayette, La., just hours after Rita hit.

Hurricane Katrina had nationwide ramifications on Reserve Marines when New Orleans-based personnel of Marine Forces Reserve and 4th Marine Aircraft Wing were ordered to evacuate their operational sections. The hurricane's initial punch and subsequent flooding left MFR and 4th MAW buildings deserted, without power or potable water. Staff relocated to Fort Worth and Kansas City, but future plans are to return to the New Orleans area.

The USNS Comfort, housing some deployed personnel, arrived in New Orleans September 28 at the request of HHS and Louisiana government state officials. Comfort operated in the Gulf Coast region for nearly three weeks. The ship was activated in support of FEMA's Hurricane Katrina relief efforts August 31 and sailed from its Baltimore home port September 2 to Pascagoula, Miss. Comfort and its crew of more than 600 sailors, civil service mariners and Project Hope volunteers treated 1,452 patients aboard the ship and 376 patients ashore at the Comfort Clinic, a temporary medical facility set up at the city's Singing River Mall during its 10-day stay.

The Navy was equally quick to respond. After a three-day high-speed transit down the East Coast of the United States and around into the Gulf of Mexico, USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7), along with various embarked air and amphibious landing assets, arrived on station in the Gulf of Mexico off Biloxi, Miss., September 3 to begin humanitarian assistance operations to the devastated region. The Iwo Jima arrived in New Orleans September 5, and provided vital flight deck and medical capabilities to the city as Joint Task Force Katrina and FEMA efforts took form.

USS Bataan (LHD 5) served as the Maritime Disaster Service Coordinator for the U.S. Navy's role in the Hurricane Katrina search-and-rescue efforts in the immediate New Orleans area. The total number of naval forces that were later involved were 21 ships.

Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 40 were called into action September 24 when Plaquemine Parish managers reported that the rising level of water caused by Hurricane Rita was threatening the integrity of the Jesuit Bend levee. Reserve Seabees from NMBC 18, called up from the Pacific Northwest, supported efforts at Naval Air Station Meridian, Miss.

Twelve RC and nine AC personnel manned the Crisis Action Team watch in Millington, Tenn., in support of Task Force Navy Family's Katrina Family Support Registration, Rita Muster, and Rita Family Support Registration.

In response to a request for evacuation flights, 348 USNR members and 70 civilian personnel flew 31 sorties to evacuate 556 civilians from Beaumont, Texas, Houston, Texas, and Lake Charles, La., during Hurricane Rita.

The Naval Reserve Forces Command evacuated New Orleans and set up alternative headquarters, with the staff split between the Navy Operational Support Center Memphis in Millington, Tenn., and Navy Operational Support Center Fort Worth, Texas. With the BRAC commission closing the Naval Reserve Forces Command in New Orleans, it is likely that the staff will remain in temporary offices until their new headquarters is built in Norfolk, Va.

CAPT MARSHALL HANSON, USNR (RET.)

NAVAL SERVICES DIRECTOR

MHANSON@ROA.ORG

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