** Louisiana PING **
[ If you would like on/off the LA Ping List please FReepmail
me and your name will be added to or taken off of the list. ]
Posted on 12/08/2005 3:42:35 PM PST by caryatid
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A senator leading an investigation into the government's response to Hurricane Katrina questioned whether post-storm requests by New Orleans city officials for golf carts, air conditioners and travel assistance were necessary.
Documents released Thursday by Republican aides to a Senate committee show that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's administration also asked for hundreds of laptop computers, patrol cars, handcuffs and guns for police. The flooded city was ransacked by some looting after the Aug. 29 storm, and many of its police cars and other vehicles and equipment were destroyed.
"They struck me as not the typical request," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairing a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing that examined Federal Emergency Management Agency's response operations.
"Are these typical of the requests that you would expect to get from state and local governments to FEMA in the aftermath of a disaster?" Collins asked.
Responded Scott Wells, FEMA's top coordinator in Louisiana: "I think this is an indication of a lack of understanding - this came from the local level - of what FEMA is there for, what we can do."
He added: "We got, literally, hundreds and hundreds of requests like this, intermingled with valid requests."
A call to Nagin's office for a response was not immediately returned.
But e-mails from state officials also released by the Senate indicate confusion over how to ask for enough resources to ensure that needs were met.
"I am going to ask if there isn't some blanket 'FEMA do everything possible everywhere' request," Stephanie Leger, a Washington-based aide to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, wrote in a Sept. 3 e-mail.
"FEMA, while I know they are great, sound like they could really hit us hard if we don't ask for the kitchen sink," Leger wrote in the message to Blanco chief of staff Andy Kopplin.
The documents detail requests from city officials immediately after the storm, including:
-One hundred laptop computers, 200 Crown Victoria cruisers, 300 bulletproof vests, 400 hundred semiautomatic guns, 1,000 handcuffs, 1,500 military boots and 2,000 uniforms for city police;
-Ten gas-powered golf carts to transport firefighters around staging areas at the Zephyr baseball field in New Orleans;
A month later, in October, city and state officials asked for more Katrina-related aid, including:
-A miniature bus for Nagin and approximately 20 employees to travel to Shreveport, La. The request on Oct. 11 noted that the bus needed to come with fuel, meals and lodging. It was rejected by FEMA as "not within the best financial interest of the federal or state government," according to a request document.
-A taxi ride from a Baton Rouge hospital to a local shelter for one person. That request was returned to Louisiana state social services officials for "local action."
The Senate hearing also focused on whether FEMA officials were adequately prepared to respond to the storm.
At issue was a June 2004 memo by regional FEMA leaders warning that their national emergency response teams were unprepared for a major disaster, and were operating under outdated plans.
FEMA has said that the teams were redesigned in May to make them more responsive, changes that spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said "certainly addressed the process of making them more efficient and effective."
Noted Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.: "Look, bottom line, it would appear, from your statements, that FEMA was lacking a plan, communications, appropriate personnel and various other assets that deal with a catastrophic disaster of this kind."
"I can't help believe that trained and ready teams, people who have worked together, would not have made some difference in a positive way," said William Carwile, who retired from FEMA in October after helping coordinate the agency's Katrina response in Mississippi. Carwile also wrote the 2004 memo.
---
(I'm rooting for New Orleans to get back to some semblance of normal, but let's face it, one of the biggest barriers to that is the political bestiary that is Louisiana politics.)
I think they just "borrowed" the Cadillacs ... the Crown Vics were for when they got caught. LOL
** Louisiana PING **
[ If you would like on/off the LA Ping List please FReepmail
me and your name will be added to or taken off of the list. ]
Well, at least FEMA had the good sense to realize the bus that Nagin wanted was for his re-election campaign...
Nagin ping....
I heard that.
LOL
What the hell is school bus gonna do with another bus? None of the other ones floated, what makes him think a new one will?
I say "pull the plug" on NO, open up the levees and let the whole area return to nature. This would have a cleansing effect on the area for sure!!
That would be a bit harsh I believe. Some of it can be saved, and should be.
Nagin, in my opinion, should not be the part that gets saved.
--LMAO@pipecorp
he didnt ask for a limo????
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
