Defense official cites procedural flaws in Katrina response

A senior Defense official on Thursday told lawmakers that his department was proactive in responding to Hurricane Katrina.

But the federal government could have done a better job of sticking to a plan for disaster response, said Paul McHale, assistant secretary of Defense for homeland defense, in testimony before a special House committee investigating the response to the storm.

The Pentagon took "prudent risk" by deploying personnel and resources to regions affected by the hurricane before the Federal Emergency Management Agency requested those assets, McHale said.

"We in the Department of Defense executed the largest, fastest, civil support mission in the history of the United States," McHale said. "We acted in advance ... and we would do so again."

The federal process for responding to a disaster is spelled out in the National Response Plan, which was published last December. Under that plan, the secretary of the Homeland Security Department declares a disaster an "incident of national significance" and appoints a principal federal officer to be in charge of coordinating the government's response. The Defense Department provides assistance when asked by FEMA.

That process wasn't initally followed during Katrina, McHale said. The Pentagon began deploying personnel and resources before the storm made landfall, he said. The department also began flying search and rescue missions the day the storm hit.

"We did not wait for the paperwork," McHale said. "We didn't wait for the process to work … We executed every mission that was within our resources in the fastest possible manner we could in order to achieve a response that was unprecedented in U.S. history."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff did not declare the disaster an incident of national significance and appoint a PFO until the day after the storm hit and most of New Orleans was submerged in water.

"It would have been helpful" if Chertoff had declared the event an incident of national significance before the storm hit, McHale said. He also said Defense officials began asking DHS the day after the storm hit to identify a PFO. Later that day, Chertoff named Michael Brown -- then the FEMA director -- as the PFO.

"I do think that, when facing a major disaster -- certainly facing a catastrophic event -- a PFO should be named early," McHale said. "That person should be thoroughly qualified and previously trained for that position." "I do believe that the secretary of DHS should not be at all reticent in declaring an incident of national significance," McHale continued. "And when that happens I think all departments, including my own, should be prepared for follow-on requests for assistance that would begin to flow quite rapidly."

The military eventually fulfilled almost 100 requests for assistance, McHale said.