Week 5-6 assignment
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Week 5-6 Assignment
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EDMG509 Week 5-6 Assignment
Marissa Therien
American Military University
EDMG509
February 11
th
, 2024
Week 5-6 Assignment
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Introduction
The early 2000s was a problematic decade for the United States in terms of disasters and emergencies, which often needed government agency response or aid. The beginning of the 2000s was marked by the 9/11 terrorists’ attacks on the World Trade Centers as well as the Pentagon. This event would reshape the department of Homeland Security and spur the creation of a re-vamped Emergency Management department. Further into the decade as hurricanes ravage the United States, the Department of Homeland Security, Emergency Management, and other agencies would see a need to come together for an interagency incident management response. The interagency response is helpful from a federal government aspect as each government agency may have different equipment, knowledge, or manpower to better meet incident needs, and example of this follows; “The Federal Government maintains a wide range of capabilities and resources that may be required to deal with domestic incidents in order to save lives and protect property and
the environment while ensuring the protection of privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. To be successful, any approach to the delivery of Response capabilities will require an all-of-Nation approach. All Federal departments and agencies must cooperate with one another, and with local, state, tribal, territorial, and insular area governments, community members, and the private sector to the maximum extent possible. (United States Department of Homeland Security. 2016, August. pg. 12)
Moving through the 2005 Hurricane season, as well as incidents such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, it is very apparent how important interagency coordination was. This paper will discuss each occurrence in greater detail as well as the interagency coordination and response attempts of
each incident.
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9/11
A tragedy to begin the decade, the terrorists’ attacks on 9/11 would forever change emergency management and interagency disaster response. The morning of September 11
th
, 2001, 19 terrorists linked to the Islamist extremist group al Qaeda set out to hijack four commercial aircraft filled with civilian passengers, with the intent of destroying civilian targets in the name of their religion/God. One hijacked plane would crash into the North tower and another plane would crash into the South tower of the World Trade Center. The third plane was hijacked and crashed at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, as well as a fourth flight that was headed for Washington, D.C. that was defended by civilians on board and crashed in an empty field in Pennsylvania. “Most of the fatalities were from the attacks on the World Trade Center. The Pentagon lost 184 civilians and servicemembers and 40 people were killed on Flight 93. It was the worst attack on American soil since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.” (United
States Navy. 2023, September 7)
In total, the terrorist attacks on 9/11 resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths and injured over 6,000 more. The first plane hit the towers at 8:46Am and the second plane hit at 9:02AM. The
towers stood burning for a total of two hours and fell in 12 seconds. These numbers included 343 firefighters/EMS personnel, 23 NYPD officers, 37 Port Authority officers, 128 World Trade Center employees lost and not found, 1,402 individuals who perished in Tower one, 614 individuals who perished in Tower two, 21,906 remains found, and 1,717 families who were left with no remains or closure for their loved ones. From this data, it can be seen how emergency responders were first on scene and collaborated interagency to do what they could.
(
September 11 by Numbers.
