**DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY**

**U. S. COAST GUARD**

**STATEMENT OF**

**REAR ADMIRAL DENNIS SIROIS\
ASSISTANT COMMANDANT FOR OPERATIONS, U.S. COAST GUARD**

**ON THE**

**COAST GUARD'S ROLE IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE**

**BEFORE THE**

**UNITED STATES HOUSE**

**SELECT BIPARTISAN COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE PREPARATION FOR AND
RESPONSE TO HURRICANE KATRINA**

**THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2005\
WASHINGTON, D.C.**

**[INTRODUCTION\
]{.underline}**

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: Thank you for the opportunity
to address you today as we discuss the Coast Guard's preparedness and
response to national emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina.

As a military service, law enforcement agency and the only national
maritime first responder, the Coast Guard has the capability, capacity
and organizational relationships that enable it to play a critical role
in disaster response.

**[AGILE AND RESPONSIVE FORCE]{.underline}**

The Coast Guard's ability to respond to major catastrophes is partly
attributable to the flexible, multi-mission nature of its forces.

Coast Guard ships and aircraft are built to respond to a variety of
missions without the need for extensive reconfiguration or the addition
of special equipment. For example, a Coast Guard cutter conducting
fisheries enforcement operations in the Gulf of Mexico could quickly be
diverted to the New Orleans area to provide aircraft command and
control, refueling and forward staging facilities within only a few
hours. Coast Guard aircraft that normally perform law enforcement
surveillance in the Pacific Ocean were immediately redirected to fly
disaster relief supplies to the Gulf Coast.

Additionally, Coast Guard forces are on station at key locations around
the Nation, many of them on short-notice recall, so they can respond
quickly to emergent events. When a major catastrophe occurs, or is
anticipated, we can reposition forces quickly to that area to optimize
the response. The Coast Guard's response to Hurricane Katrina points to
the value of these assets during a crisis. Within hours of the storm's
passing, the Coast Guard surged 30 cutters, 38 helicopters and over
5,000 personnel into the affected areas, saving 26,055 lives in the
first five days alone. These assets also provided vital security,
logistics and communications to the areas hardest hit by the storm.

Another key to the Coast Guard's success is that the Coast Guard has a
decentralized command and control structure. The authority and
responsibility to move forces, establish response readiness levels and
direct operations is vested in the District and Area Commanders. This
provides the most direct oversight of operations at the field level and
avoids delays caused by time-consuming bureaucratic processes.

Perhaps the most important factor contributing to the Coast Guard's
effectiveness in disaster response is the fact that our forces are
engaged in this type of mission on a daily basis. As the Nation's
maritime first responder, Coast Guard men and women plan for, train and
execute rescue missions every day. This real-world experience is
reinforced by a robust exercise program that includes continuity of
operations plans and extensive contingency plans with our government and
private-sector partners at the federal, state and local levels. Our
exercise program will continue to expand and mature as we move ahead
with the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program, enhancing
disaster response plans across the Government.

**[INTEGRATED OPERATIONS]{.underline}**

The Coast Guard possesses several unique features that help to integrate
its efforts with those of the Department of Defense (DoD), other federal
agencies, the National Guard, and state and local authorities.

Because the Coast Guard is at all times a branch of the military, our
communications systems, planning processes, personnel training and even
our command structures have much in common with the DoD Services. Coast
Guard commanders can be either supported or supporting commanders for
military operations, and we have extensive experience working in and
with DoD Joint Task Force Headquarters. This allows for easy integration
of forces and unity of effort when working together during major
catastrophes.

In addition to our work with DoD, the Coast Guard works on a daily basis
with other federal, state and local partners. The service's Ports,
Waterways and Coastal Security mission demands the Coast Guard
interacting daily with state and local law enforcement and emergency
response organizations, exercising command structures, testing force
laydowns and building the trust that is critical to effectively execute
an emergency response. Coast Guard Captains of the Port provide a
critical link through Local Emergency Planning Committees, Area Maritime
Security Committees, Harbor Safety Committees, Area Planning Committees,
Regional Response Teams and other venues that allow the Coast Guard to
build close relationships with key partners in disaster response.
Organizational and personal relationships are built while participating
on these committees and teams are of immeasurable benefit during a
crisis situation.

