Lessons From Katrina Boost FEMA's Sandy Response

KUHF-FM Houston ^ | November 3, 2012 | Brian Naylor, NPR

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The federal agency has received praise from politicians and storm survivors alike for being prepared before the storm and responsive immediately afterwards - two things the agency was not when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in 2005.

......."FEMA is a very different organization than it was during Katrina," says Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

Lieberman chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which helped spur post-Katrina reforms at the agency. Those changes, Lieberman says, have proved themselves during Sandy.

"[FEMA] was proactive, and it didn't used to be. It doesn't wait for the storm to hit, it pre-positions personnel, equipment, food supplies, water, etc.," he says........"

[Cincinatus' Wife]

What a bunch of horse hockey!!

This morning on Fox and Friends, Brian Kilmeade told the viewers that FEMA said they can't come out to assess his damage because THEY [FEMA trucks] DON'T HAVE any gas AND they asked if they can get out there, could Kilmeade find them a hotel room on Long Island!!!!!!!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Yesterday on “The Five” Bob Beckel said that Obama’s FEMA is run well, unlike Bush’s Katrina FEMA.

[pietraynor]

What happened to the thousands of urban assualt vehicles that FEMA has bought in past few years? Seems they would be perfect to drive through downed trees, sand and water. Or are they saving them for after the election to put the vast right wing conspiracy into the FEMA camps for reeducation? You know Valerie Jarrett said those that are against us will pay dearly. Splitting your fight forces up to save a few peons is not the thing to so I guess.

[Ann Archy]

OMG!!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I keep wondering, ‘Where is the National Guard? Why don’t we see any aerial shots of them going down streets helping people and giving out aid?’ As you put it, the “urban assault vehicles” and assets we saw during Hurricane Katrina (despite the awful Democratic Party resistance to Bush’s early overtures of help).

I did see one photo in the news of a long line of Hummers (filled with politicians) observing the damage in (I believe it was the D.C. area).

[Cable225]

Yesterday on “The Five” Bob Beckel said that Obama’s FEMA is run well, unlike Bush’s Katrina FEMA.

I heard that too - he also said the stories about people dumpster diving for food and having no clothes, food, or water were being "cherry-picked" and "overblown" by FOX news.

I don't remember any statements like that during Katrina - oh, I forgot how all that compassion and outrage needs to be saved up for Republican administrations.

[libertylover]

says Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut...[FEMA] was proactive, and it didn't used to be. It doesn't wait for the storm to hit, it pre-positions personnel, equipment, food supplies, water, etc.

As I recall, supplies WERE pre-positioned before Katrina, but an incompetent mayor and an incompetent governor refused to cooperate and thus the problem. Still, the major problem with Katrina and with Sandy is that there are thousands upon thousands of people who have no idea how to take care of themselves - they've become completly dependent on the government.

[LibLieSlayer]

Ok people here it is... FEMA is a bunch of fat cat bureaucrats that hire college kid temps when things get hot... and these are the people that go out and hand out MRE’s and make promises and deliver SBA loan applications. These higher ups will show up with a clip board and concerned looks... if you depend on FEMA... you are going to die. I KNOW! No one with a lick of sense depended on the government after Katrina. The Military is an entirely different story... GOD bless every one of our Military men and women... they were fantastic.

LLS

[luvbach1]

Obama’s Katrina is evolving apace.

[LibLieSlayer]

bob beckel’s lips are tied directly to satan’s laptop.

LLS

[Cincinatus' Wife]

And NYC has an incompetent mayor who is so far removed from reality that he only canceled the NYC Marathon when the outrage became so loud it finally penetrated his self-serving ignorance about how all those human assets and supplies (like WATER saved for the runners) would help the people he “serves.”

This is the same idiot who endorsed Obama the other day.

[LibLieSlayer]

cuomo offered them but doomberg refused and raised hell about it. mayor doomberg wants the little people to die while the hoity toity dine on Kobe beef and Dom champaign.

LLS

[bert]

I think Bloomberg wanted his cops to do the job saying he didn’t want more people with guns on his streets

[LibLieSlayer]

WHAT ARE THE FIRST THREE LETTERS OF joe’s LAST NAME?

LLS

[LibLieSlayer]

He said, “The only people that I want on the streets of New York with guns are NY Police”... guess he can't do anything about the wolf packs armed with weapons that doomberg’s nanny state has outlawed. This guy is the most incompetent mayor in our History... he is the perfect match to endorse the absolute worst president that the USA has ever endured.

