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Chertoff delayed federal response, memo shows
Knight Ridder ^ | 9/13/05 | Jonathan S. Landay, Alison Young and Shannon McCaffrey

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


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chertoff; hurricanekatrina; katrina; memo; michaelchertoff
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To: Bommer

This article is a disengenuous fraud. According to them, Chertoff didn't sign off until August 30th...which was Tuesday. For almost 24 hours after Katrina passed, the media and city officials were claiming they missed the worst of it and had things under control. In fact, even after Terry Ebbert was informed of the levee breach, he said this: "It's a very slow rise, and it will remain so until we plug that breach. I think we can get it stabilized in a few hours."


61 posted on 09/14/2005 10:50:52 AM PDT by cwb (Liberalism is the opiate of the *asses)
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To: Paleo Conservative

Exactly what federal agencies were supposed to act? The Governor was in charge of the guard, which might have provided security, and Louisiana state officials refused to use the Red Cross, which was already on the scene. FEMA has been clumsy in execution, but this does not change the fact that at the critical moments it was state officials who failed to act/or did the wrong thing.


62 posted on 09/14/2005 10:52:26 AM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: Paleo Conservative

Exactly what federal agencies were supposed to act? The Governor was in charge of the guard, which might have provided security, and Louisiana state officials refused to use the Red Cross, which was already on the scene. FEMA has been clumsy in execution, but this does not change the fact that at the critical moments it was state officials who failed to act/or did the wrong thing.


63 posted on 09/14/2005 10:52:45 AM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: GOP_1900AD

It's completely ridiculous that an adult, much less a governor, can say they did their part in asking for federal help by saying nothing more than, "help".

What kind of help, where do you need it, supplies, security, rescue, there are a lot of darned details yet the governor thinks she can say the word help and everyone is just supposed to read her mind.


64 posted on 09/14/2005 10:55:58 AM PDT by kenth
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To: sinkspur

The life and death situationss developed after the levees broke. Local and state authorities then panicked and dithered during a critical 12 hors after that. Besides I am reminded that a certain Illinois lawyer managed to do a pretty fair job in life and death situations.


65 posted on 09/14/2005 10:57:18 AM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: <1/1,000,000th%
This would be Tuesday. Before the flooding started.

----------------------------------------

You are mistaken. The 17th St levee breach happened before noon on Monday.

66 posted on 09/14/2005 11:00:32 AM PDT by wtc911 (see my profile for how to contribute to a pentagon heroes fund)
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To: kenth

The "Newsweek" article that basically exonorated Blanco, admit that she basically didn't know what to ask for. My question is: where was the AG of the Louiaina Guard? Why wasn't he there to give her advise? Or didn't she have the smarts to ask him?


67 posted on 09/14/2005 11:00:56 AM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: RobbyS

Heck, it took Blanco until Thursday, Sept/1st, to finally deploy "Iraqi hardened" NG troops to use in a law-enforcement capacity. And when she did, she only ordered 300 in to handle the job because she was afraid of the political fallout should deadly confrontations arise.

Blanco deliberately let things get out of control because she didn't want the responsibility for the deaths of poor, black people who might get shot for "looting." Ironically, her own Attorney General hepled perpetuate this crisis (and her reaction) when he went on TV and practically justified the looting. These people failed at so many levels it's disgusting.


68 posted on 09/14/2005 11:07:01 AM PDT by cwb (Liberalism is the opiate of the *asses)
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To: RobbyS

It's just crazy. It appears that the only advice she received was "blame Bush" and she went about doing that at the expense of her state's citizens.


69 posted on 09/14/2005 11:14:40 AM PDT by kenth
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To: sinkspur

I tend to agree with you.

Watching both Brown and Chertoff in the first few days after the hurricane and flood, I didn't get the sense that they had a handle on the vastness of the situation.

They were almost cheery in their assessments. If we face a major terrorist attack some day, let's hope we get somebody in there that can grasp how bad things can get.

That aside, IMHO, it was still Blanco that fouled up the rescue of those at the SuperDome and Convention Center. I don't think FEMA or Homeland Security should take the fall for that.

And somewhere along the line, somebody (and I haven't heard it done much) needs to bring in personal responsibility. True, some of those people were poor and didn't have rides, but many, many did have a way out of town before the storm and chose to ride it out.


70 posted on 09/14/2005 11:16:10 AM PDT by dawn53
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To: kenth
It's completely ridiculous that an adult, much less a governor, can say they did their part in asking for federal help by saying nothing more than, "help". What kind of help, where do you need it, supplies, security, rescue, there are a lot of darned details yet the governor thinks she can say the word help and everyone is just supposed to read her mind.

-------------------------------------------------

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.

71 posted on 09/14/2005 11:20:44 AM PDT by wtc911 (see my profile for how to contribute to a pentagon heroes fund)
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To: PISANO

I noticed that too. Wasn't the early news out of N.O. that all was well since the storm was a 4 and the eye did not hit N.O. directly? Wasn't the reaction by all the talking heads a sigh of relief of N.O. missing the big one? So what would have been the reason for launching the response at that time and not after flooding started?


72 posted on 09/14/2005 11:27:11 AM PDT by lastchance (Hug your babies.)
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To: RobbyS
The life and death situationss developed after the levees broke. Local and state authorities then panicked and dithered during a critical 12 hors after that.

