A Failure of Initiative - Final Report of the Select ...

1 A Failure . OF Initiative . Fina l R e p o r t o f t h e S e l ect Bipartisan Committee to Investigate t h e P r e p a r a t i o n f o r and Response to hurricane Katrina U . S . H ouse of Representatives 4 A Failure OF Initiative . A Failure . OF Initiative . Fi n a l R e p o r t o f t h e S e l e c t Bipartisan Committee to Investigate t h e P r e p a r a t i o n f o r a nd Response to hurricane Katrina Union Calendar No. 00. 109th Congress Report 2nd Session 000-000. A Failure OF Initiative . Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to hurricane Katrina Report by the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to hurricane Katrina Available via the World Wide Web: February 15, 2006.

2 Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed U. S. G O V E R N M E N T P R I N T I N G O F F I C E. K e e p i n g A m e r i c a I n f o r m e d I w w w. g p o . g o v WA S H I N G T O N 2 0 0 6. 23950 PDF For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Of ce Internet: Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC area (202) 512-1800. Fax: (202) 512-2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001. COVER PHOTO: FEMA, BACKGROUND PHOTO: NASA. Select BIPARTISAN COMMITTEE. TO INVESTIGATE THE PREPARATION FOR AND RESPONSE. TO hurricane KATRINA. TOM DAVIS, (VA) Chairman HAROLD ROGERS (KY). CHRISTOPHER SHAYS (CT). HENRY BONILLA (TX). STEVE BUYER (IN).

3 SUE MYRICK (NC). MAC THORNBERRY (TX). KAY GRANGER (TX). CHARLES W. CHIP PICKERING (MS). BILL SHUSTER (PA). JEFF MILLER (FL). Members who participated at the invitation of the Select Committee CHARLIE MELANCON (LA). GENE TAYLOR (MS). WILLIAM J. JEFFERSON (LA). CYNTHIA MCKINNEY (GA). SHELIA JACKSON-LEE (TX). STAFF DESIGNATIONS. David L. Marin Sta Director Wimberly Fair Professional Sta . J. Keith Ausbrook Special Counsel Chuck Turner Special Investigator Michael Ge roy Deputy Special Counsel Robert White Press Secretary Lawrence J. Halloran Deputy Special Counsel Drew Crockett Art Editor Robert Borden Senior Associate Special Counsel Teresa Austin Chief Clerk Daniel Mathews Senior Professional Sta Amy Laudeman Deputy Clerk Arthur Wu Senior Professional Sta Robin Butler Administrative O cer/Financial Administrator Thomas E.

4 Hawley Senior Professional Sta Michael Sazonov Sta Assistant Grace A. Washbourne Senior Professional Sta Pat DeQuattro Coast Guard Fellow Kim Kotlar Senior Professional Sta Justin Swick Law Clerk Anne Marie Turner Associate Special Counsel Elizabeth Ryan Law Clerk Charles M. Phillips Associate Special Counsel Stephen L. Caldwell GAO Detailee Steve Castor Assistant Special Counsel Bill MacBlane GAO Detailee Kim Baronof Professional Sta Brooke Bennett Research Assistant Risa Salsburg Professional Sta Jay O'Callahan Research Assistant Susie Schulte Professional Sta Michael Arkush Editorial Assistant Shalley Kim Professional Sta Margaret Peterlin Speaker's Designee ii A Failure OF Initiative . LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

5 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, DC, February 15, 2006. Hon. J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Dear Mr. Speaker: By direction of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to hurricane Katrina, I submit herewith the committee's Report to the 109th Congress. Tom Davis, Chairman. A Failure OF Initiative iii iv A Failure OF Initiative . Pandemonium did not reign. It poured.. JOHN KENDRICK BANGS. American author and satirist Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump o . How many are left? Answer: ve. Why? Because there's a di erence between deciding and doing.. MARK L. FELDMAN and MICHAEL F. SPRATT. American businessmen Five Frogs on a Log Don't nd a fault.

6 Find a remedy.. HENRY FORD. American automobile manufacturer hurricane Katrina was a force of Nature. What we've done after it is an Act of God.. Banner hanging in Harrison County, MS, Emergency Operations Center In-i-tia-tive, n. The power or ability to begin or follow through energetically with a plan or task;. enterprise and determination. FEMA. A Failure OF Initiative v vi A Failure OF Initiative . TABLE OF CONTENTS. Preface ix Executive Summary of Findings 1. Investigation Overview 7. Background 29. Pre-landfall Preparation and Katrina's Impact 59. hurricane Pam 81. Levees 87. Evacuation 103. The National Framework for Emergency Management 131. FEMA Preparedness 151. Communications 163. Command and Control 183.

7 The Military 201. Law Enforcement 241. Medical Care 267. Shelter and Housing 311. Logistics and Contracting 319. Charitable Organizations 343. Conclusion 359. Appendix 1 Glossary of Acronyms 365. 2 HSOC Spot Report 374. 3 White House Document Review 376. 4 Emergency Grants to States 380. 5 Key Federal Law Enforcement Activities 397. 6 GAO Report 417. 7 DHS Response to GAO Report 426. 8 McKinney Supplement 435. A Failure OF Initiative vii viii A Failure OF Initiative . PREFACE. On September 15, 2005, the House of Representatives approved H. Res. 437, which created the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to hurricane Katrina ( the Select Committee ). According to the resolution, the Committee was charged with conducting a full and complete investigation and study and to Report its ndings to the House not later than February 15, 2006, regarding (1) the development, coordination, and execution by local, State, and Federal authorities of emergency response plans and other activities in preparation for hurricane Katrina; and (2) the local, State, and Federal government response to hurricane Katrina.

8 The Committee presents the Report narrative and the ndings that stem from it to the House of Representatives and the American people for their consideration. Members of the Select Committee agree unanimously with the Report and its ndings. Other Members of Congress who participated in the Select Committee's hearings and investigation but were not of cial members of the Select Committee, while concurring with a majority of the Report 's ndings, have presented additional views as well, which we offer herein on their behalf. First and foremost, this Report is issued with our continued thoughts and prayers for Katrina's victims. Their families. Their friends. The loss of life, of property, of livelihoods and dreams has been enormous.

9 And we salute all Americans who have stepped up to the plate to help in any way they can. It has been said civilization is a race between Our mandate was clear: gather facts about the education and catastrophe. With Katrina, we have had preparation for and response to Katrina, at all levels of the catastrophe, and we are racing inexorably toward the government. next. Americans want to know: what have we learned? Investigate aggressively, follow the facts wherever they Two months before the Committee was established, may lead, and nd out what went right and what went former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich testi ed wrong. Ask why coordination and information sharing before a Government Reform subcommittee about the between local, state, and federal governments was so need to move the government to an entrepreneurial dismal.

10 Model and away from its current bureaucratic model, so that we can get government to move with Information Why situational awareness was so foggy, for so Age speed and effectiveness. long. Implementing policy effectively, Speaker Gingrich Why all residents, especially the most helpless, said, is ultimately as important as making the right were not evacuated more quickly. policy. Why supplies and equipment and support were The Select Committee rst convened on September 22, so slow in arriving. 2005, understanding, like Speaker Gingrich, that a policy Why so much taxpayer money aimed at better that cannot be implemented effectively is no policy at all. preparing and protecting the Gulf coast was left The Select Committee was created because, in on the table, unspent or, in some cases, misspent.