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.
I just wrote them a nice note canceling my subscription and told them they could all go piss up a rope...
"If we are going to ask for resignations we should start with the governor and the mayor they are the real idiots here."
Agreed
FEMA is not a first responder, and has repeatedly stated they are 96 hours away from responding to a disaster. The federal system worked. It was the idiots in the state and local gub'mint that screwed things up.
"I witnessed Brown making the following televised comments on 9-01-05:
5:05p.m.: FEMA's Michael Brown says that any reports of not enough food in the Superdome are incorrect. He said 5,000 people are in the New Orleans convention center and food is being delivered. He said he hasn't heard any reports of widespread violent unrest in the city. He said flood waters are going down. In a news conference aired by cable news outlets, Brown said the U.S. and Louisiana government were dealing with an "ongoing disaster. "We'll continue to meet every need the state puts upon us," he said. source Wall St Journal"
Worth Repeating
Throwing around cracks like "fellow liberal media hacks" puts you in the same mud slinging barge with the rabid liberal pinkos, since they use the same tactics.
Want some examples? Hit your personal ping queue and read replies to them. Then do a search on Spanalot's post and do the same. Those corrections should keep you busy for quite a while. (Of course we both know you have no intention of even looking...)
Maybe Eagle Eye or Jane Austin will be kind and re-post some of their articles and the like for you, but I'm sick of you intellectually dishonest witch hunters. I'm not going to any extra effort.
The facts have been shoved in your face again and again. Continue to ignore them. Fine by me.
I smell hacks, federal pencil pushers that will not own up. This is beyond belief.
This squares with my personal observation that those zombies who have spent every waking hour since landfall watching CNN think the feds are at fault while literate people who obtain their news from the print media understand what "not a first responder" means.
If only FOX had had better coverage, the sheeple would now understand.
Just when we thought CNN was dead, its baaack!
"Keep spamming your lies, need some addresses of MSM outlets to send your resume"
I se you are not familiar with my posts - Re: the MSM and Hollywood, I think the decision to let the MSM/Hollywood icons in before the Red Cross has set back conservative efforts tremendously.
It has taken 50 years to put Hollywood in its place and it is painful to see them handing out tetenus and insulin before the Red Cross.
It has taken 75 years to put the MSM in its place and now we have the Geraldos at the disaster before the Red Cross.
On Monday when the storm hit, the consensus was that New Orleans was spared and Mississippi took the brunt, isn't it possible that FEMA was expecting to be in Mississippi when all hell broke loose in NOLA?
Who stated FEMA's duty is to respond prior to state and city officials when a natural disaster strikes a city?
"Huh, those "icons" bring one personal photgrapher(i.e sean penn) and not truckloads of supplies "
Are you surprised by this Marxist maneuver?
Ever hear of Duranty and the Ny Times and the Pulitzer he won for covering up the Genocide of 10 million in 1932?
Don't you know this is how they operate - by fabricating "truth" Of course the Penns and the Oprahs did nothing but the MSM and Hollywood don't deal inthe truth.
""Nevertheless, it is indefensible for Chertoff to claim that he did'nt know there was a problem till Thurs.
What is your defense of his statement.""
"Uh because NO is a cesspool and the local and state govts. were putting up roadblocks along the way,"
I don't understand your answer - how do you defend Chertoff's not KNOWING about the Convention Ctr problem until Thurs?
"Then why not focus on the The Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and their two Directors: Major General Ansel M. Stroud and Major General Bennett C. Landreneau. They were responsible for refusing to let the Red Cross in."
Fine - lets get rid of them too
We only have to reflect on 9-11-01 to know he would have responded far differently, in a positive way on behalf of his public.
You are absolutely correct. I'm a Louisianian. If they had done their job like they were supposed too...every word since, and up too now would not have taken place. Every murder, rape, looting, the pack mentality, mayhem, I am ashamed of my state. For this to be broadcast around the world is the most humiliating thing I have ever experienced.
This entire calamity is on the heads of the local and state politicians.
We have seen our share of hurricanes here, and never in my life have I witnessed such a grand *uckup by the states leaders. They need to be brought up on charges immediately. They are the reason for the deaths and chaos that reigns here. It's not the federal governments fault. It's not Browns fault, it's not Bushs' fault. It is Governor Blank-0, Mayor Nagin, Senator Landrieu's fault. These are the most crooked politicans since Huey P Long, but he was better than them. He gave electricity to the rural areas, highways, schools, hospitals.
We now have politicans who dance in the street of NO with the dregs of society, the southern decadence particptants. Good Lord, I'll stop, I'm getting on a soap box. It's their fault and no one elses.
"Throwing around cracks like "fellow liberal media hacks" puts you in the same mud slinging barge with the rabid liberal pinkos, since they use the same tactics."
I wonder who the trolls are - these folks are certainly not friends of Conservative Republicans that are openly critical of FEMA and Homeland.
Just an addition: I read the FEMA was prepared to concentrate on LA until the storm turned and hit MS hardest; they then started to shift their resources to MS. And it was after that NO became the focus because of the levee breaks.
(Just because it doesn't seem to go anywhere else: the story in today's WSJ reports a consensus that the big levee break was indeed caused by a barge that came unmoored.)
One thing nobody points out that with all the problems with the NOPD, those had been around for years, everybody knew it. How long was Mayor Nagin in office to do something about it? And the excuse that none of the previous mayors didn't do a thing about it won't fly here.
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