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.
The only evidence of incompetence I've seen on this thread are your posts. Or perhaps you really believe it's "competent" to deploy personnel into a hurricane?
"I am not faulting President Bush for bringing Brown on before, maybe he thought the schlub would work out, but he has not, and should be given a pink slip now.
Check this out: FEMA chief fired from previous job Michael Brown oversaw horse shows, had no significant disaster experience
Mr President I nominate Jabbar Gibson as the new head of FEMA"
Worth repeating
Yes, you don't send the support people INTO A HURRICANE. That is a recipe for adding additional victims.
The people needed to actually RESCUE people were already there. This is the people needed to start helping victims cope and move on. Surely the coping and moving on didn't need to start before thursday morning.
And there would be no "urgent need", since this was a scheduled operation.
and if the hurricane had failed to live up to expectations, the request would have been different.
This is not the same as putting supplies in the shelters, or using buses to evacuate people before the storm hit.
Next people will complain because FEMA didn't rescue people before the storm hit. "I don't understand how they could wait until AFTER people were up on their roofs to come by and rescue them. The weather was fine on Saturday, why did they wait until Tuesday?"
I know. And he is still way off. The whole disaster area is only 90,000 sq miles. Hardly twice the size of Europe's 4,000,000+ sq miles. In fact, there is no way his comment makes sense. He was obviously trying to repeat the comment that the disaster area is roughly 2x the size of the UK. He just goofed...but it ain't even close.
The way the media works, there's gotta be a scapegoat for every disaster. Rule number two is that it can't be a Democrat.
No, it's not the point, no matter how desperately you try to make it so.
The mayor of NO and many other people thought New Orleans had been spared the worst after the storm had passed.
Even into TUESDAY, THE DAY AFTER, stories such as this were being written:
====
Band will play on in 'lucky' New Orleans
BY ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/341842p-291887c.html
New Orleans yesterday was like a drunken reveler on the morning after Mardi Gras - woozy but still standing, and glad that it got lucky.
Even with several neighborhoods submerged, buildings downed and some residents feared dead, the jazz city dodged the worst of what Hurricane Katrina had to offer - and the doomsday flooding, damage and deaths that would have come from a direct hit.
The monster storm lost power in the early morning hours and weakened to a still-ferocious Category 4 by daybreak, but it saved the city by veering a mere 30 miles to the east.
"New Orleans was spared," said Stanley Gedzelman, a professor of Earth & atmospheric science at New York's City College. "It missed by a short distance, but that difference was just enough to save the city."
The shift meant Katrina's hellish winds blew from the north instead of the south, so they didn't sweep a deluge of seawater into the low-lying city.
Just as importantly, the feared storm surge never seriously breached the levees that protect New Orleans from the Mississippi River on one side and Lake Pontchartrain on the other.
But the storm still managed to rip holes in the Superdome, blow down walls in the historic French Quarter, tear apart the sides of downtown high-rises and put some of the swampiest neighborhoods underwater.
"It looks like a war zone, with tree branches down everywhere," John Hazard, 44, said from the uptown New Orleans home of his brother-in-law Bill Hines.
Rescuers who ventured out to the hardest-hit areas reported residents stranded on rooftops and screaming for help.
Emergency officials cautioned Katrina would surely claim lives of those who ignored a mandatory evacuation order.
"Everybody who had a way or wanted to get out of the way of this storm was able to," said Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security chief. "For some that didn't, it was their last night on this Earth."
====
So, how was Brown supposed to know what and when to send help, if the mayor himself and that idiot Blanco didn't know what was happening on the ground?
"I think you better check your days. The storm didn't hit till Monday. The levees broke the next day. FEMA doesn't go in BEFORE a storm. "
They certainly should go in immediately after and they SHOULD NEVER STOP FIRST RESPONDERS LIKE THE RED CROSS FROM GOING IN.
Are you sure you're not simply feeling a bit nauseous from having your head tickling your large intestine?
John Kerry's Vietnam service was impressive, despite all the rhetoric and ignorant comments to the contrary.
Yes, he should have moved them into the parts of New Orleans where the worst flooding was anticipated, so they could be there to help out.....
The Red Cross are not first responders.
Of course I'm sure you meant publicly praise and perhaps even reward them for doing more than you or others around here could possibly imagine.
The following thread strongly refutes your article.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1477255/posts
Hurricane Katrina strikes New Orleans at 8:00 AM with winds at 150 MPH and a storm surge of 18 feet.
As the Category 4 surged ashore just east of New Orleans on Monday, FEMA had medical teams, rescue squads and groups prepared to supply food and water poised in a semicircle around the city, said agency Director Michael Brown.
Brown, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, said the evacuation of the city and the general emergency response were working as planned in an exercise a year ago. “I was impressed with the evacuation, once it was ordered it was very smooth.”
Levee break at 17th street floods about 20% of the city.
At 11:00 AM, FEMA Director Brown arrives in Baton Rouge at the State Office of Emergency Preparedness.
Rule number one is screw the media.
Read my previous post on this thread
FEMA did the right thing. FEMA are not first responders and remember the levee broken on Monday night. Did you expect them to be in New Orleans during the storm? They don't have bus drivers.
The mayor had all the tools at his disposal, police (the half that stayed), buses, drivers, etc. to get the people out. He fell apart and couldn't handle it. HE should be removed from office.
All the initial responsibility comes from local and state governments, which is why people must be reliant on their own and never trust gov't bureaucrats with their lives.
Too bad he didn't hire you. Expert in all things, right??????
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.