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.
WSJ story today included a bit about the 1953 disastrous Holland flood. Said it took 30 to 40 years to come up with a comprehensive (aned didspassionate?) picture of everything that contributed.
Louisiana has always carried the title of the most corrupt state. The rest of the US has finally seen the kind of leadership we have here.
Corruption, graft, nepotism, malfeasance, we have it all, always have, it was just never so obvious to everyone except we Louisianians before.
Overlooking the fact that FEMA is "not a first responder" does not mean that one believes that "FEMA's duty is to respond PRIOR to ... " other authorities. I haven't read every post, but I will concede that no one advanced that theory ... yet.
How many natural disasters have we had that required armed troops to suppress the violence before we could provide aid?
About what I expected. A nonsensical non answer that has nothing to do with the topic at hand. If it comforts you that someone who can't hold a job and apparently has never seen a television is heading FEMA just because he was appointed by someone with the right letter by their name, so be it.
The sexual harrassment training gives me a hint that ultimately there's a lib behind it. The only surprise is that they seem to have skipped the diversity training.
Place the blame where it rightfully belongs.
Do you live in Louisiana?
Not knowing (until Thursday) there were people in the convention center when the rest of the country knew about it for 2 days is inexcusable... especially for the FEMA chief.
I guess it's quite clear the attitude of Freepers on this subject... shut up and drink the kool-aid, or be labeled a "DU troll".
Brown completely botched the management of the federal response. It's time to admit that and fire him. He has little emergency management experience and it showed this week.
Because the media is agenda-driven. They know the facts, but doesn't it sound better to blame Bush and drive his approval numbers down. That's been their goal all along since January '01. Bush is stupid, Bush is a liar, Bush is criminal, Bush is eeeeevvvillll.
The facts are that LA and NO were being "run" by incompetent political hacks who really are the stupid, lying, corrupt, evil people in this world. They had no thoughts for the safety of the citizens that they're supposed to be leading. Their only concern was themselves.
We all saw the deer in the headlight look on all their faces the Sunday before the hurricane hit. This is what happens when you put immature, self-serving, adolescents in charge of life/death situations.
Is any of the media focusing on these incompetents?? No, because they all belong to the same family with an (D) after their name, and come hell or high water there is no way they'll ever indict one of their own.
Well, the adults are in charge now and things are getting done, people are being saved, fed, and housed in clean quarters. Thank God we have George Bush and his team once again picking up after the mess the damn D's seem to constantly be making.
Being this was a natural disaster that had been forecast for decades/centuries, there should have been a disaster plan that went into effect that should have run like clockwork in NO. Why did this breakdown? The naive ones on this forum who haven't a clue and buy into the MSM propaganda, really ought to take a deep breath, step back and look at the whole picture.
There shouldn't have been people in the convention center in the first place. That's what some of you on here don't get. They shouldn't have been there at all. It was only because of the failure of our politicans that they were. Stop blaming everybody and their brother for the failure of the state and local government. It is on their heads. Their heads. They are just looking for somebody else to shoulder to lay their blame and guilt. I will not play their blame game.
Poor folks used as pawns
by: clecdick 09/02/05 02:38 pm Msg: 873172 of 873254
@@Many beleive that Kathleen Blanco's delay in asking for federal help was calculated . Was Blanco pressured by her party to delay her request with the hope of achieving political gain? But Kathleen Blanco appears to have guilt on her face. Did she do a dirty deed? Did she sacrifice lives for the liberal cause? Ironically, it was the votes from New Orleans that put her in office.
Just like Florida Governor Lawton Chiles back in 1992 Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco's refuse to immediately ask for federal help when Katrina devasted her state. Many think it was Hurricane Andrew and Lawton Chiles decision to delay to requesting federal help that was most responsible for George Bush losing to Bill Clinton in Nov 1992. Ading Bill Clinton was the manner in which CNN spun the Andrew devistaion for the nations viewing audience.
I believe that Louisiana's current governor went back to the liberals glory days of 1992 and took a page right out of the leftist play book.
Hurricane Andrew, as you know, devastated southern Florida in August 1992. Though the storm left an estimated 160,000 people homeless, and destroyed or damaged 82,000 businesses, Gov. Lawton Chiles initially refused to request federal aid to clean up the $30 billion worth of damage (far greater than the figure for the Northridge, California earthquake of 1994). It was not until Bush Transportation Secretary Andrew Card implored Chiles to request FEMA assistance that the governor asked for the region to be declared a disaster area. History now shows how valuable the the Chiles delay in requesting federal help was to the democrat party. Did history repeat itself?
[quoted from http://finance.messages.yahoo.com/bbs?.mm=FN&action=m&board=4687220&tid=aol&sid=4687220&mid=873172]
Gosh, what strong evidence you provide...you back up your opinion with your opinion....
And your evidence of that is...?
Too bad you don't even know what FEMA was supposed to do.
You have no idea about the relationship between those two and the tone of the note. No context.
I have sent and recieived inter office memos that might sound differnetly than intended if read by outsiders without a clue.
I'm holding off judgement on Brown and FEMA until we can untangle the web of interactions between Blanco's office and FEMA and the military. If Brown did screw up or fail to plan adequately, I'll call for his head at that point - but it's waaay to early to judge, especially with the Dems circling like vultures over FEMA while circling the wagons around Blanco.
I don't know enough about the laws in question regarding the feds taking over disaster response in a state - but I do know that the governor basically has sovereign authority over disaster matters in her state and has to cede authority to the feds. And, given how corrupt Louisiana is, methinks Blanco ran everything past both state lawyers and the state political machine before cedeing any powers that might affect the flow of graft and corruption or open up the state to federal investigative powers (recall Nagin's statement that she wanted 24 hours to review Bush's proposals - while people were dying).
We'll have to see how this plays out, but the Dems are already working overtime to downplay state and local problems - Hillary was on TV today calling for a Katrina Commission that only examines the federal response - for the dubious reason that the feds declared a federal emergency before landfall and were therefore somehow responsible for everything that subsequently happened.
And Mayor Nagin better watch his back - since he has publicly ripped into the governor, he will be a prime candidate for fall guy. He'll deserve a lot of it, but the Dem machine will try to dump as much blame on him as possible while attempting to glaze everyone else with the legal minutae of disaster response.
"The Red Cross does not have SAR capability."
Did Travolta ? Is that why he got in before the Red Cross?
Emphasis on the word "city".
The city failed to follow existing disaster plans for using city-owned buses to get people without cars out of harm's way. I do agree that a lot of folks would have stayed anyway - but a good number apparently wanted to leave but had no means to do so - including tourists.
The fact that tourists were marooned ON LAND indicates the city had no serious plans for getting out those who wanted to leave.
Like the 9/11 omission was only interested in Bush Administration culpability. Predictable.
Mr. Brown's bio, as posted by me earlier in this thread, shows just how ridiculous your post is.
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