Chertoff delayed federal response, memo shows

Knight Ridder ^ | 9/13/05 | Jonathan S. Landay, Alison Young and Shannon McCaffrey

[Williams]

I also think the article is ignoring that teh levees broke somewhat after the hurricane passed, so this "36 hours after the hurricane hit" may be misleading. I think the response was fantastic and unprecedented. If it can be mnade better next time, great, but we are allowing "blame" to be assessed for a success.

[Inwoodian]

I see. It wasn't Brown. It was his superior, Chertoff, who was at fault. If Chertoff was at fault wasn't Rummy also to blame? And we know where the buck stops- Bush was at fault. Bush should resign.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

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.

This would be Tuesday. Before the flooding started.

When the mayor was in Dallas and the governor was ???

[ruoflaw]

I agree. It all leads back to the Governor. The Governor was pointing a finger at Bush during the storm but after the storm, even though he came and talked with her in person, she delayed federal help to her constituents.

[CedarDave]

The NO city officials wanted the people to evacuate but local officials on the other side of the river refused them entry into their community via the bridge adjacent to the convention center. The people were placed in a completely unsustainable position with no food or water and no way to leave except by walking on the elevated section of I-10 in the daytime heat. Whether that escape route was also blocked by local LEO's is unknown.

[sono]

Responsibility Missing from Gulf Coast, Bush Took It
by Scott Ott

(2005-09-14) -- After two weeks of speculation about what happened to personal responsibility on the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, President George Bush finally admitted yesterday that he has taken it.

"...to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," the president told reporters at a news conference as he stood next to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who first alerted Americans to the absence of responsibility, issued a joint statement downplaying the significance of the Bush announcement.

"Now that the president has taken responsibility, he can keep it," the Democrat leaders said. "We don't have much use for it in state and local government. After years of benevolent Democrat leadership, most of our constituents think that it all lies in Washington anyway, so they won't even notice it was taken."

Meanwhile, some members of Congress called for an investigation.

"Bush's announcement that he takes responsibility is being spun to sound like something new," said one unnamed Democrat senator. "But we can see from his actions that he's been on-the-take for years. He didn't just take responsibility yesterday. He had it all along. I can certainly confirm that it was nowhere to be found in Congress. Our hands are clean."

www.scrappleface.com

[MEGoody]

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.

Apparently the author has 'forgotten' that FEMA was staged and ready to go before the storm hit. FEMA was told, by the mayor of NO, on the Monday after the storm hit that NO didn't need federal help. It wasn't until Tuesday morning that the moron decided federal help would be necessary. FEMA was moving into NO by Tuesday evening.

Seems like a good response to me.

[kenth]

The lefties think they'll climb up the chain of command.

"THIS IS IT!!! I BELEEEEEIIIVEEE! IMPEACHMENT TIME!!!!"

[cwb]

"Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies into action without any request from state or local officials."

---

Wow...maybe I misread some other threads, but I thought this is exactly what was being done. Weren't the tractor-trailors filled with MRE's arriving at the Superdome "before" the hurricane hit ordered by the Feds? Didn't the feds setup pre-staging areas outside the city for supplies that were ready to go when Katrina passed?

Just what did these people expect when you had a governor who only requested $9 million in assistance and denied needing any further help. Heck, Terry Ebbert said he had the levees under control and that they would be fixed within a few hours.

Don't blame the federal government for not assuming they could ever know the level of incompetence at the state and local levels. I can only imagine the outrage had Blanco had her state in order and the feds rolled in with redundant assistance that would've wasted more millions of dollars...and caused more confusion and derision for usurping her state's sovereignty.

[Eastbound]

"Considering the shakeup of bureaucracies by placing FEMA under Homeland Security, is there any wonder that people were confused about who was supposed to do what? How many DemocRATS insisted on creating the Department of Homeland Security and putting FEMA under it."

I think it was done to establish a chain of command, a flowchart of decision makers, delineate responsibility, delegate authority, eliminate confusion, and prevent a duplication of resources.

Looked good on paper, but apparently nobody studied it. (No 'return' statements in a couple of the the sub-routines.)

[ekwd]

All this is because Brown is gone, so Chertoff is to be the next forced out. The aim is to hurt Bush as much as possible, not inform their readers. Never mind who was in authority. Never mind who was most responsible for the chaos. If they could, Knight Ridder would substitute "48 hours" or "a week" for those places they said "36 hours".

