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.
If true, who's fault is that? Oh right, Bush's.
Just curious, but are you smoking something?
I agree with the general content of your overview "You can't just snap your fingers and make this all happen. It takes time."
Would you state if Rudy, or someone of similar leadership caliber, would have acted 'differently' then the current head of FEMA.
"If you're going to persist in bashing FEMA's response to the Katrina disaster, please come up with at least a modicum of evidence to support your inane argument. If you can."
Where to start?
How about this?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1478776/posts?page=50#27
Or what about the fellow at the end of this article:
-------
It wasn't until Friday that immense amphibious vehicles first carried tons of water and supplies through the flooded streets of New Orleans to trapped victims huddled downtown.
But the questions on everyone's lips remained: "What took so long and why are those people still there?"
Federal authorities had few clear answers Friday to calm a growing national anxiety about the plight of New Orleans residents stranded at the Superdome and elsewhere in the city after Hurricane Katrina struck the city Monday.
"It's an extraordinarily frustrating situation," Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said Friday. "We're bringing in supplies with every faculty and resources at our disposal."
Federal officials have said that same thing every day since Tuesday, yet the people displaced from their homes tell a different story.
"We were stuck in our house for 2½ days," said a sweaty and furious Donna Simmons who sat alongside Interstate 10 outside the city. "Our neighbor took his boat out and rescued us. The Coast Guard said they would come back, but they never came back. No police, no National Guard, nobody."
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff blamed the delay in aid on the one-two punch of Hurricane Katrina's winds and then the catastrophic flood that covered New Orleans after levees were breached by a rising Lake Pontchartrain.
"For those who wondered why it is difficult to get these supplies and teams into place, they are battling an ongoing dynamic problem with the water," Chertoff said at a press conference.
Nevertheless, television, print and radio reporters were able to make it in and out of the hardest hit areas of Louisiana and Mississippi throughout the week, adding to a sense of disbelief about what was holding the government back.
The frustration appeared to have reached President Bush, who flew to the region Friday.
"I'm not satisfied with all the results," Bush said during a stop in Biloxi, Miss.
I for one think the entire post-Katrina response totally rocked. And that's coming from someone who rarely, if ever, thinks the government does anything right.
Thanks Coop
"Do you really want to say that FEMA should have feed them before they evacuated their homes?"
Those at the Convention center were away from their homes for 5- 6 days w/ no food or water.
Oh no, the President was happy as a clam with Brown.... - Give me a break, does the President have to spell it out for you?
Maybe your question should be "Would Rudy have responded differently if he were mayor of New Orleans?"
The heads of FEMA and Homeland must go.
You have lost so many arguments on this thread and yet you continue to spout half truths,supposition,quotes from left wing clueless Bush haters. The last straw is quoting Broussard. Nobody is going to post to you anymore, because you do not get it, you are clueless about Fema and First responders. I spent 22 years as part of First responders and you don't have the slightest idea what you are talking about. Post to yourself last responder, and keep digging that hole.
Aha; troll #2(and counting). In your wildest dreams do you think it's possible Bush may have been alluding to La. "officials"? He intimated as much in one of his talks today. I expect most missed the little one sentence item though.
Maybe FEMA needs to establish a "disaster college" for incompetent state executives. Want to guess who might be the first two on the list? Full scholarships too.
"Stop worrying about the Dems"
Oh you mean the dems that let the communists kill 100 million in the last century? - The ones that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Viet Nam - or do you mean the Dems that invented the Welfare State that sentenced generations of poor to generations of being poor?
Lack of real leadership in a time a maximum crisis for our nation.
His bawling told me even he realized that he ought to have done the same thing.
I would have too. A friend's mother is on the verge of dying and they don't do anything? Something just doesn't compute.
Unmitigated troll language. You're a phony.
They knew about it because it was on television.
I don't know about you, but I don't want to have the government making decisions based on what's on television--the same medium that told us that New Orleans police had shot five contractors on Sunday. The local authorities should have informed FEMA, and they failed, and you're letting them off the hook.
Read 243 and have a nice day too.
And I am confident that our President will do the right thing and accept the resignations of those that were asleep at the wheel.
The Hurricane hit on Sunday - nobody had turkey dinner that night and that means sun, mon, tues, wedn, thurs/fri/
The Pres declared a State of Emergency on Sat and that is when Chertoff and Brown should have went to work.
Bush did not want to hear 5 DAYS LATER that they did not know that "there was a problem at the convention center".
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