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Posted on 09/14/2005 9:48:57 AM PDT by lowbridge
Chertoff delayed federal response, memo shows
By Jonathan S. Landay, Alison Young and Shannon McCaffrey
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - The federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not the former FEMA chief who was relieved of his duties and resigned earlier this week, federal documents reviewed by Knight Ridder show.
Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies into action without any request from state or local officials. Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown had only limited authority to do so until about 36 hours after the storm hit, when Chertoff designated him as the "principal federal official" in charge of the storm.
As thousands of hurricane victims went without food, water and shelter in the days after Katrina's early morning Aug. 29 landfall, critics assailed Brown for being responsible for delays that might have cost hundreds of lives.
But Chertoff - not Brown - was in charge of managing the national response to a catastrophic disaster, according to the National Response Plan, the federal government's blueprint for how agencies will handle major natural disasters or terrorist incidents. An order issued by President Bush in 2003 also assigned that responsibility to the homeland security director.
But according to a memo obtained by Knight Ridder, Chertoff didn't shift that power to Brown until late afternoon or evening on Aug. 30, about 36 hours after Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi. That same memo suggests that Chertoff may have been confused about his lead role in disaster response and that of his department.
"As you know, the President has established the `White House Task Force on Hurricane Katrina Response.' He will meet with us tomorrow to launch this effort. The Department of Homeland Security, along with other Departments, will be part of the task force and will assist the Administration with its response to Hurricane Katrina," Chertoff said in the memo to the secretaries of defense, health and human services and other key federal agencies.
On the day that Chertoff wrote the memo, Bush was in San Diego presiding over a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Chertoff's Aug. 30 memo for the first time declared Katrina an "Incident of National Significance," a key designation that triggers swift federal coordination. The following afternoon, Bush met with his Cabinet, then appeared before TV cameras in the White House Rose Garden to announce the government's planned action.
That same day, Aug. 31, the Department of Defense, whose troops and equipment are crucial in such large disasters, activated its Task Force Katrina. But active-duty troops didn't begin to arrive in large numbers along the Gulf Coast until Saturday.
White House and homeland security officials wouldn't explain why Chertoff waited some 36 hours to declare Katrina an incident of national significance and why he didn't immediately begin to direct the federal response from the moment on Aug. 27 when the National Hurricane Center predicted that Katrina would strike the Gulf Coast with catastrophic force in 48 hours. Nor would they explain why Bush felt the need to appoint a separate task force.
Chertoff's hesitation and Bush's creation of a task force both appear to contradict the National Response Plan and previous presidential directives that specify what the secretary of homeland security is assigned to do without further presidential orders. The goal of the National Response Plan is to provide a streamlined framework for swiftly delivering federal assistance when a disaster - caused by terrorists or Mother Nature - is too big for local officials to handle.
Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, referred most inquiries about the memo and Chertoff's actions to the Department of Homeland Security.
"There will be an after-action report" on the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Perino said. She added that "Chertoff had the authority to invoke the Incident of National Significance, and he did it on Tuesday."
Perino said the creation of the White House task force didn't add another bureaucratic layer or delay the response to the devastating hurricane. "Absolutely not," she said. "I think it helped move things along." When asked whether the delay in issuing the Incident of National Significance was to allow Bush time to return to Washington, Perino replied: "Not that I'm aware of."
Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, didn't dispute that the National Response Plan put Chertoff in charge in federal response to a catastrophe. But he disputed that the bureaucracy got in the way of launching the federal response.
"There was a tremendous sense of urgency," Knocke said. "We were mobilizing the greatest response to a disaster in the nation's history."
Knocke noted that members of the Coast Guard were already in New Orleans performing rescues and FEMA personnel and supplies had been deployed to the region.
The Department of Homeland Security has refused repeated requests to provide details about Chertoff's schedule and said it couldn't say specifically when the department requested assistance from the military. Knocke said a military liaison was working with FEMA, but said he didn't know his or her name or rank. FEMA officials said they wouldn't provide information about the liaison.