NYMag.com. 2014, September). From a government perspective,
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during the wake of the attack initially, the government was unable to muster resources as they were still unable to fully understand what had happened. Two years after the incident, on February 28
th
, 2003, President George W. Bush issued
the Homeland Security Presidential Directive -5 which “directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop and administer a National Incident Management System. NIMS provides a consistent nationwide template to enable all government, private-sector, and nongovernmental organizations to work together during domestic incidents.” (United States Department of Agriculture. (n.d.) While the Incident Command System had been introduced and used since the 1970s, the implementation of the National Incident Command System from
President Bush was an extension of the command structure as a result of the lessons learned about disaster from the events of 9/11, which included assigning specific agencies roles in disaster and overall facilitating interagency cooperation. 2005 Hurricanes
Moving through the decade, the 2005 hurricane season has been named the most destructive for Untied States storms, mostly due to Hurricane Katrina, with estimated damages over $100 billion dollars. With a total of 27 named storms, the 2005 hurricane season was the most productive storm season since 1933. From Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 to Hurricane Rita in September 2005, and finally Hurricane Wilma in October 2005, the United States was battered month after month by super storms. While all formidable storms, Hurricane Katrina still holds the record as the most destructive hurricane in US history, as seen here; “Katrina's central pressure dropped to 902mb. At the time, it was the fourth lowest pressure ever measured in the Atlantic basin. Katrina's central pressure at landfall was 920 mb. This is the third lowest pressure recorded at landfall behind the Florida Keys storm of 1935 -
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892mb and Hurricane Camille of 1969 - 909 mb. Katrina became the most destructive storm on record with an estimated $50 billion dollars in insured damage. This shatters the old record of approximately $25 billion dollars (normalized to 2005 dollars) in insured damage set by Hurricane Andrew (1992).” (NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Monthly
Tropical Cyclones Report for Annual 2005)
From Hurricane Katrina, multiple agencies that were initially involved in incident response and mitigation were able to see how underprepared the agency might have been, which caused multiple agencies to overhaul training and protocols that had not been updated since 9/11. Additionally, interagency cooperation was expanded and included more frequent training and interagency planning. While lessons were learned from the 2005 Hurricane season, especially Hurricane Katrina, the lessons in question were lessons on framework expansion, not new emergency management and interagency cooperation protocols.
Deepwater Horizon
Further into the decade, interagency management would again be challenged by an oil rig explosion. April 20
th
, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig located in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, exploded and eventually sank on April 22
nd
. Beginning the night of April 20th, a surge of natural gas caused a concrete core that was recently installed to seal the well to explode, causing the following chain events as the core was too weak to withstand the pressure the blast from the natural gas created due to the concrete mixture that used nitrogen gas to accelerate the curing process. As the natural gas worked its way up to the riser platform where it caught ignition, it killed 11 workers and injured 17 others. The oil rig finally capsized on the 22 and sank, which caused the riser to rupture causing drilled mud to create pressure of oil and natural gas that without other force acting on it, began to spew oil into the gulf. In total, the well
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spewed over 60,000 barrels of oil per day into the gulf. The National Response team, which consists of a group of government agencies lead by the United States Coast Guard, began to mix dispersants to emulsify the oil into the affected water to metabolism the bacteria as well as booms were put in place to corral the portions of the slick that could be controlled at the surface. This incident caused President Barack Obama to issue a moratorium on offshore drilling, which leave to over 12,000 people unemployed. While a large incident, the major agency involved with
interagency cooperation includes the United States Coast Guard intermixing with officials from the oil company as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, but overall, a smaller incident in terms of interagency management cooperation, especially compared to incidents such as Hurricane Katrina. Conclusion
Overall, through the early 2000s, the interagency coordination ideas and goals changed
with each incident and the lessons learned. It can be clear to see how through the decade interagency coordination improved preparation, response, and mitigation on large scale events
such as hurricanes. Without interagency coordination, larger scale events would be unattainable for one smaller agency, as seen in this paper. Lessons learned from events like 9/11 have gone on to shape future Emergency Management, and still do today in basic management and safety principles, which speaks to the overall importance of lessons learned in interagency management and coordination in disaster events.
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References
National Archives and Records Administration. (n.d.). Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned.
National Archives and Records Administration. https://georgewbush-
whitehouse.archives.gov/reports/katrina-lessons-learned/chapter5.html NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Monthly Tropical Cyclones Report for Annual 2005, published online January 2006, retrieved on February, 2024 from
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/tropical-cyclones/
200513
.
Pallardy, R. (2023, December 29). Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill . Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Deepwater-Horizon-oil-spill/Cleanup-efforts September 11 by Numbers.
NYMag.com. (2014, September). https://nymag.com/news/articles/wtc/1year/numbers.htm
United States Department of Agriculture. (n.d.). What is the National Incident Management System (NIMS)?
. USDA.gov. https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/NIMLesson.pdf United States Department of Homeland Security. (2016, August). Response Federal Interagency Operational Plan.
FEMA.gov. https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-07/Response_FIOP_2nd_august2016.pd
f
United States Navy. (2023, September 7). The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks.
Naval History and Heritage Command. https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-
and-operations/sept-11-attack.html