SOME GOOD NEWS THE MSM WILL NOT REPORT: FEMA National Situation Update: Friday, September 2, 2005

Coordinated major airlift of evacuees to begin 8:00 a.m. CDT, September 2, 2005.

Evacuees will depart New Orleans Superdome by bus, and be flown at a rate of 4-5 planes per hour from New Orleans Airport to Lackland Air Force Base, TX for reception and housing at Kelly AFB.

Simultaneous bus evacuation continues: 12,000 evacuees to be housed at Houston Astrodome (12,000 evacuees capacity per Fire Marshall); and 10,000 evacuees to be housed at Dallas, TX, Reunion Center.

As of 9 p.m. EDT, September 1, 2005, 10,000 people have been evacuated from the Superdome (1,500 special needs, 8,500 general population)

American Red Cross/FEMA Family Assistance Planning completed. The 1-800 call-in number for family members to call to locate relatives will be functional Friday, September 2, 2005. The ARC website (www.familylinks.icrc.org) was activated September 1, 2005.

Tulane Medical Center evacuated; hospital evacuations still ongoing at Memorial (45 patients), Methodist (400 people) and Kindred (number unknown), 194 patients moved by MedEvac from New Orleans International Airport for evaluation and transport to Houston, TX.

National Guard has a total of 27,000 troops arriving over the next 5 days. More than 70 Federal Protective Services Officers and 100 Border Protection Officers assisting operations in Louisiana.

28 Urban Search and Rescue Teams staged in Louisiana and Mississippi – operations have ceased in New Orleans until National Guard can assist teams with security.

Developed and now implementing a National Communications Response Plan in partnership with industry.

Coordinating a strategic National Priority Plan for provision of fuel to responders.

Rescue operations have never been suspended except for NDMS and FEMA (ERT-A) employees in the Superdome area. They will return once get go ahead from LTG Honore that area is secure.

Currently have lost connectivity and visibility of operations at Superdome so they cannot determine if security issues have been resolved.

Commodity distribution continued - deliveries made to Superdome and throughout state.
2,000 law enforcement officials should arrive today.

Search and rescue continues, although team members have expressed concern about safety.

Public Safety in Mississippi
Isolated incidents, but nothing widespread.
Important to have a strong showing of National Guard forces to deter unrest. 10,000 National Guard troops are being assigned to the area; 4,000-5,000 are there now.

Logistics
Searching alternate sources for meals
2 million MREs are going into the affected area

NGOs and faith-based organizations are arriving, but still having problems providing meals.

8 refrigerator trucks have arrived and have requested additional body bags from FL.

20 distribution sites in 6 counties (1.9 million pounds of ice distributed; 460,000 MREs distributed).

Additional 7,500 National Guard coming into State, working on how to best integrate them into the response.

81 shelters available for 44,258 people; 44 are open and housing 9,346 people.

Have 10 helos available plus 2 fixed wing air ambulances; 60 ambulances; 1 blimp; EMS personnel, nurses, and doctors.

THAT'S IT - I am pissed. The main stream media have moved their focus of only pointing out bad things in Iraq (while thousands of good things go unnoticed), and have switched it to pointing out the horrible situation in New Orleans.

Good things are taking place down there. The situation is dreadful - NO DOUBT. But the all-powerful federal government is doing a lot. SURE - it is fun to beat up on someone from FEMA or DHS if you get to interview them on national TV or radio. You can look cool doing it. You can look like you care and are doing something to make the situation better - and sleep at night in your bed feeling smug while the person you beat up on remains up all night trying to figure out things to really make the situation better.

Good things are going on - I bolded them above. Don't hold your breath waiting to read about them anywhere.

YES - the situation is terrible - this is a disaster. Disasters usually are terrible.