Knocke said members of almost every federal agency had already been meeting as part of the department's Interagency Incident Management Group, which convened for the first time on the Friday before the hurricane struck. So it would be a mistake, he said, to interpret the memo as meaning that Tuesday, Aug. 30 was the first time that members of the federal government coordinated.
The Chertoff memo indicates that the response to Katrina wasn't left to disaster professionals, but was run out of the White House, said George Haddow, a former deputy chief of staff at FEMA during the Clinton administration and the co-author of an emergency management textbook.
"It shows that the president is running the disaster, the White House is running it as opposed to Brown or Chertoff," Haddow said. Brown "is a convenient fall guy. He's not the problem really. The problem is a system that was marginalized."
A former FEMA director under President Reagan expressed shock by the inaction that Chertoff's memo suggested. It showed that Chertoff "does not have a full appreciation for what the country is faced with - nor does anyone who waits that long," said Gen. Julius Becton Jr., who was FEMA director from 1985-1989.
"Anytime you have a delay in taking action, there's a potential for losing lives," Becton told Knight Ridder. "I have no idea how many lives we're talking about. ... I don't understand why, except that they were inefficient."
Chertoff's Aug. 30 memo came on the heels of a memo from Brown, written several hours after Katrina made landfall, showing that the FEMA director was waiting for Chertoff's permission to get help from others within the massive department. In that memo, first obtained by the Associated Press last week, Brown requested Chertoff's "assistance to make available DHS employees willing to deploy as soon as possible." It asked for another 1,000 homeland security workers within two days and 2,000 within a week.
The four-paragraph memo ended with Brown thanking Chertoff "for your consideration in helping us meet our responsibilities in this near catastrophic event."
According to the National Response Plan, which was unveiled in January by Chertoff's predecessor, Tom Ridge, the secretary of homeland security is supposed to declare an Incident of National Significance when a catastrophic event occurs.
"Standard procedures regarding requests for assistance may be expedited or, under extreme circumstances, suspended in the immediate aftermath of an event of catastrophic magnitude," according to the plan, which evolved from earlier plans and lessons learned after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "Notification and full coordination with the States will occur, but the coordination process must not delay or impede the rapid deployment and use of critical resources."
Should Chertoff have declared Katrina an Incident of National Significance sooner - even before the storm struck? Did his delay slow the quick delivery of the massive federal response that was needed? Would it have made a difference?
"You raise good questions," said Frank J. Cilluffo, the director of George Washington University's Homeland Security Planning Institute. It's too early to tell, he said, whether unfamiliarity with or glitches in the new National Response Plan were factors in the poor early response to Katrina.
"Clearly this is the first test. It certainly did not pass with flying colors," Cilluffo said of the National Response Plan.
Mike Byrne, a former senior homeland security official under Ridge who worked on the plan, said he doesn't think the new National Response Plan caused the confusion that plagued the early response to Katrina.
Something else went wrong, he suspects. The new National Response Plan isn't all that different from the previous plan, called the Federal Response Plan.
"Our history of responding to major disasters has been one where we've done it well," Byrne said. "We need to figure out why this one didn't go as well as the others did. It's shocking to me."
Chertoff's Aug. 30 memo is posted at www.krwashington.com
To read the National Response Plan, go to: http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/NRP(underscore)FullText.pdf
"Blanco sent a four page letter to the President via FEMA on 8/28. The letter was a bit more than HELP! written over and over again for all four pages."
Not really. It was nothing more than a request for money after the hurricane passed. But hey, she did include SOME detail: Crisis Counseling and Public Assistance.
http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf
So even that was reported incorrectly. The flooding started during the hurricane. This means the mayor and governor gave folks even less time to get out. I'm not surprised.
Thanks.
I'm not sure that Incident of National Significance results in consolidation of command and control in the Fed apparatus. Would like to see a cite for that.
What Blanco didn't agree to was a Fed offer to take over her command and control of police and National Guard. She (both directly and indirectly, through the state emergency management apparatus) has probably not provided a clear direction to relief efforts.
[WHOLE 12 hours after the FLOODING started??]
