Command and Control of Homeland Security Response to Catastrophic Incidents

The terrorist attacks of 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina have resulted in millions of dollars in damages thousands of lives lost and thousands more left suffering. The government's collective efforts left much to be desired in many areas especially in the first few days and weeks following the event. Much of the failure in the response effort is due to the confusion between the various levels of government agencies as to who had authority to make critical decisions and confusion over who was in charge over the response efforts. This paper presents three courses of action to answer the question of command and control of catastrophic incidents. The first COA is to retain the status quo of the states in the lead role with federal agencies such as the DHS and the DOD providing support when and where requested. The second course of action is one in which DHS has the lead from the beginning with states providing the usual first responder support but subordinate to the direction of DHS/FEMA directives. Finally the third scenario is one in which the DOD assumes the lead role for disaster response.