General Honore....Katrina commander: Federal response to Harvey is 'amateur hour'

[spanone]

Former Joint Task Force Katrina Commander Russel Honore said Wednesday the military's rescue efforts in states affected by Hurricane Harvey resembles "amateur hour" because the federal government lacks a strategy for how to respond to large-scale natural disasters.

"The American people have put too much confidence in us," Honore told CNN host Erin Burnett. "We have been too successful overseas to come out in amateur hour and incrementally deploy the force."

The retired Army lieutenant general said the federal government should have "come in big" and arrived at the "edge of the storm" so that rescue efforts could begin immediately after it passes.

"The problem is we have 50 different solutions," Honore added. "The federal government took their hand off it and went off to fight terrorism — and each time we have a Sandy or Harvey, the solution is different ... It's cooked up locally by the state."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/katrina-commander-federal-response-to-harvey-is-amateur-hour/article/2633033

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Him - I trust

Good soldier, patriot, Been there, done that, know his shit.

[spanone]

3. Ret. General Rips Officials For Chummy Storm Response: Stop Patting Each Other on the Back

Days after Hurricane Harvey first made landfall in Texas and caused widespread devastation, the state is still getting a grip on the actual scope of the damage. As of publication, 30 people have been killed by the storm and floods, and thousands still need to be rescued. Meanwhile, tens of thousands have gathered in emergency shelters throughout the area.

Wednesday — one day after President Donald Trump praised the response by government officials and agencies, stating that they’d all be able to “congratulate each other” after it was over — a retired general provided an entirely different take to CNN.

Speaking to host Erin Burnett from Houston, Lt. General Russel Honore (Ret.) tore into the effort so far from officials — federal, state and local — while pointing out that they don’t have a grip on how large this disaster really is.

Honore, who commanded the military response to Hurricane Katrina, noted that the state needs to realize the job is too big for the National Guard and give control to the US military, saying that state officials need to “get the hell over it.” The retired general also said that evacuations should have happened earlier, stating that the elderly, sick and those in areas previously flooded should have been the first to have been evacuated.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/ret-general-rips-officials-for-chummy-storm-response-stop-patting-each-other-on-the-back/

[zipplewrath]

4. Unprofessional

Roughly what he is describing is that disaster preparedness within the government is poor and unprofessional. There are notable exceptions, but much of the country gets caught off guard by easily predictable events. The plans don't exist, they aren't rehearsed, the training isn't done, and they are often out of date when anything does exist at all. Too often what passes as a "plan" is more like a postmortem of the last disaster instead of a study of risks and mitigation strategies for the next one.

Just a passing example. There was some smaller town that parked all of their police vehicles in the open parking lot of their emergency center. The hurricane blew out windows. The parking lot flooded. One is left to wonder how a professional organization like that didn't plan for these types of predictable events.

[Lee-Lee]

6. I'm going to partially disagree with him here

On the idea that the National Guard should had off command of job to the active duty Army.

The active Army has zero experience of training for disaster relief, while the Guard does. Guard leaders know the local area, know the local people, know the geography, know how things work there to coordinate responses with all the other agencies involved and they are practiced at that. The Guard has compatibility in communications systems with state agencies already in place. Guard leaders tasked with disaster response are trained in the Incident Command System protocol used across the country by civilian responders to ensure that everyone is speaking the same language and using the same chain of command and flowcharts. Active forces are not.

What should happen when the Guard in a state finds themselves overwhelmed is that units from other states and the active Army should be assigned to the response under the command of the NG leadership of that state. That will keep the same people and systems in place so no interruption of effort happens and give them more resources.

[Achilleaze]

2. republican assclowns* failing down when America needs the federal government

seems everything the republicans do is to weaken America, to make our nation more vulnerable.

* what kind of leadership did republicans think they would get from a freaking five-time draft-dodging casino sharpie with a long, documented history of lying and cheating?

[uponit7771]

5. "It's cooked up locally by the state." Yeap... there was no reason there had to be boats from anothe

... another state coming in to help

[dembotoz]

7. military bases all over texas and no one thought to load a few truck loads of cots?

https://militarybases.com/texas/