Civil Air Patrol Col. Rock Palermo, right, and members of the 82nd Airborne, participate in a conference call with the National Weather Service as Hurricane Rita makes landfall. After Hurricane Rita, Colonel Palermo spent nearly three weeks directing local emergency operations in his hometown of Lake Charles. He was drafted as operations section chief and later deputy director because of his past disaster management experience. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tom R. Malmay Jr.)