The Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Plannin2 Project (Hurricane Pam)

Recognizing that current Federal, State and local disaster response capabilities needed to be
enhanced to better address the anticipated effects of truly catastrophic disasters, FEMA
embarked on a "Catastrophic Planning" initiative in FY 2003. The goal was to identify areas
of the country that could be vulnerable to catastrophic disasters and, in cooperation with the
relevant State and local governments, to:
. Examine projected damages and effects associated with a catastrophic disaster
. Confirm current disaster response capabilities
. Identify anticipated response shortfalls, and
. Initiate comprehensive planning strategies to address the shortfalls
Products developed under the "Catastrophic Planning" initiative were envisioned to include
incident-specific response plans for pre-selected geographic regions and disasters, planning
templates that could be applied to other areas, and new response contingencies.

Thirteen southeastern Louisiana Parishes (including the City of New Orleans) were selected as
the initial geographic focus area for FEMA's "Catastrophic Planning" initiative because of
their vulnerability to hurricane disasters. The Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane
Planning Project documents the results of this collaborative effort.

More specifically, the Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Planning Project was
designed to bring together responders and decision makers from all levels of government and
the American Red Cross to begin analyzing and addressing the overwhelming operational
complexities that would be involved in responding to a catastrophic hurricane striking
southeast Louisiana. Accepting the fact that only limited funding and time were available,
topic specific "planning workshops" using a catastrophic hurricane scenario (Hurricane Pam)
to frame the discussions were selected as the best approach for identifying and qualifying the
scale of requirements needed to build a plan for responding to a catastrophic hurricane. The
results were intended to reveal to the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency
Preparedness (LOHSEP) and FEMA the shortfalls in existing plans and to begin developing
additional plans for catastrophic hurricane response.

Existing plans, strategies, policies, and capabilities were reviewed by LOHSEP before the first
workshop. As pre-planning for the first workshop, conducted in July 2004, LOHSEP and
Federal representatives identified a list of planning topics as the most urgent or complex topics
needing discussion, including:

. Hurricane Pre-Landfall Issues

. Search and Rescue
. Temporary Medical Care
. Sheltering
. Temporary Housing
. Schools
. Debris

September 23, 2005

During the first workshop, participants were presented with the catastrophic hypothetical
"Hurricane Pam" disaster scenario to frame discussions and then divided into breakout groups
by responsibilities and topic for detailed discussions. The breakout groups identified
operational concerns in each topical area, addressed issues, and drafted plans for dealing with
the identified concerns. To address other urgent subtopics that emerged during the discussions,
additional breakout groups were established. The following additional subtopics were
discussed:
. Access Control and Reentry
. Billeting of Federal Response Workers
. Distribution of Ice, Water and Power
. Donations Management
. External Affairs
. Hazardous Materials
. Transition from Rescue to Temporary Housing
. Unwatering of Levee Enclosed Areas
It became clear after the first workshop that a series of workshop cycles would be necessary to
address the full range of complex response and recovery concerns associated with a
catastrophic event. Additional workshops were held in November 2004, July 2005, and
August 2005 to provide further input for topics. Topics selected for further discussion during
the subsequent workshops included the following:

November 2004 Workshop Topics

. Sheltering
. Temporary Housing
. Temporary Medical Care
July 2005 Workshop Topics
. Transportation, Staging, and Distribution of Critical Resources
. Temporary Housing
August 2005 Workshop Topic
. Temporary Medical Care
The goal of the Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Planning Project is to begin
addressing immediate, intermediate, and long-term needs; create plans immediately usable by
planners and responders in the field; and seed the eventual development of a comprehensive
and systematic operational plan. The ultimate goal is for the concepts identified in the
Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Planning Project to be integrated into a final
catastrophic plan. The project did not result in a catastrophic planning document per se, but
rather a framework for developing such a plan.

Although the catastrophic planning process has been interrupted by the impacts of Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita, the workshops and planning process - knowledge of inter-jurisdictional
relationships and capabilities, identification of issues, and rudimentary concepts for handling
the consequences - have been beneficial to hurricane response activities.

