A paper detailing the need to involve the military in disaster management situations. A review of existing legislation and current practice in the United States.

1. United States Military Response to Domestic Natural Disasters: Active and
Reserve Forces a Last Resort or an Inescapable Trend
Timothy Makori
Tim.makori@gmail.com
www.timtrends.wordpress.com

2. 1
Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................2
Legal and National Frameworks....................................................................................................................3
Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 ........................................................................................................................4
Disaster Management Acts...........................................................................................................................5
Military’s Role in Disasters and Disaster Management Plans.......................................................................6
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................................6

3. 2
Introduction
Authors and scholars have defined disasters as happenings, such as earthquakes or
floods, which lead to significant loss of life, disruption, or destruction of property.
Acknowledging the risk that serving soldiers of the United States Military could present to
innocuous civilians and the sovereignty reserved by the myriad states, but also conscious of the
need to avert against damage and provide rescue to disaster-struck communities, the
developers of the American Constitution integrated a checks and balances system to demarcate
the control of the army between the Congress and the President and to share the share the
governance of the paramilitaries with the states.1
Disaster prevention and management is a quintessential function of the administration
of a state or a country.2
Nonetheless, the United States military has been recurrently involved
in technological and natural disasters and Complex Human Emergency (CHE) relief efforts. The
United States Agency for International Development Office of disaster assistance office
(USAID/OFDA) often requests the U.S. military, through the U.S. Department of Defense, to
participate in international disasters.3
The same office, OFDA, calls upon the assistance of the
military in local eventualities that are beyond their handling capacities.4
Scenes from recent
disasters such as the Hurricane Katrina depicted New Orleans citizens grappling because of
1
(Kapucu, 2011)
2
(Kapucu, 2011)
3
(Coppola, 2010)
4
(2006 Operational Law Handbook, n.d.)

4. 3
their insufficiency. Since that event, many legislators, plus the President, have requested for
superior military envelopment in disaster management roles.5
The United States has gone through devastating and debilitating disasters that have
reduced houses, roads, and other costly assets to mere debris. Weather related disasters such
as tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, have, at one time, caused the President to
present a record 99 declaration for disaster. Places such as the Indiana, Midwest, Illinois,
Missouri, Kentucky, and Kansas have all suffered devastation being reduced to wreckage. The
costs in damages suffered by the country reached record high in 2011 when over a third of
trillion in dollars succumbed to damages. During all these disasters and many others in
international scenes, the U.S. aircraft carriers loaded with supplies, equipment, and troops
showed up early, and assisted in rescuing survivors. Disaster relief appeared to be one of the
key aims of the United States military and thousands of citizens witnessed the softer side of the
soldiers.6
Legal and National Frameworks
It is vital to comprehend the past evolution of the roles of the soldiers with stress on the
present laws, documents, and national plans to appreciate the significance and central role of
the military in natural and manmade disasters.
5
Ronald J. Daniels, Donald F. Kettl, and Howard Kunreuther, On Risk and Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina
(University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011).
6
(Travis et al., 2013)

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Posse Comitatus Act of 1878
The process of involvement and the overall statutory inhibition of the army in the
domestic application of law enforcement and civilian activities are included in the Posse
Comitatus Act of 1878, 18 U.S.C § 1385. This particular act proscribes and limits the application
of the military (including any of its subunits) or the Air Force for purposes of law enforcement.
Nonetheless, there exist some few limitations and exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act that
give troops the permission to serve in particular cases such as The National Guard labeled with
Title 32 and under state authority; capturing of aerial visual photographs, surveillance and
visual search; and participation in special investigations; inspections of the Department of
Defense; and Air and Navy Force offering assistance to the Federal Bureau of Investigations in
investigating the kidnapping, assassination, or assault of the United States President .7
The United States military may take part in law enforcement when the Act of Congress
or Constitution authorizes it to, which parallels the federalization of active and direct
involvement of the military within the enforcement of civilian law.8
The complexity, limitations,
and restrictions of the use of the Posse Comitatus Act, nonetheless, conjure ambiguity in
explaining the transparent and lucid boundaries of the involvement of the military procedures.
The Insurrection Act, which is doubled by the Posse Comitatus Act and presents as an exception
to the regulation, developed in 10 U.S.C. §§ 331-335 Sectors, permits the President, by the
appeal of the state governor in decentralization, to call and deploy the military for domestic
7
(BARAK, 2007)
8
Brake Jeffrey, CRS Report to Congress,“ (Washington DC, 2008).

