Tag: Russel Honore

The former commander of 2ID who became famous for leading the military response to Hurricane Katrina is now making the rounds in the media with his critical comments about the federal response to Hurricane Harvey:

Former Joint Task Force Katrina Commander Russel Honore said Wednesday the military’s rescue efforts in states affected by Hurricane Harvey resembles “amateur hour” because the federal government lacks a strategy for how to respond to large-scale natural disasters.

“The American people have put too much confidence in us,” Honore told CNN host Erin Burnett. “We have been too successful overseas to come out in amateur hour and incrementally deploy the force.”

The retired Army lieutenant general said the federal government should have “come in big” and arrived at the “edge of the storm” so that rescue efforts could begin immediately after it passes.

“We don’t have 100 helicopters here as of last night,” said Honore, who handled the response in New Orleans to Hurricane Katrina 12 years ago.

Despite an extensive study by the Army Corps of Engineers on how to handle these types of disasters, Honore said the government has left it to the states to create and carry out their own responses.

“The problem is we have 50 different solutions,” Honore added. “The federal government took their hand off it and went off to fight terrorism — and each time we have a Sandy or Harvey, the solution is different … It’s cooked up locally by the state.” [Washington Examiner]

You can read more at the link.

Lieutenant General Russel Honore’ who is the current commander of 1st Army which commands the US Army Reserve and National Guard is now directing the military response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Interestingly enough General Honore’ used to be the division commander for the US 2nd Infantry Division located here in Korea from 2000 – 2002.

Lt. Gen. Russel Honore was directing the deployment of National Guard troops — expected to number 1,000 — from a New Orleans street corner.

Honore said getting food and water to the people at the convention center was a difficult process. “If you ever have 20,000 people come to supper, you know what I’m talking about,” the general said. “If it was easy, it would have been done already.”

CNN’s Barbara Starr, who is traveling with the three-star general, said Honore is “very determined to keep this looking like a humanitarian relief operation.”

“A few moments ago, he stopped a truck full of National Guard troops … and said, ‘Point your weapons down, this is not Iraq,'” Starr reported.

During his time here in the 2ID General Honore’ was known as the Ragin Cajun because he was the type that would explode and expect immediate results. He is also from Louisiana and speaks with a Cajun accent that makes him sometimes hard to understand when he is rajin. His strong personality and Cajun roots make him the perfect person to lead this effort. I would expect results from the National Guard effort very soon now.