The Corps of Engineers knew that levees had broken by noon on Monday, August 29. They also knew that the city would eventually fill with water. Why FEMA and DHS was not informed will come out in the hearings.

Yes, state and local officials did dither. But Chertoff should have been mobilizing on Tuesday, August 30.

73 posted on 09/14/2005 11:33:27 AM PDT by sinkspur (It is time for those of us who have much to share with those who have nothing.)
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To: kenth
Newsweek describes her as "steely." Obstinate is more accurate, because its goes with her well-known indecisiveness.
74 posted on 09/14/2005 11:35:12 AM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: Texasbound
I agree, but this story is hardly exposing some sport of "smoking gun." The declaration of an "Incident of National Significance" was widely reported at the time. In addition, this declaration did not, in any way, signal the beginning of Federal, or FEMA or Homeland Security involvement. It only activates certain interagency coordination of efforts. In fact, FEMA was on the ground in Louisiana before the hurricane, and FEMA-coordinated rescue efforts and humanitarian aid were being delivered well in advance of Chertoff signing that memo.

I agree with you there is not much point trying to assign blame based on party. I am probably in a small minority in assigning far less blame to Blanco and Nagin than many others on FR. But I also believe that anecdotes about confusion, and conflicting efforts, and difficulties getting help to people are to be expected when the disaster area is 90,000 square miles, roads and communication networks are disrupted and nearly a million people have lost their homes. They are not a reason to assume, de facto, that there was an inadequate response. Of course it was inadequate. The disaster was overwhelming. That does not mean that any particular individuals necessarily failed in their duties.

Having said that, by historical standards, the rescue and relief efforts have been phenomenally fast and effective.

75 posted on 09/14/2005 11:38:30 AM PDT by PhatHead
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To: dawn53
And somewhere along the line, somebody (and I haven't heard it done much) needs to bring in personal responsibility. True, some of those people were poor and didn't have rides, but many, many did have a way out of town before the storm and chose to ride it out.

We've all been watching helicopter shots of the 9th ward, underwater. I was amazed, when I saw this the first time, at the hundreds of cars that were sitting underwater in front of these poor people's homes.

The theory I've heard is that poor people didn't want to leave because they knew that their homes would be looted first.

76 posted on 09/14/2005 11:38:36 AM PDT by sinkspur (It is time for those of us who have much to share with those who have nothing.)
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To: sinkspur

They may have been mobilizing since Bush declared it a disaster area. What I don't know and can't find out is what FEMA did during that time. It may be that they were simply incapable of reacting quickly to the exegency. Like a military unit caught facing the wrong direction.


77 posted on 09/14/2005 11:40:42 AM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: Eastbound
Remember Mayor was on TV here in Mississippi(our Media showed it) telling people the levees was under control. They need to go back and show people what he said right after storm. I seen him TV here say that it would leak very slow and it was under control. Maybe the rest of the country did not see him on TV but we did here in Mississippi.
The TRUTH shall set you free and it will come out. If people of La. reelect Gov. and Mayor they deserve what they get. Look at Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (and Gov. of Al.) here he on the job and doing what needs to be done.
If anyone would look at storm Mississippi got the worse of the storm. Ms. has damage from coast to top of State. No one in our county Rankin 3 hours from coast)had powers and much the same for most of State of Mississippi. But to hear Media only N.O. had damage from storm. Even those in Northern La. is not getting covered. We have family members at Gulfport and Picayune. They got out but still have great damage to homes and can't live in them. Hattiesburg, Meridian & Laural Mississippi looks like War zones. Gov. Barbour had our Nation Guards at camp Shelby. South side of Hattiesburg and they had to cut there way to coast.
In our city & county (Rankin the largest county) no one had power. In our city alone we have seen power people here from GA., La., Ark., Penn., and Indiana and they still here working on power. We THANK all power company and all the rest who have come to help us. We have people from New York and many other States at the coast (from family we know this. THANKS to our GOV. Haley, National Guards, power companies and all the churches and many others (also those from other States)we are greatful to all and those we do not know about. I was born and raised in Indiana so those from Indiana are very special to me. The people in parts of the USA do not understand the people of Mississippi, we will make it one way or the other. Mississippi people stand together no matter what. Do we have some who complain yes, but for most part people here help each other and we do not look at skin color. We have lived in many Sates in US and no where have we had better friends than here. We have lived in Ind., Ct., (our home states) Fl., Va., Tenn., Tx., and Mississippi, so feel we know what we are talking about. GOD BLESS all of us and those who will help us through this. As Haley Barbour says we will come back bigger and better over time.
78 posted on 09/14/2005 11:41:21 AM PDT by ducks1944
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To: Conspiracy Guy
I'm waiting to hear what Laura Bush did to cause delays.

Not to mention the fact that if Jenna and Barbara had been partying in New Orleans rather than wherever they were, I'm sure the President would have had the 101st freakin' Airborne in there before Katrina made landfall.

Then again, maybe the twins were behind the explosion that took out the levees, as Calypso Louis noted yesterday...!

79 posted on 09/14/2005 11:43:15 AM PDT by ssaftler ("Where are the Greyhound Buses?" - Ray Nagin)
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To: sinkspur

They were caught flat footed by the power of the elements. Like the manager of that old folks home who decided to ride out the storm because nothing like that had happened to them before. Same thing that happened to people in Mississippi.


80 posted on 09/14/2005 11:43:26 AM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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