One of my brothers is a trucker. He and dozens of others were staged in Pensacola well before the storm hit. Their job? Hauling trailer loads of FEMA supplies into the disaster area. After hauling everything out of Pensacola they began hauling from an airbase in Meridian, MS.
How much more READY does one have to be?
Go on. What did it ask for?
It described the situation, it recited the steps the state was taking of its own (a prerequisite for obtaining federal assistance); and listed the state activities that she wanted to have paid for with federal money.
The letter does not include a request for "federal boots" or "federal control." It was a request for $130 million of federal money.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
814 AM CDT MON AUG 29 2005
* A LEVEE BREACH OCCURRED ALONG THE INDUSTRIAL CANAL AT TENNESSE STREET. 3 TO 8 FEET OF WATER IS EXPECTED DUE TO THE BREACH.
* LOCATIONS IN THE WARNING INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO ARABI AND 9TH WARD OF NEW ORLEANS.
I haven't found a clear "early" citation for the breach of the 17th street levee. The 17th Street levee break flooded parts of NOLA. The Industrial Canal breach flooded St. Bernard parish (right next door).
The story is sound. Let's run with it.
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A large section of the vital 17th Street Canal levee, where it connects to the brand new "hurricane proof" Old Hammond Highway bridge, gave way late Monday morning in Bucktown after Katrina's fiercest winds were well north. The breach sent a churning sea of water from Lake Pontchartrain coursing across Lakeview and into Mid-City, Carrollton, Gentilly, City Park and neighborhoods farther south and east.I haven't found much in the way of corroboration for that timing.LAKEVIEW LEVEE BREACH THREATENS TO INUNDATE CITY
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/katrina/pdf/083005_a01a02.pdf
The London Avenue Canal also had a breach. I haven't studied location and timing for that failure either.
Don't I remember Chertoff stating that there was a delay in notifying him about the flooding too?
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Page three of the letter: "I request direct Federal assistance for work and services to save lives and protect property." This after requesting in line one that the federal Government consider the situation to be an "expedited major disaster for the state".
Did she know on the 28th exactly what would be needed and where? No. Can you tell me next week's winning lotto number?
My point is simple. Every level of government dropped the ball. I would rather deal with facts than join the partisan chorus that spends its time doing nothing but trying to shout louder than the partisan chorus across the street. Bring out all the facts and let the chips fall where they will.
Yes. And she went on to particularly describe the nature of that "direct Federal assistance for work and services to save lives and protect property."
I am specifically requesting:Now, adding up the 30 million for debris removal, 75 million for the IHP, and 25 million for Emegency protective measures; there is ZERO left over for distribution of emergency supplies....
Individual Assistance, including the Individual and Household Program (IHP), Disaster Unemployment Assistance, Crisis Counseling, Public Assistance (Category A-G funding at 100%), Small Business Administration (SBA) disaster loans and Direct Federal Assistance (DFA) funding at 100% for the following parishes: ...
...
To support the evacuation/sheltering effort, I am also requesting: Individual Assistance, including the Individual and Household Program (IHP), Crisis Counseling, and Public Assistance (Category B) for the following parishes: ...
...
Due to the extraordinary nature of this catastrophic hurricane and based on the anticipated damages in the impacted areas including the New Orleans Metropolitan region, I am requesting an increase of the Federal cost share from 75% to 100% for Individual Assistance, Public Assistance (All Categories) and Direct Federal Assistance. I certify that for this major disaster, the State and local governments will assume the applicable non-Federal share of costs required by the Stafford Act.
...
... Estimated requirements for other Federal agency programs:
- Department of Social Services (DSS): Opening (3) Special Need Shelters (SNS) and establishing (3) on Standby. Costs estimated at $500,000 per week for each in operation.
- Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH): Opening (3) Shelters and establishing (3) on Standby. Costs estimated at $500,000 per week for each in operation.
- LANG and the office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (OHSEP): Providing generators and support staff for SNS and Public Shelters. Costs estimated to range from $250,000-$500,000 to support (6) Shelter generator operations and personnel/equipment support.
- Louisiana State Police (LSP): Costs to support evacuations- $500,000 for a direct landfall.
- Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (WLF): Costs to support evacuations - $500,000 for a direct landfall.
- Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD): Costs to support evacuations - $5,000,000 for a direct landfall.
Totals: $130,000,000
Estimated Requirements for assistance under the Stafford Act:
Coordination [ZERO]
Technical and advisory assistance [ZERO]
Debris removal $30,000,000 (est.*)
Emergency protective measures $25,000,000 (est.*)
Individuals and Households Program (IHP) $75,000,000 (est*)
Distribution of emergency supplies [ZERO]
Other (specify) [ZERO]
Totals: $130,000,000
Grand Total: $130,000,000(*) Based on Hurricane Isidore, Lili and Ivan (FEMA 1435, 1437, 1548)
http://www.yuricareport.com/Disaster/BlancoToPresident_letter8_28_05.html
http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf
I notice too, she breaks out the 130 million in a form that desribes which of HER agencies will be directing certain efforts and spending certain monies. For example, Louisiana State Police, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and Department of Transportation and Development would use a combined total of 6 million dollars to support evacuations in the event of a direct landfall.
Keep in mind that this letter was composed before landfall, and the extent of damage was indefinite. At this point she certainly didn't want to be turning control over the the feds - even less so that she might have been inclined to on Friday September 2nd, when looting had taken a toll and evacuation was going slowly.
My point is simple. Every level of government dropped the ball. I would rather deal with facts than join the partisan chorus that spends its time doing nothing but trying to shout louder than the partisan chorus across the street. Bring out all the facts and let the chips fall where they will.
That's the best we can hope for. But the fact pattern is more complex than most people have patience for. In a coordinated effort, which this is, each side has to make promises and keep them. If Blanco says her guys will keep order, then she can't complain that the Feds didn't. THere are thousands of details that somebody has to "own," and the first owner of the details is the locals.
Her "I request direct Federal assistance for work and services to save lives and protect property." is spelled out in detail in her letter, and you can bet that she got everything requested there. All of it. And did you see the promise that she made on page 3?
In accordance with 44 CFR § 206.208, the State of Louisiana agrees that it will, with respect to direct Federal assistance:That last part is a promise not to engage in turf wars.
- Provide without cost to the United States all lands, easements and rights-of-ways necessary to accomplish the approved work;
- Hold and save the United States free from damages due to the requested work, and shall indemnify the Federal Government against any claims arising from such work;
- Provide reimbursement to FEMA for the non-Federal share of the cost of such work in accordance with the provisions of the FEMA-State Agreement; and
- Assist the performing Federal agency in all support and local jurisdictional matters
What went right is not of interest to the MSM and their political sponsors. Kudos to the good folks in Mississippi and the many in LA for showing the way of true America in the face of disaster. The pitch-in-and-help folks in New York also showed us the way on 9/11.
May God bless and comfort all who suffered and who demonstrate by their actions that there is more to celebrate about America than there is to condemn.
Stories such as yours are important for all of us to hear for the rest of the story to be told. Tell it often, wherever you can on the web. Thank you, again, ducks1944.
He has been there 5 years and he hasnt stood up yet so dont look forward to it. No one in the party has stood up for him either.
I am pretty damn sure this is patently untrue, dating back to the Posse Comitatus act. Knight Ridder ought to be fined.
Thats right. But this only pertains to Republicans. Otherwise the media will credit democrats for apologizing when in fact they never apologized.
"Bring out all the facts and let the chips fall where they will."
As in the way the chips fell at the behest of the 9/11 commision? You should take a look back at the hurricane threads before you start claiming all sides took on a partisan slant. The outcry against Nagin and Blanco here was a direct result of watching the incompetence as it happened, not because of their political affiliation. For real partisanship, you should be looking at the dems who had a senator blaming the hurricane on the President before it even hit.
You brought up the four (count 'em, four whole) pages as if that meant that she asked in detail what the fed didn't provide. You were proven wrong as to the amount of detail and what was asked, so now you're trying to blow it off as inconsequential since no one can predict the future?
What about the STATE FEMA? They could have acted even faster?
What next a memo saying God did not act fast enough to "make the world"?
Knight Ridder horse manure.
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