September 23,2005
 Preface to the Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Planning Documents
The Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Planning Project begun in 2004 was funded by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency. The project is assisting the State of Louisiana, the southern most
13 Louisiana parishes (including the City of New Orleans) that will be most affected by a catastrophic
hurricane, appropriate federal regional personnel, and FEMA HQ representatives in conducting
catastrophic hurricane planning in Southeast Louisiana.
The plan is not complete, but represents the immediate response needs as identified by the
State. Also per the State's request, the planning workshops were organized around planning topics,
not by ESFs. Participants collaborated with each other to develop plans that documented a response
process. The "Matrixof Planning Topics and ESFs" crosswalks the workshop Planning Topics to
the 15 Emergency Support Functions contained in the NationalResponse Plan. This document was
originally developed in late 2004 but was modified in August 2005 to add explanatory information.
The planning process consisted of a series of week long planning workshops attended by response
operations personnel as listed above. The workshops were conducted in July 2004, November 2004,
July 2005, and August 2005.
The family of documents that were produced includes the:
. "Southeast LouisianaCatastrophicHurricanePlan" and the "Southeast Louisiana
Catastrophic Hurricane Plan -Appendices" which are current as of December 2004;
. "Transportation, Staging, and Distribution of Critical Resources" (draft functional plan),
the "Transportation, Staging, and Distribution of Critical Resources - Appendices, the
"Temporary Housing Functional Plan" (draft), and the "Temporary Housing Site Data
Collection Form" (draft) which were produced at the July 2005 workshop (they are still very
rough and conflicts have not yet been resolved with the "Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic
Hurricane Plan"); and
. "Temporary Medical Care" (draft) and "Appendices" (draft) which were produced during a
two-day workshop in August 23 & 24, 2005, after transcription by the contractor and
consultation and approval by the State. This document was forwarded to FEMA HQ on
September 3, 2005.

The period of performance for the contract that funded development of these documents was
originally September 30, 2005. In early August 2005, FEMA Region VI requested an extension to
November 30, 2005, to give more time to the contractor to integrate sections of the document
developed in July and August 2005 (the July workshop was originally scheduled for April 2005).
The extension was agreed to by the COTR in conversation with the contractor but has not been
formalized in a memorandum to the Contracting Officer at FEMA HQ.

Initial points of contact for information, etc. are:

Federal Emergency Management Agency Innovative Emeraency Management, Inc.

Sharon Blades MelanieT. Bartis
Emergency Planning SpecialistlCOTR Hazard Mitigation Planner
FEMA, Response Division IEM, Inc.
500 C Street, SW 8555 United Plaza Blvd.
W""'hinaton. DC
Suite 100
Baton Rouge, LA70809
Phone: 225-526-8823
Cellph Ol1e
W'
Cell:225-252-1449
Ithhel 11111l1be Fax: 225-952-8122
melanie.bartis@>ieminc.com
5 Us d as all 1'sal1d
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If Il1for1l1a t
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Memorandum ~ IEM.
Re: Development History of the Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane
Plan Documentation

Date: September 5, 2005

Development of the Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Plan Documentation was

designed as an iterative process, incorporating updates and results from an ongoing series
of workshops.

The current version of the Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Plan Documentation
is Revision 5, dated January 5, 2005. It was delivered to FEMA HQ, FEMA Region VI,
and the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (LOHSEP)
for review and comment. Revision 5 contains information developed during Phase 1 (July
16-23,2004) and Phase lA (November 29-December 3,2004) of the Southeast Louisiana
Catastrophic Hurricane Planning Workshop.

Phase IB of the Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Planning Workshop was

conducted July 25-29,2005. Following the workshop, sections of the documentation were
updated as described below:
. Temporary Housing (Section 13.0) was updated and supporting appendices were added
. A new section for Transportation, Staging, and Distribution of Critical Resources was
added to the documentation along with supporting appendices. (This section is
currently unnumbered.)

These two sections were released as separate files to FEMA on August 27,2005.

Following Phase 1B, on August 23-24, 2005, the Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic
Hurricane Temporary Medical Care Supplementary Planning Workshop was held. As a
result, Temporary Medical Care (Section 14) was updated with notes taken at the
workshop. This section was submitted to FEMA on September 1,2005, as Update 1. It was
replaced on September 3,2005, as Update 2, incorporating additional appendices along
with updates to the Concept of Operations (CONOPS).

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, delivery of Revision 6 of the Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic

Hurricane Plan Documentation to FEMA was scheduled for September 12, 2005. Revision
6 was intended to incorporate the results of Phase 1B and the Temporary Medical Care
Supplementary Planning Workshop into the master document.