LLS

[ROCKLOBSTER]

FEMA is a very different organization than it was during Katrina

Yes, it has now been elevated to an unimaginable level of graft and corruption as only the RATs can do. It is totally unable to lift a finger, except the middle one.

says Sen. Joe Lieberman

Who cares what the whining hyena, Hardee Har Har, has to say? "Oh dear...Oh my..."

[fortheDeclaration]

Hey! Bloomberg has their best interests at heart, he did ban extra large sodas!

[sergeantdave]

“What happened to the thousands of urban assualt vehicles that FEMA has bought in past few years?”

They don’t know how to operate them. Those vehicles are for our use when the time comes.

[Right Wing Assault]

What happened to the thousands of urban assualt vehicles that FEMA has bought in past few years?

They're probably submerged in 20 ft of water somewhere.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

bob beckel’s lips are tied directly to satan’s laptop.

Right next to Geraldo's and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's!

Ewwwwwww.....

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I think Bloomberg wanted his cops to do the job saying he didn’t want more people with guns on his streets

Public Sector Union overtime.

[silverleaf]

when obama’s team rewrites history, Sandy will be reclassified as a “kinetic climatic occurrence”

Maybe FOX should take over the disaster relief effort, it seems adult leadership is desperately needed

Where are Shep and Whorealdo? Shouldn’t they be standing on a bridge crying?

[pops88]

FEMA is a very different organization than it was during Katrina
Yes, it has now been elevated to an unimaginable level of graft and corruption as only the RATs can do. It is totally unable to lift a finger, except the middle one.
____________________________________________________________

My husband sat next to a bunch of FEMA big wigs at a restaurant who were attending a convention. They’re laughing their a$$es off all the way to the bank on the tax payer’s dime that’s paying their salary and pensions, with no intention of helping anyone. He was thoroughly disgusted by what he overheard.

[TomGuy]

No worries, people. Obama is already at FEMA HQ this morning.

He will be kicking a** this morning, because, so far, the FEMA response has been kicking his.

And the election is Tuesday, so he needs some good photo-ops and adoring Media coverage.

[Right Wing Assault]

The problem with Katrina, of course, was not as much the hurricane but the flooding. I remember our local paper headline: "New Orleans dodges Katrina" or something like that.

Then the levees blew. Local, state, and federal people knew for years that day would come but didn't do near enough to prevent it. Lucky for most of them it was not on their watch. Bush had the bad luck to be there when it happened.

Most of their planning was done for typical hurricane scenarios such as housing, food, flooding in places, restoration of power but not for flooding of a Noah's ark proportions, which prevented movement of people and supples in the quantities needed.

Where they had buses and trucks to move people and supplies, they needed a navy. Toss the stupidity of state and local Chocolate City politicians in the mix and you've got a major disaster.

More than enough people to share the blame, but it was easier for politicians and the MSM to pass the buck to Bush rather than share the truth.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Where are Shep and Whorealdo? Shouldn’t they be standing on a bridge crying?

[PGalt]

GRRRREAT thread (posts & taglines) BUMP!

[TomGuy]

Bloomberg showed where his priority was — by saying that the marathon would take place.

Later yesterday, political and people pressure caused him to retract that position.

It did, however, show Bloomberg’s incompetence.

[mo]

FEMA, like the BATF and TSA..is another intrusive, expensive, un-Constitutional federal agency running around trying to justify to Congress and the American people its existence, mission, budget and salaries.

Maybe a Romney administration will in its mercy, put it out of existence? Spare us all the existential dram? /s

[AFPhys]

LOL

This is sure a different story than the articles that are featured on Drudge...

[kearnyirish2]

“Brian Kilmeade told the viewers that FEMA said they can’t come out to assess his damage because THEY [FEMA trucks] DON’T HAVE any gas AND they asked if they can get out there, could Kilmeade find them a hotel room on Long Island!”

When they said the fuel shipments had to be directed to utility and law enforcement vehicles, I felt it was worth waiting for hours to fill the tank (I had about four days’ worth of gas in the tank); today we’ll start rationing in much of NJ, but if the stations’ tanks are constantly drained I don’t know this will help.

[TomGuy]

Obama at FEMA this morning ‘... no bureaucracy, no red tape. Let’s get things done.’

==

Rush Limbaugh was classic yesterday — saying both Bloomberg and Obama were dissing big government, which both support, to get relief moving to those in need.

