“I personally led the Coast Guard boat rescue operation in the wake of hurricane Katrina . . . the largest and most successful rescue operation in American history. This book is the story of the Coast Guard rescue operation in the flooded city of New Orleans and the surrounding area after Hurricane Katrina, but it’s much more than that.”
—Capt. Robert G. Mueller, U.S. Coast Guard (ret.)
With disaster scenarios of increasing interest and disaster preparedness paramount importance, it’s time to take a deeper look at what went very right before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina. Unlike the woefully unprepared civilian population, the Coast Guard was staged and ready. The unprecedented surface rescue put into action under Capt. Mueller and RADM Castillo took place with little fanfare, and saved the lives of 25,000 people by boat and 8,500 by helicopter.
Capt. Robert G. Mueller, U.S. Coast Guard (ret.) led the surface rescue operations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He retired after 30 years in the service and is the vice president for compliance at Turn Services, a towboat and fleeting company. He is also an adjunct professor at Tulane University teaching Homeland Security in the graduate program.
RADM Joseph Pepe Castillo, U.S. Coast Guard (ret.) was the 8th District Chief of Operations commanding the Coast Guard Group New Orleans. He was instrumental in leading the rescue and evacuation. He earned a B.S. in management from the Coast Guard Academy and both an M.S. in industrial relations and a professional certificate in human resources management from the University of New Haven in Connecticut.