Posted on 09/06/2005 5:56:44 PM PDT by bobsunshine
WASHINGTON - The government's disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security employees to the region - and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.
Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Mike Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29. Brown said that among duties of these employees was to "convey a positive image" about the government's response for victims.
Before then, FEMA had positioned smaller rescue and communications teams across the Gulf Coast. But officials acknowledged Tuesday the first department-wide appeal for help came only as the storm raged. Brown's memo to Chertoff described Katrina as "this near catastrophic event" but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, "Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities."
The initial responses of the government and Brown came under escalating criticism as the breadth of destruction and death grew. President Bush and Congress on Tuesday pledged separate investigations into the federal response to Katrina. "Governments at all levels failed," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said Brown had positioned front-line rescue teams and Coast Guard helicopters before the storm. Brown's memo on Aug. 29 aimed to assemble the necessary federal work force to support the rescues, establish communications and coordinate with victims and community groups, Knocke said.
Instead of rescuing people or recovering bodies, these employees would focus on helping victims find the help they needed, he said.
'Time for Blame'
"There will be plenty of time to assess what worked and what didn't work," Knocke said. "Clearly there will be time for blame to be assigned and to learn from some of the successful efforts."
Brown's memo told employees that among their duties, they would be expected to "convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public."
"FEMA response and recovery operations are a top priority of the department and as we know, one of yours," Brown wrote Chertoff. He proposed sending 1,000 Homeland Security Department employees within 48 hours and 2,000 within seven days.
Knocke said the 48-hour period suggested for the Homeland employees was to ensure they had adequate training. "They were training to help the life-savers," Knocke said.
Employees required a supervisor's approval and at least 24 hours of disaster training in Maryland, Florida or Georgia. "You must be physically able to work in a disaster area without refrigeration for medications and have the ability to work in the outdoors all day," Brown wrote.
The same day Brown wrote Chertoff, Brown also urged local fire and rescue departments outside Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi not to send trucks or emergency workers into disaster areas without an explicit request for help from state or local governments. Brown said it was vital to coordinate fire and rescue efforts.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said Tuesday that Brown should step down.
After a senators-only briefing by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other Cabinet members, Sen. Charles E. Schumer said lawmakers weren't getting their questions answered.
"What people up there want to know, Democrats and Republicans, is what is the challenge ahead, how are you handling that and what did you do wrong in the past," said Schumer, D-N.Y.
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said the administration is "getting a bad rap" for the emergency response.
"This is the largest disaster in the history of the United States, over an area twice the size of Europe," Stevens said. "People have to understand this is a big, big problem."
Meanwhile, the airline industry said the government's request for help evacuating storm victims didn't come until late Thursday afternoon. The president of the Air Transport Association, James May, said the Homeland Security Department called then to ask if the group could participate in an airlift for refugees.
Good advice, which I shall now take.
You're confused. He didn't wait until Monday to start moving his people. He waited until Monday to call for back-up, i.e., extra people from outside his department. (Assuming this article has the facts correct, of course.)
Probably will be the only place you'll see it. He's having wet dreams about turning FR into DU lite. I smell troll from a long ways off.
Another comprehension challenged Freeper.
But he interviews well
The guy bawling on national TV about that lady's desparate situation didn't do anything to help her, that's for certain. He had some personal connection with or responsibility for her, and his remorse came out in dramatic fashion.
Seemed obvious to me when I saw it. He kept mentioning the calls indicating that somebody was coming, but he never came.
The governor of LA gave the order. If FEMA was involved, they were just following the fool's order.
That's NOT FEMA's job you ignorant troll.
FEMA moves in to manage Federally funded cleanup and relief efforts that being 72 hours after the disaster. There is no reason for them to move in any sooner because usually they'll just get in the way of local police, fire, and emergency medical staffs. In this New Orleans flood, unfortunately the local police and fire departments essentially disintegrated and did not fulfill their usual role in the first 72 hours after the hurricane and flood. To make matters much worse, New Orleans and the state of Lousiana did not follow their own emergency evacuation plan for the city and failed to use thousands of city buses to evacuate those who do not own cars.
OK, now is everything cleared up? Good, so now you know that it was the city and state (Nagin and Blanco) who screwed up big-time in this hurricane and are responsible for a large number of unnecessary casualties.
Well said girl! This one is neither clueless or blameless. His style and language mark him as a troll. Care to bet?
No real Republican keeps spouting the Horsedoodoo that you have for days on end. Real Republicans care about peoples lives and doing the right thing and not mentioning winning politically ever other sentence during crisis situations. Most freepers are also thinking clearly and analyzing facts instead of going off half cocked and behaving in a hysterical reactionary way. You are a troll, and that hole you have been digging is deep enough. JUMP IN, and have a nice DU day.
I'm disappointed in President Bush for giving the MSM a fairly easy target for criticism. Brown is a good man with adequate credentials, and may wind up with a B+ when the final grades for this test are assigned. But is he the BEST administrator Bush could find at the time? Is he A level?
Another Oklahoman, former Gov. Frank Keating, might have been better.
Reality is a wonderful experience; try it some time.
I believe we are cognizant of the answer on the local level as well as the federal - far better.
I don't think anyone was asleep at the wheel. Everybody in DHS and FEMA is doing their jobs. The problems have been caused by inadequate and incomplete emergency plans at the local level and the failure to implement the plans that do exist. Unquestionably, the city of New Orleans should have stockpiled much more food and water in secure areas of high-rise buildings that cannot be flooded, and then deployed police and fire crews to guard and distribute the food and water. An equally huge mistake was the incomplete evacuation plan in which the legal analysis had apparently not been completed, thus delaying declaration of a mandatory evacuation by the mayor. With a good plan and implementation of the plan, the city could have evacuated most of those who don't own cars using city and school buses. That would have greatly reduced the casualties in this flood.
Which is why it doesn't entirely compute for me. If not an act, then why the hell didn't he do something?
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