AN UPDATE: http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18566

Critical Commodities Continue Into Disaster Areas While Government Responds to Challenges of Most Catastrophic Disaster in U.S. History

Release Date: September 2, 2005
Release Number: HQ-05-193

Washington - FEMA, along with its federal partners, state governments and voluntary agencies, are all working to keep meals ready to eat (MREs), food, water, ice, medical supplies, generators, and other critical commodities flowing into hurricane-hit areas, said Michael D. Brown, Department of Homeland Security’s Principal Federal Officer for Hurricane Katrina response and head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“This is a disaster of catastrophic magnitude like none we’ve seen before,” said Brown. “It has created challenges that we are working around the clock to address and fix. In the meantime, we continue life-saving and sustaining efforts and directing resources to those with the most urgent needs.”

To date,

15,000 evacuations have been made from the New Orleans Superdome to the Astrodome in Houston and are continuing today to San Antonio for housing at Kelly Air Force Base. Evacuations will continue from Louisiana to Reunion Arena in Dallas, and Lackland AFB, Tex.
2,000 patients have been evacuated from the New Orleans airport. Seven National Disaster Medical Service Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) and 3 strike teams are supporting New Orleans medical facilities and hospitals not fully operational and setting up MASH-style tents. Five DMATs and 5 strike teams are working in medical facilities and hospitals in Gulfport, Biloxi and other areas of Mississippi.
Commodities delivered to date include:
- 1.9 million MREs
- 6.7 million liters of water
- 1.7 million pounds of ice
- More than 600 buses to transport evacuees
As of yesterday, there were 204 shelters with a population of 53,004. This number fluctuates daily.
More than 170,000 meals a day are being served throughout the affected areas.
14,000 National Guard are on the ground in three states and an additional 1,400 will arrive today and 1,400 on Saturday to assist with security of victims and responders. A total of 27,000 members of the National Guard will be deployed to the affected areas.
200 Border Patrol agents, 200 additional law enforcement officers from other Louisiana jurisdictions and 2,000 officers from neighboring states are assisting in restoring order in the streets of New Orleans.
Nearly 500 U.S. Corps of Engineers civilians and soldiers are working on the New Orleans levee breach and coordinating the transport of ice and water.
A Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) is opening today in Bayou La Batre, Ala., and another tomorrow in Chatom, Ala.
FEMA is setting up a Joint Housing Solutions Center to bring together public, private and voluntary agency stakeholders to develop innovative funding and streamlined operational partnerships to address the short and long-term housing needs of disaster victims.
More than 7,000 people have been rescued – Urban Search and Rescue task forces have made more than 2,000 rescues and U.S. Coast Guard ships, boats and aircraft have been used to rescue approximately 5,000 people.

Affected individuals in declared counties can register online for disaster assistance at www.fema.gov or call FEMA’s toll-free registration line 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) – TTY 800-462-7585, hours. Victims are encouraged to register on-line due to the possibility of high call volume. If registering by phone, owners of commercial properties and residents with only minor losses are urged to wait a few days before calling so those whose homes were destroyed or heavily damaged can be served first. Phone lines are open 24-hours, 7 days a week.

FEMA prepares the nation for all hazards and manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, trains first responders, works with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.

"The US Army would have done that; I can't imagine why FEMA didn't."

As someone else has pointed out: It is not FEMA's job to drive busses to get people out - that is until they have been direted to do so by the President - ONLY AFTER the President has received an aid request by the state's governor.

There is a process. The mayor of New Orleans can NOT request aid from FEMA or the President - actually they can request all they want but they will not get anything. Only governors can make those requests to the President.

And just imagine the chaos if FEMA was in charge of LOCAL emergency plans - ALL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT STARTS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL. Then it goes to the county/parish, then the state, THEN THE FEDS. When any one of those has an "unmet need" they request assistance from the next level up.

The process is to avoid FEMA/DHS and the feds from sticking their nose into every minor incident. I am sure that a lot of the people who are complaining on here about FEMA not doing enough would have a major problem with FEMA getting a lot more involved in basic/everyday types of emergencies.

Sounds like a lot of the states' rights crowd have changed their tune.

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Katrina Response Overview