Book Description

In the fall of 1998, two unusually severe hurricanes, Georges and Mitch struck the Western Hemisphere within a month causing extensive damage in nations within U.S. Southern Command's (SOUTHCOM's) area of responsibility (AOR). U.S. military forces mounted large-scale responses to these disasters in conjunction with the affected countries civilian relief agencies of the United States government foreign governments the UN non- governmental organizations (NGOs) private businesses and individuals. The Commander- in-Chief U.S. Southern Command (USCINCSO) created two joint task forces (JTFs) for disaster response reoriented the mission of a third JTF toward relief efforts and employed more than 7,000 U.S. military personnel deployed to the region to assist with the response to the damage caused by these events. In total the Department of Defense (DoD) expended more than $200 million for relief and rehabilitation following these storms. Because U.S. military forces are likely to be called upon in the future to provide humanitarian assistance following foreign natural disasters the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict Office of Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance (PK/HA) requested that the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) examine the U.S. military's capacity to respond to foreign natural disasters. Specifically IDA was tasked with examining the DoD response to these two storms as case studies in order to: * Assess the capacity of U.S. DoD to respond to large-scale natural disasters as part of a major international effort.