The Coast Guard has built on these important relationships to improve
our emergency response capability by actively working to implement the
National Response Plan (NRP). The Coast Guard began implementing the
precursor to the National Incident Management System in 1996 and has
trained thousands of personnel on the Incident Command System, a central
component of the National Response Plan. Since the NRP was issued last
year, the Coast Guard updated its full range of contingency plans to
reflect its guiding principles. Additionally, the Coast Guard has
realigned and combined operational field units to provide full
integration of emergency response capabilities, and directly support
staffing for Joint Field Offices, when those entities are in place.

From an interagency perspective, the Coast Guard's relationship with the
Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management
Agency during this, as well as other emergency responses, has been
excellent. The Coast Guard operates independently and receives no task
direction from external agencies for search and rescue, aids to
navigation maintenance, oil and chemical pollution, and reconstituting
ports and waterways. However, we do provide support to other agencies as
requested on a not-to-interfere basis with other assigned missions. In
these instances, the timeliness and specificity of direction and
requests from DHS and FEMA were adequate, and the Coast Guard was
generally able to meet all of their requests. Taskings from FEMA were
received via formalized mission assignments, as has been the case in
previous disaster responses.

**[AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT]{.underline}**

Although the Coast Guard is well positioned for emergency responses,
there remain several areas of concern.

The Coast Guard is a small service. With only 39,000 personnel on active
duty, a major emergency strains its capabilities and requires a careful
balancing of risk in other areas. At the height of KATRINA operations,
over 33% of Coast Guard aircraft were deployed to the affected region.
We managed the impact on our nationwide readiness posture by incurring
more risk in other locations. Canadian forces covered the Northwest
Atlantic search and rescue mission, allowing us to divert forces to the
Gulf Coast. Aviation training was postponed, and we decreased forces
normally performing counter-drug, fisheries enforcement and migrant
interdiction operations in the Caribbean and Southeast United States.

Closely related to the size of the Service, we have a limited capacity
to respond to long duration events. While the Coast Guard is optimized
for immediate first response, its limited "bench strength" makes it
difficult to sustain these operations for a long period of time. Plans
to undertake initial response operations and then pass responsibilities
once a crisis has been stabilized are an important planning factor for
Coast Guard commanders.

However, my most significant concern -- and one which will affect our
planning for future natural disasters -- is that many of our disaster
response assets have reached, or passed, their anticipated service life.
The majority of our major cutters were built in the 1960s, and most of
our aircraft are over 20 years old. With increased age come greater
maintenance requirements, additional down-time and increased workload
for maintenance and logistics personnel. The recognition of our need for
ship and aircraft recapitalization is what led to the Coast Guard's
Deepwater Acquisition Program.

Fortunately, with your support and the Administration's foresight to
award the Deepwater contract in 2002, we are starting to field new
assets to rectify this problem. Additionally, since 2001 the Coast Guard
has invested extensively in new forces including 13 Maritime Safety and
Security Teams, 170 new small boats, fifteen 87-foot Coastal Patrol
Boats and four 179-foot coastal patrol craft to increase operational
presence in the Nation's ports.

By increasing multi-mission capability and capacity, the Coast Guard's
Deepwater Program is essential if the Service is to maintain its ability
to respond to major emergencies. The requested cutters, aircraft, small
boats, sensors, communication systems, and networks that tie them
together into a "system of systems" will dramatically improve the
Service's ability to respond to disasters.

**[CONCLUSION]{.underline}**

The Coast Guard is well-positioned to respond to domestic emergencies
due to its unique blend of capabilities, capacities and relationships
with federal, state and local partners. Our men and women performed
admirably, but will require the Nation's continued support to guarantee
effective responses in the future. The continuation of the Coast Guard's
Deepwater and Rescue 21 projects are instrumental to our future success.
We must also continue to improve operational integration at all levels
of government in order to improve emergency response communications,
planning and execution.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. I will be
happy to answer any questions you may have.

[CLEARANCE
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