In addition, a comprehensive review of Revision 6 was scheduled for September 21-23,

2005; at this meeting, representatives from FEMA Region 6, LOHSEP, and IBM were
scheduled to identify, review, and resolve any internal conflicts in the Southeast Louisiana
Catastrophic Hurricane Plan Documentation to date. Revised dates for delivery of Revision
6 and the comprehensive review are currently being determined in discussions with FEMA.
 Matrix of Planning Topics and ESFs ~

Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Disaster Planning Project

In the summer and fall of 2004 emergency management and disaster responders from the local,
state and federal levels met to develop a comprehensive, integrated plan to guide response and
recovery efforts in the event a major hurricane hits southeast Louisiana causing catastrophic
damage, injury and loss of life.

More than 250 people worked together for more than a week in Jul/ to develop several
component or "functional" plans addressing specific dimensions of an integrated response effort.
In August, 2004, leaders from three of the planning groups2met to review their plans and design
a follow-up workshop to further develop and enhance their plans. These three leadership teams
drafted the objectives and agendas for a smaller, more focused workshop, which was held
November29 - December3, 2004.

The attached table lists the various topics or issues for which plans were developed during the
Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Planning Project in addition to projected topics for later
discussion. Ofthe "Topics Proposed for Future Planning" listed at the bottom of the following
matrix, only Transportation was discussed at the subsequent workshop in July, 2005.
Participants .at a workshop in August 2005 discussed aspects of Temporary Medical Care not
covered in earlier workshops.

1 State and federal personnel met July 16-18to develop pre-landfall plans. Local personnel joined them July 19-23
to develop post-landfall plans.
2 The three leadership teams meeting on August i 8, 2004 were those planning for Temporary Medical Services,
Sheltering, and Temporary Housing. .

August 28, 2005 Page 1 of2

 Matrix of Planning Topics and ESFs
Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Disaster Planning Process
ESF3
I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 IS

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Plannin2 Topics E-< U ~ ~ "'" ~ :2::I: " ~ r/J :J 0:2: ~" ~ ~ 1" ~
Pre-Landfall
Annex A: Incident Action Plans
Annex B: Louisiana State Hurricane Checklist
Annex~: FEMA Region VI Hurricane X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Checklist
Annex D: Pre-Landfall Concept of Support

Post-Landfall
Main Planning Topics
Debris X X X X X .X
Schools X X X X X
Search and Rescue X X ? X X X X X ? X
Sheltering X X X X X X X? X
Temporary Housing X X X X X X X?? X
Temporary Medical Care X X X X X X X X ?? X
Discrete Planning Topics

Access Control and Reentry into Affected X X X X ? X

Areas
Billeting of Federal Rc:sponseWorkers X X? X X
Distribution Plan for Power, Ice and Water X X X X ? X
Donations'and Volunteer Management X X X X X
External Affairs X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Hazardous Materials X X X X X X X
Pipeline for Victims from Water to Housing4 X X X ?. X X X X X X ? X
Unwatering of Levee-Enc1osedBowls X X X X X X X ? X

Topics Proposed for Future Plannin{!

Command & Control X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Communications X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Continuity of Governmental Operations
Feeding X X X X X
Financial (Banking, Insurance, Postal Service)
Missing Persons & Familv Reunification X X X
Personal'Records
Recovery & Rebuilding ofInfrastructure X X X X X
Security X X
Transportation X X X X X X X X X

(The "?','s represent ESFs that may be applicable to the topic indicated depending on how the ESF is defined in the new NRP.)

3 The Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Plan was developed under the Federal Response Plan. Under that plan some Emergency Support Functions
(ESFs) had different names or did not exist. The differences are listed below.
ESF #5 was Informatipn & Planning ESF #13 did not exist
ESF #6 was Mass Care ESF #14 did not exist
ESF #8 was Health & Medical Services ESF #15 did not exist
ESF#10 was HazardousMaterials
ESF #11 was Food

4 This includes movement of people ITom Search and Rescue to Temporary Medical Care to Sheltering to Temporary Housing.
August 28, 2005 Page 2 of2
 Louisiana - Southeast Parishes by Population Included in the
Catastrophic Hurricane Planning Project

ITS Mapping & Analysis Center

Washington, DC
MS ,..,..fj9,,)7/tJ)--)~ 4, t:JIJr;:n'P-

"

,rJ -Legend
~,
.~J Population by Parish

tf
..-
D 0 -48,072

- 48,073 - 104,503

104,504 - 191,268

191,269 - 484,674

Data Source: Census Bureau

+
10 20 40 60
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