Overview

Our research analyzed Department of Defense (DoD) involvement in the disaster relief efforts for Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. During the 2017 hurricane season, the United States experienced three major hurricanes in rapid succession. These events tested the hurricane responses of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and have left some wondering why the DoD was slow to respond. Through our research, we evaluated the FEMA Mission Assignments (MAs) to U.S. agencies and analyzed how the DoD was employed in Defense Support to Civil Authorities (DSCA) operations during these events. Our three hypotheses were as follows: (1) DoD utilization in domestic hurricane relief is less than other agencies; (2) there are common tasks in every hurricane disaster that DoD could focus on to improve response; and (3) pre-positioning has a positive effect on the quality of disaster response. Our findings show that DoD is the most utilized agency for domestic disaster relief efforts, tasked with between 38% to 49% of all mission assignments. FEMA's utilization of DoD is predominantly in transportation; public works and engineering; logistics management and resource support; search and rescue; and external affairs. The outcomes of Harvey, Irma, and Maria also support the importance of pre-positioning for disaster relief efforts. Since 2008, there were 63 major disaster declarations due to direct impact from hurricanes, tropical storms, or flooding resulting from a hurricane. The disaster declaration affected 28 states, tribal, or territories with nineteen percent directly affecting Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico (Disasters, 2018). Natural disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Sandy (2012) have identified challenges with response integration and the effective use of DoD personnel. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, regulations have favored the use of military assets in homeland security and domestics disaster relief. Hurricane Katrina affected more than half-million people and motivated Congress to pass the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, which streamlined processes within DHS and lean forward in providing response and recovery efforts when reacting to a natural and man-made crisis and emergency planning (DSCA a vital resource, 2015). Lessons learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy have developed DoD's role in the national response system stronger than any other time in our nation's history. I. Introduction * A. Overview And Purpose * B. Project Organization * Ii. Background * A. Overview * B. Legal And Policy Foundations * 1. Posse Comitatus Act * 2. Stafford Act * 3. Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 And 8 * C. Federal Emergency Management Agency * D. Emergency Support Functions * E. Department Of Defense Entities * 1. National Guard * 2. Federal Forces * 3. Dual-Status Commander * F. Hurricane Impacts Overview * 1. Hurricane Harvey * 2. Hurricane Irma * 3. Hurricane Maria * G. Summary * Iii. Data * A. Postulates * B. Data Source * C. Assumptions On The Data * D. Methodology * E. Hurricane Harvey Data * F. Hurricane Irma Data * G. Hurricane Maria Data * H. Other Findings * I. Verification Of Categorization * J. Summary Of Data * Iv. Analysis And Discussion * A. Postulate 1: Department Of Defense Utilization * B. Postulate 2: Common Tasks For Dod * C. Postulate 3: Effect Of Pre-Positioning * D. Limitation Of The Study * V. Conclusion * A. Contributions Of The Study * B. Future Research

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