Probably a sacrificial lamb to shut up the complainers.

Some insight on what has been occurring with FEMA and the DHS over the years. The DHS focus towards terrorism has really taken the eye off the ball on natural disasters. The first article is from one of the 9/11 Commissioners, Kean:

quote:

9/11 panel heads rue Katrina errors Thu Sep 8, 2005 02:23 PM ET By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - America's response to Hurricane Katrina was hamstrung by well-known system-wide problems that could have been fixed but went unattended and wound up costing lives, the two men who led an inquiry into the September 11, 2001, attacks said. Former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, the moderate Republican who led the independent panel known informally as the September 11 commission, and his Democratic vice-chairman Lee Hamilton said the response was undermined largely by a lack of command. They also cited emergency communications problems and a failure to target resources at communities facing the greatest risk of natural or man-made disaster. "The same mistakes made on 9/11 were made over again, in some cases worse," Kean said. "Those are system-wide failures that can be fixed and should have been fixed right away." Added Hamilton: "I'm surprised, I'm disappointed and maybe even a little depressed that we did not do better four years after 9/11. It says we're still very vulnerable." Kean and Hamilton, a former Indiana congressman, spoke to Reuters in separate telephone interviews on Wednesday and Thursday, days before the fourth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington that killed 3,000 people. The two said a leading cause of suffering for stranded residents of New Orleans, where officials say thousands may have died, was an absence of clear authority illustrated by bickering between state and local officials. "There was nobody in charge," observed Kean, who said the Bush administration should now require states to establish clear chains of command for disaster situations in exchange for federal security dollars. "There have got to be clear lines of authority because if there isn't somebody in charge, it costs lives. It cost a lot of lives in New Orleans," he added. Kean said the Department of Homeland Security, a sprawling bureaucracy set up after the 2001 attacks, failed to produce two mandated risk assessments to U.S. transportation and infrastructure including levees such as the ones that failed after Katrina, swamping New Orleans. "One report was due April 1. The other was due in early summer. Neither report has been done," he said. Homeland Security officials were not immediately available to comment. Kean and Hamilton both said communications problems occurred between New Orleans emergency crews because of congressional failure to give first-responders nationwide their own segment of the U.S. broadcasting band. "It is a glaring error four years after 9/11. Still exists. Not resolved. There are bills pending in Congress but they're far from enactment," Hamilton said. Kean called on Congress to address the communications issue and to set new risk-based priorities for domestic security by the end of the year. "Those are immediate things," Kean said. "And the federal government should require that states and municipalities set up command and control systems. That can be done pretty fast." But Kean and Hamilton disagreed on how the disaster should be scrutinized. Kean suggested Congress may be too partisan to win public confidence in any legislative probe of the disaster and recommended an independent commission like the panel he oversaw. But Hamilton, who once chaired the House of Representatives intelligence committee, said Republican plans for a joint bipartisan inquiry should be allowed to move forward before an independent investigation is considered. "If this joint inquiry develops to be a kind of cover-up, or is not aggressive or not robust in its oversight, then I'd change my mind pretty quickly," Hamilton said. http://go.reuters.com/printerFriend...storyID=9601266

That was coming from the moderate Republican. Next is an editorial from USAToday, outlining the problems with FEMA and DHS:

quote:

