DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2017 — The most recent hurricane season was not unprecedented in terms of the number of storms, but it was unprecedented in terms of damage, the commander of U.S. Army North said in a recent interview.
Army Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan said hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria delivered a combination of blows that caused great damage in Texas, Florida, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and the military learned a great deal about defense support to civil authorities in the process.
Thousands of military personnel from all components mobilized and deployed to help the affected areas, and Buchanan -- as the Joint Force Land Component commander -- was in the thick of it.
U.S. Army North is the Army component for U.S. Northern Command. It works hand in glove with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the three storms were the largest domestic incident response in the history of that agency. “It was much larger than Katrina [in 2005],” Buchanan said. “It was many more days and from the total response of the government aspect, it was much larger.”
The swath covered by the storms contributed to the response.