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assistance and use in reinstatement of public order, averting disorder, domestic unrest, looting,
and other activities of law enforcement.9
Disaster Management Acts
The Federal Disaster Relief Act set much of the methodology through which the United
States carried out disaster management. The Act offered an orderly, continuing means of the
government to assist states as well as localities that suffered various eventualities because of
major disasters. Later, the framers of the constitution decided that the Disaster Relief Act of
1950 did not serve the country well in terms of addressing catastrophic disasters. For this
reason, they developed another Act in 1974 that required the federal government to provide
three quarters of the funding for programs administered by states following major disasters.
Today, America is guided by the Stafford Act as well as the Emergency Assistance Act, which
state that states, some non-profit organizations, and localities may use disaster management
funds to offer mass care, restore destroyed or damaged facilities, aid victims, help families,
clear debris, and mitigate the possibilities of future disasters.10
The military may respond to
disasters under the provisions of this act by the appeal of DHS through the Department of
Defense. Additionally, the president has Constitutional powers to decide and issue a disaster
red-alert authorizing the best support to oversee and conduct rescue operations.11
9
Kerry B. Fosher, Under Construction: Making Homeland Security at the Local Level (University of Chicago Press,
2010).
10
Bruce R. Lindsay and Justin Murray, Disaster Relief Funding and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations (DIANE
Publishing, 2011).
11
Kapucu, “The Role of the Military in Disaster Response in the US.”

7. 6
Military’s Role in Disasters and Disaster Management Plans
The public administration matters associated with the relevant and heightening role of
the military in disasters cannot be overelaborated. The difficulties of coordinating and
managing disasters pose a substantial risk to public order, civilian life, and national security.
Response strategies and activities after a disaster require robust coordination among the key
organizations or agencies because of the multitude of bureaus, civil servants, divisions, and
chosen officials who deliberate on issues affecting other stakeholders, requires high level of
coordination.12
The National response Plan stands as the most recent product in an evolving planning
sequence for managing disasters. Through this response plan, the secretary of defense can
provide military resources to help other agencies and departments. The use of these resources
occurs only with the authorization of either the president or the secretary of defense. Further,
military personnel deployed to emergency areas remain under the command of the
Department of Defense.13
The role of the military has been defined further by the Hazardous
Material Response Annex and the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Act.14
Conclusion
Disaster management and response has gained importance over the years in the United
States as well as elsewhere. This research paper offers backdrop information about the vital
12
Jack Pinkowski, Disaster Management Handbook (CRC Press, 2008).
13
Richard Beebe and Myers, Professional Paramedic, Volume III: Trauma Care & EMS Operations (Cengage
Learning, 2011).
14
Lindsay and Murray, Disaster Relief Funding and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations.

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and increasing role of the military forces in disasters. The paper has shown the initiation of
military involvement during the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 and the evolving role through
various disaster management acts. Stafford Act as well as the Emergency Assistance Act gave
clear guidelines by citing that the military can be involved in disasters through the Department
of Defense (DOD). It is notable that the military’s involvement lies on the fact that they can
manage robust coordination and sufficient equipment. The National Response Plan offers
further guidelines on the involvement of the military. While the military involvement is
important, it should only occur when necessary, and even so, the military maintains
independence.

9. 8
Bibliography
2006 Operational Law Handbook. DIANE Publishing, n.d.
BARAK, GREGG. Battleground: Criminal Justice. ABC-CLIO, 2007.
Beebe, Richard, and Myers. Professional Paramedic, Volume III: Trauma Care & EMS
Operations. Cengage Learning, 2011.
Coppola, Damon P. Introduction to International Disaster Management. Elsevier, 2010.
Daniels, Ronald J., Donald F. Kettl, and Howard Kunreuther. On Risk and Disaster: Lessons from
Hurricane Katrina. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
Fosher, Kerry B. Under Construction: Making Homeland Security at the Local Level. University of
Chicago Press, 2010.
Jeffrey, Brake. CRS Report to Congress,“. Washington DC, 2008.
Kapucu, Naim. “The Role of the Military in Disaster Response in the US.” European Journal of
Economic & Political … 4, no. 2 (2011): 7–33.
Lindsay, Bruce R., and Justin Murray. Disaster Relief Funding and Emergency Supplemental
Appropriations. DIANE Publishing, 2011.
Pinkowski, Jack. Disaster Management Handbook. CRC Press, 2008.
Sadiq, Abdul-Akeem Ademola. Mitigating and Preparing for Disasters: A Survey of Memphis
Organizations. ProQuest, 2009.
Travis, William D, Elisabeth Brambilla, Masayuki Noguchi, Andrew G Nicholson, Kim Geisinger,
Yasushi Yatabe, Yuichi Ishikawa, et al. “Diagnosis of Lung Cancer in Small Biopsies and
Cytology: Implications of the 2011 International Association for the Study of Lung
Cancer/American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society Classification.”

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Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine 137, no. 5 (May 2013): 668–84.
doi:10.5858/arpa.2012-0263-RA.

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Appendix
Soldiers in Lothar storm in 1999
Soldiers in Haiti Disaster Relief

12. 11
Soldiers aid the Matte district of Bern’s flood in 2005
Troops assist in disaster relief