[dfwgator]

You can bet they are going over Chertoff's resume with a fine-toothed comb right as we speak.

[carlr]

"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."

And that conclusion was reached how?
That paragraph tells all one needs to know as to the motivation behind the article.

[Cboldt]

"Incident of National Significance" is a label that does not attach to every hurricane. It certainly won't attach to Ophelia.

As far as NOLA goes, it wasn't until August 30 that it became clear the city was flooded.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1482715/posts?page=20#20
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1482715/posts?page=24#24

And you are right, it doesn't explain how the governor exercised her control.

I've grabbed and started reading parts of the CFR that describes how FEMA and the states are supposed to work together, and it's no surprise that coordination was (probably still is) lacking.

TITLE 44--EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AND ASSISTANCE
CHAPTER I--FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
PART 206_FEDERAL DISASTER ASSISTANCE FOR DISASTERS DECLARED ON OR AFTER NOVEMBER 23, 1988
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_04/44cfr206_04.html

Subpart B_The Declaration Process
Sec. 206.42 Responsibilities of coordinating officers.

(b) The SCO [State Coordinating Officer - Mr. Art Jones] coordinates State and local disaster assistance efforts with those of the Federal Government working closely with the FCO. The SCO is the principal point of contact regarding coordination of State and local disaster relief activities, and implementation of the State emergency plan. The functions, responsibilities, and authorities of the SCO are set forth in the State emergency plan. It is the responsibility of the SCO to ensure that all affected local jurisdictions are informed of the declaration, the types of assistance authorized, and the areas eligible to receive such assistance.

Subpart C_Emergency Assistance
Sec. 206.64 Coordination of assistance.

After an emergency declaration by the President, all Federal agencies, voluntary organizations, and State and local governments providing assistance shall operate under the coordination of the Federal Coordinating Officer. [William Lokey named to handle Lousiana, by Michael D. Brown]

I can't figure out, from those apparantly contradictory assignments of responsibility, who is supposed to be "in charge of what." Even if there was a cooperative spirit, and I think there was not, the opportunities for crossed-wires and miscommunication are almost too numerous to fathom.

[PhatHead]

This is so typical. A few weeks ago the complaint was that we needed to "just send help, and catch up with the paperwork later." In fact, that's what happened. FEMA was on teh gorund in the affected states well in advance of the hurricane. Rescuers started plucking people from rooftops before the winds had died down.

Further, among the criteria necessary to declare an "Incident of National Significance" under HSPD-5 is that "...State/local capabilities are overwhelmed and Federal assistance is requested."

The help was on the ground. The INS designation would only have consolidated all efforts under federal control, and that is waht Blanco declined to request!

[Texasbound]

There appear to be a lot of people on both sides who have to check on an individual's party affiliation before deciding whether to blame him or her for the train wreak that was Katrina. The plain fact is that we, the tax payers of the United States, are going to have to foot the bill for this fiasco regardless of who is to blame. I'm no more interested in defending Republican political hacks than I am democrats. If they didn't do their job, they don't deserve to keep it.

[buckeye27]

This would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. This is nothing more than, yet again, another attempt to take the focus off of the local government's mismanagement, or properly put, they way they ****** up. Let's place all of the focus on the federal government because we didn't konw it was going to flood like it did. Did ANYONE pay attention to the SAME Hurricane in Florida and the flooding it caused? Why then did it come as a surprise that this would occur?

[Steve_Seattle]

"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."

Typical damned if you do, damned if you don't. If Bush hadn't met with his staff, hadn't formed a hurricane respose group, they'd say he was negligent and asleep at the wheel; but because he did meet and did form a group, they're now saying he "marginalized" the system. How I detest these people!

[Steve_Seattle]

"The plain fact is that we, the tax payers of the United States, are going to have to foot the bill for this fiasco regardless of who is to blame."

You're confusing two things. The damage was caused by the STORM, not by any delays in getting supplies to the victims. We're going to pay for storm damage, not fiasco damage.

[Howlin]

And evil BUSH is in NYC @ the UN instead of the outter banks, that S O B!~}

Right. I intend to muster my fellow North Carolinians to riot and demand our debit cards!