Emergency Support Function (Esf) #17: Fill & Download for Free

I was one of the federal disaster responders who personally was deployed to NOLA on day three after landfall. I left about 35 days later. (Think sleeping bags, MRES and austere conditions. Longer than we like to leave the early response team in place.) FEMA had and has a large number of highly experienced emergency management professionals internally, in other federal agencies and ESF partners).Major part of the early coordination issues. For the proceeding several years FEMA conducted a major tabletop hurricane exercise in Louisiana that was eerily like Katrina: Exercise Hurricane Sally. Many issues were exposed and identified for local, state and federal officials. Sadly most were ignored by the local and state officials.Much of FEMAs “regular operating money” was diverted from FEMA preparation efforts (such as on-call contracts, etc.) to create other parts of the Department of Homeland Security. These annual preparation activities did not take place due to lack of funds for FEMA staff.FEMA and National Hurricane Center identified Katrina as a likely major storm with the potential of causing major damage. FEMA, NHC and others started federal/state coordination conference calls about a week before the storm made landfall. Those calls included not only Louisiana, but all of the southern states that could be within the possible impact zone.Other states agreed to allow FEMA to preposition federal response resources within their state. Louisiana did not. Federal officials including the President had calls with the Governor of Louisiana trying to negotiate that preplacement.Governor of Louisiana wanted all federal resource including National Guard from other states under the direct control of the Governor. This is contrary to a number of federal laws and is not legally possible. Normally the State Coordinating Official works closely with the Federal Coordinating Official to decide where to use federal resources. By law, federal response resources remain under the operational control of the Federal Emergency Support Function that activated them. See Stafford Act.Without the feds agreeing to #5 the Governor would not authorize federal help, pre-landfall. Feds did preposition resources in a neighboring state pre-landfall and had responders in NOLA by Day Two.FEMA and the federal agencies were trying to respond despite a poorly written revised Federal Response Plan that was confusing as to whom was in change when multiple states were heavily impacted. (The FRP was changed soon after). b) Mike Brown was a poor choice to lead FEMA. He had limited experience in running a large organization let alone one that needs to move quickly and expand quickly from a small core to a large geographically dispersed one. Bush Administration took needed resources from FEMA to start airport security. These all lead up to FEMA not being able to response with the major resources quickly. In Louisiana by the end of the third week post landfall FEMA had over 40,000 federal human responders working not only in NOLA but throughout the state.Brown’s mistake was not letting the highly experienced Federal Coordinating Official do his job. Brown traveled down to NOLA with the President and acted like he was fully informed and in charge. While he was briefed several times a day, things happen quickly in the first several days. Brown should have deferred to his leaders on the ground.Finally, I can personally attest to the fact that Mayor Negan seemed to have his own agenda. His Office of Emergency Preparedness did not fix the problems identified. NOLA did not have an effective Emergency Response Plan. The NOLA government did not knowhow to work together and did not know how to operate a major EOC. His EOC team needed outside help to get organized and conduct basic EOC operations. Thank you EMAC. Even the Mayor’s EOC Director and staff could not impact the Mayor overriding early local/state/federal coordination efforts.In summary, Bush and his administration failed to give FEMA the normal resourses necessary to prepare annually for next year’s unknow disasters. It also assumed that if you can manage one small organization you can manage any complex organization. Approving and not fully training the key participants on implementing a new approach to managing multistate disasters also contributed. But the final straw that made the early response system fail was the lack of leadership at both the state and local levels.

By “participants” I assume you are asking what other agencies/organizations are active and working alongside FEMA during a disaster. The answer to this question is anyone could “participate” in a response, whether it be government organizations like the Department of Health & Human Services or private sector organizations like Walmart. However, FEMA does have what are called “Emergency Support Functions,” or ESF’s for short. ESF’s delegate essential functions that are needed during a federal disaster response to different government agencies. ESF #1 outlines transportation activities, and delegates this support function to the Department of Transportstion. ESF #9 outlines search and rescue activities, and delegates the U.S. Coast Guard. ESF #13 outlines public safety activities and delegates the Department of Justice. These are just some examples of a few ESF’s. There are fifteen ESF’s in total, and they will tell you who the key players are during a federal disaster response. If an organization isn’t delegated under an ESF abut their services are deemed essential to the mission, they may be contracted. This is the case for private sector or non-governmental organizations like Walmart or the American Red Cross.

The mission of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is to reduce the loss of life and property and protect our institutions from all hazards by leading and supporting the nation in a comprehensive, risk-based emergency management program of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.Much of what they do is to coordinate and let other Federal agencies lead in areas where they have the technical expertise. Today the HHS and their CDC are the lead agencies for Covid19 response.There are 15 Emergency Support Functions and FEMA may be the primary agency in some areas, for example Emergency Management, and not have a role in another, for example Public Safety where DOJ is the lead agency.Roles and Responsibilities of the ESFs —ESF #1 – Transportation: Aviation/airspace management and control Transportation safety Restoration/recovery of transportation infrastructure Movement restrictions Damage and impact assessmentESF #2 – Communications: Coordination with telecommunications and information technology industries Restoration and repair of telecommunications infrastructure Protection, restoration, and sustainment of national cyber and information technology resources Oversight of communications within the Federal incident management and response structuresESF #3 – Public Works and Engineering: Infrastructure protection and emergency repair Infrastructure restoration Engineering services and construction management Emergency contracting support for life-saving and life-sustaining servicesESF #4 – Firefighting: Coordination of Federal firefighting activities Support to wildland, rural, and urban firefighting operationsESF #5 – Emergency Management: Coordination of incident management and response efforts Issuance of mission assignments Resource and human capital Incident action planning Financial managementESF #6 – Mass Care, Emergency Assistance, Housing, and Human Services: Mass care Emergency assistance Disaster housing Human servicesESF #7 – Logistics Management and Resource Support: Comprehensive, national incident logistics planning, management, and sustainment capability Resource support (facility space, office equipment and supplies, contracting services, etc.)ESF #8 – Public Health and Medical Services: Public health Medical Mental health services Mass fatality managementESF #9 – Search and Rescue: Life-saving assistance Search and rescue operationsESF #10 – Oil and Hazardous Materials: Response Oil and hazardous materials (chemical, biological, radiological, etc.) response Environmental short- and long-term cleanupESF #11 – Agriculture and Natural Resources: Nutrition assistance Animal and plant disease and pest response Food safety and security Natural and cultural resources and historic properties protection and restoration Safety and well-being of household petsESF #12 – Energy: Energy infrastructure assessment, repair, and restoration Energy industry utilities coordination Energy forecastESF #13 – Public Safety and Security: Facility and resource security Security planning and technical resource assistance Public safety and security support Support to access, traffic, and crowd controlESF #14 – Long-Term Community Recovery: Social and economic community impact assessment Long-term community recovery assistance to States, local governments, and the private sector Analysis and review of mitigation program implementationESF #15 – External Affairs: Emergency public information and protective action guidance Media and community relations Congressional and international affairs Tribal and insular affairs