Hurricane Gustov:Should the Xcel center be re-assigned to co-ordinate the national response?

Question

Given the tremendous amount of resources,already in place there, it would be a natural evolution to act as a center to co-ordinate specific needs being directed to those who need them. This is a perfect time to act ,as a unified nation, for the common cause of fellow americans, in need of help.

Answer 1

It's over a thousand miles from Saint Paul to New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast. Unless you intend to use that center in Saint Paul for some sort of telethon to raise funds, I see no advantage obtaining from the use of that site. The President is preparing to fly into the affected area after the storm passes through. FEMA has already put its assets in place. The Governor of Louisiana has declared a state of emergency and the National Guard has been dispatched and is in place in Orleans Parish and the surrounding area. The Mayor of New Orleans has ordered an evacuation (95% complete), ordered a curfew and informed anyone thinking of looting or carrying out other crimes that they will go directly to the Angola State Prison. Check the below link for updates.  

Answer 2

It is a very bad idea to place your response headquarters in the location that is likely to be impacted by the disaster.

Your response headquarters needs to be nearby but far enough away so as they will not take any damage themselves.

In fact with today's communications - there is no real need to move it to the area at all.  

Another thing is that the Incident Command System (ICS) has been around for decades. The ICS works and every public safety and emergency response agency in the nation is trained and equipped to function within it.

The big issue is that US disaster response doctrine place the primary responsibility for determining needs and requesting resources on the local governments.  When the local government are competent and efficient you have what happened last year during the S. California wildfires.  If thew local governments are not competent - you have the first few days response to Katrina (after the first few days the local governments were shoved aside and FEMA took over).