Both Bloomberg and Obama are advocating the suspension of bureaucratic and agency regulations which, in emergencies, are hindences and roadblocks.

[IMR 4350]

I never did understand why people on FR thought “Droopy” was such a great person.

Droopy has been a left wing partisan hack his entire life.

Some people are easily fooled by the Droopy routine I guess.

[Lady Heron]

"[FEMA] was proactive, and it didn't used to be.

Bull!

FEMA was sitting on the border of Louisianan waiting before Katrina hit. A dem governor did not let them into her state.

[Kozak]

Bob Beckels lips are buried in Baracks nether region.....

[trebb]

FEMA is not suitable as a first responder. NOLA was in chaos after Katrina and Mississippi rolled up its sleeves and got to work while the Governor took the lead. The Northeast is like NOLA with all the Dims who will sit in their own dirty diapers and cry because someone from the government hasn’t stopped by to change their diapers. That said, Blooming Idiotberg and others up there are not impressing me with their talk and lack of leadership - they are the ones who need to take the initial lead and not get diverted by such oh-so-important things like a freaking foot race...

[762X51]

The Northeast is like NOLA with all the Dims who will sit in their own dirty diapers and cry because someone from the government hasn’t stopped by to change their diapers.

As a Mississippian who lost it all in Katrina I can attest to the accuracy of your statement. We did what needed to be done. We didn't wait for the FedGov to help or we'd still be waiting. New York is New Orleans all over again.

[jch10]

No, LLS, Nagin, of NO, was the worst. Bloomie is second.

[trebb]

I live 10 miles East of Biloxi so I can verify what you say as true - we busted our butts to make sure those who were worse off were OK, then we all started putting the are back together. Makes me proud to be one of them "Damn Yankees" who came here with the Air Force in '86 and decided to settle down in this backwater, racist God loving, gun-carrying, hard working State.

[Scotswife]

We had a flood in our area last year.
Now I could be wrong of course - but I don’t recall FEMA being involved WHATSOEVER in that first wave of relief (water, food, shelter,clearing roads)

From what I recall....FEMA doesn’t bother with that - AT ALL.

When their people first came in - they began the process of surveying the area - taking photos of damage- setting up offices to start the long term relief paperwork - and issuing psa’s informing flood victims how to begin their recovery process.

The national guard was here first - they were the very first group to show up in our small town to start feeding people and clearing roads.

[LibLieSlayer]

Absolutely.

LLS

[LibLieSlayer]

Euuuuwwwwwww is right!

LLS

[LibLieSlayer]

You do make a salient point.

LLS

[binreadin]

“Bloomberg showed where his priority was — by saying that the marathon would take place.”

Bloomberg said yesterday that he wanted to be like “Mayor Rudy,” who said the marathon must go on even after the first 9/11 attack. I guess the self-centered fool didn’t realize that thousands of New Yorkers have no homes, water or food, and were going to be tossed out in the street in order to accomodate the runners. This situation is totally unlike 9/11 where there was tremendous destruction in a mostly commercial area in NYC, but most people still had homes, heat, food, water, transportation and electricity. This makes Bloomberg’s endorsement of Obama for reasons of “climate change,” more understandable. How did an idiot like this ever get wealthy?

[LibLieSlayer]

Yes... the gullible are everywhere.

LLS

[Alice in Wonderland]

FEMA hasn't made it to Rockaway Beach but Occupy Wall Street and Greenpeace has.

[LibLieSlayer]

Thay share the same communications port so that would make sense.

LLS

[ridesthemiles]

If you believe Bob Beckel about anything, I have a bridge in the desert I would sell you.

[ridesthemiles]

This is the same idiot who endorsed Obama the other day.”””

Bloomberg gave his endorsement of Barry over ‘Obama’s position on climate change’.

Talk about the Emperor’s new clothes!!!!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I just found out that one of the “new” FEMA changes is (drum roll......) hiring Americorps..... Yes! now we have “FEMA Corps!”

They’re also stocking their ranks with the elderly and substance addled hippies and those who are okay with working only 3 weeks a year - hiring thousands of permanent full time employees who will sit around doing nothing 8 months a year.

The agency boasts Obama-dem voters with starting salaries 85K up to 115-135K plus retirement pensions.

It’s just another way to take your money, give government jobs to democrats who hire contractors (that you would hire yourself for less) who end up doing the work.

FEMA — just another government money laundering scheme.