Katrina HFN Timeline

Timelines for deploying to disasters for ICT support are very different depending on the organization. Military organizations such as Marine Expeditionary Forces (MEFs) have very detailed Concepts of Operations (CONOPS) that include having communications and people resources at-the-ready, training, exercises, well developed rules of engagement, force protection, advanced scout parties, funding lines, etc. NGOs and IOs have their own timelines that include many of the elements of a typical military CONOPS with some differences. By way of example, we present here the actual deployment timeline that NPS followed in their response to Hurricane Katrina. NPS's deployment (and timeline) was a bit different than a pre-planned military deployment as NPS's core mission is education and research vice support in the field during disasters. However, the NPS timeline is educational in that it follows a logical order of deployment for an overwhelmingly chaotic event (Katrina). NPS's Katrina deployment team was under administrative control (ADVON) of NPS and operational control (OPCON) of Joint Task Force Katrina (JTF Katrina) via the Navy sub-element of JTF Katrina called the Joint Forces Maritime Component Command (JFMCC). Some of the NPS Katrina response timeline events were developed in haste by NPS leadership exercising administrative control once we received a request from the JFMCC to provide support in Mississippi just a few days after the hurricane wreaked havoc on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Some of the NPS timeline events were driven by JTF Katrina via the JFMCC. An interactive graphic link to the NPS timeline is provided on this page - again for illustrative purposes. A complete written and very detailed report of NPS's response to Katrina, including the timeline that NPS followed, can be found here (NPS's AAR/LL PDF document).