First Responders Urged Not To Respond To Hurricane Impact Areas Unless Dispatched By State, Local Authorities
Release Date: August 29, 2005
Release Number: HQ-05-174
WASHINGTON D.C. -- Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response and head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), today urged all fire and emergency services departments not to respond to counties and states affected by Hurricane Katrina without being requested and lawfully dispatched by state and local authorities under mutual aid agreements and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.
The response to Hurricane Katrina must be well coordinated between federal, state and local officials to most effectively protect life and property, Brown said. We appreciate the willingness and generosity of our Nation first responders to deploy during disasters. But such efforts must be coordinated so that fire-rescue efforts are the most effective possible.
The U.S. Fire Administration, part of FEMA, asks that fire and emergency services organizations remain in contact with their local and state emergency management agency officials for updates on requirements in the affected areas.
It is critical that fire and emergency departments across the country remain in their jurisdictions until such time as the affected states request assistance, said U.S. Fire Administrator R. David Paulison. State and local mutual aid agreements are in place as is the Emergency Management Assistance Compact and those mechanisms will be used to request and task resources needed in the affected areas.
Paulison said the National Incident Management System is being used during the response to Hurricane Katrina and that self-dispatching volunteer assistance could significantly complicate the response and recovery effort.
But when did they request aid?
This sound slike FEMA trying (at least early on) to stay within the lines of command and control and give the Governor of Louisiana a chance to properly execute her authority to control the situation. She never did.
Interestingly, I read that the Governor of Wisconsin, frustrated by not having his calls offering asssistance returned, declared his own "state of emergency"...so he could legally send responders to Louisiana to help.
He was correct to say this. When I was a volunteer EMT in Virginia, between six and seven pm when the county was transitioning between the paid crew and the volunteers, the tones dropped for a head-on collision on Rt 1. All the paid units heard it and turned around. All county volunteers heard it and rushed to their stations.
The result was that my station went out of service for nearly three hours, because both of our ambulances responded independently. Because we'd switched to an alternate channel, the second unit didn't hear that I'd already picked up the ambulance and responded.
It was chaos. People and ambulances everywhere, stations left unattended for calls, no command and control. Both out units were trashed; we were lucky we didn't get any other calls for awhile. As Jeff Foxworthy would say, "It was pandelerium!"
The debrief wasn't pretty.