But a deeper review of the agency's history, the records of its top managers and internal memoranda reveal far deeper problems than a momentary burst of poor decisions. Over the past four years, the Bush administration has replaced competent leaders with people long on political connections but short on disaster management expertise. At the same time, the war on terrorism has drained the agency's resources and reduced its effectiveness. Katrina would have been devastating regardless, but those actions turned FEMA into something akin to New Orleans' famous levees — a structure sure to fail when a big disaster struck. ...But since 2003, FEMA has been downgraded — swallowed up by the new Homeland Security Department, created to protect the nation from terrorism. The shift is logical. Responding to a major terrorist attack has a lot in common with responding to a natural disaster. But instead of building on the existing disaster response system, terrorism became a new and largely separate focus. According to a Government Accountability Office report, more than 75% of the agency's preparedness grants next year are targeted to state and local readiness for terrorism — a mismatch to reality. Leaders of the National Emergency Management Association feared the impending result. Five of the group's leaders came to Washington just days before Katrina struck to warn Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that the shift, including more proposed erosions of FEMA's role, was weakening their readiness for disasters. The warning was prophetic. James Lee Witt, the Clinton-era FEMA director who earned rare bipartisan praise for lifting the agency from scandal-prone backwater to a professional operation, says "it's like a stake has been driven through the heart of emergency management." That is where FEMA stood as Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29 along the Gulf Coast. Hours later, and more than a day after he was warned of the huge storm, Brown sent a memorandum to his boss asking for 1,000 volunteers to support rescuers. Brown said the volunteers would be sent for training within 48 hours. Part of their mission? "Convey a positive image of disaster operations." What has FEMA been doing with its budget, if not gauging how many people it would need to react quickly to a huge disaster, identifying their skills and training them to be ready? The path toward improvement is clear. It seems obvious that the FEMA leadership needs to be replaced with professionals. But sacrificial firings would not excuse the decisions that put them there, nor would they entirely fix the problem. http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinio...-our-view_x.htm

So there is certainly the issue of bickering of control going on between the State and Feds, which I'll point to in the NYTimes article coming up. But what's clear is these appointments were nothing but political hacks, and that was outright scandalous for such incredibly important positions.

___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...

quote:

Originally posted by Shakka Probably a sacrificial lamb to shut up the complainers.

So you think he should be head of FEMA?

___________________
Retro ...

quote:

Originally posted by MisterOpus1 Where's the love George? I thought Mr. Ed was your man?:

Rest assured, we've all seen how this administration deals with incompetance. He'll be getting a Congressional Medal of Freedom any day now ... it's a slam dunk!

___________________
Retro ...

quote:

Originally posted by occrider So you think he should be head of FEMA?

No, I think he should be the head of NAMBLA.

quote:

Originally posted by occrider Rest assured, we've all seen how this administration deals with incompetance. He'll be getting a Congressional Medal of Freedom any day now ... it's a slam dunk!

Hehe, I really hope not. It seems that WH actually is a bit closer to the pulse of the outrage this time. Who knows. Here's another article that sheds some more light on a few things. It was a simulation done with "Hurricane Pam" - a coordination of emergency planners from FEMA and the local government:

http://www.montrosepress.com/articl...s/d8cgrb7o1.txt

Needless to say, a day late and a dollar short. The most revealing part of that story:

quote:

"Federal support must be provided in a timely manner to save lives, prevent human suffering and mitigate severe damage," the report says. "This may require mobilizing and deploying assets before they are requested via normal (National Response Plan) protocols." On the defensive, White House officials have said Louisiana and New Orleans officials did not give FEMA full control over disaster relief. The so-called Hurricane Pam plan, which was never put into effect, envisions giving the federal government authority to act without waiting for an SOS from local officials.

Sounds good so far, right? Well look why things weren't turned in on a timely matter:

quote:

The report was designed to be the first step toward producing a comprehensive hurricane response plan, jointly approved and implemented by federal, state and city officials. But a lack of funding prohibited planners from quickly following up on the 2004 simulation. "Money was not available to do the follow-up," Brown said.

Well gee, where'd all our tax-payer billions go then? (rhetorical question, BTW).

Lastly, here's the NYTimes piece I mentioned earlier about the communication mishaps and POLITICAL motivations from the local/state to the feds. Again, Blanco has some blame involved here, but after reading the article you can't help but come away with the feeling that the fighting on what occured was also very much WITHIN the feds. and this Administration themselves. Such as:

quote:

For reasons of practicality and politics, officials at the Justice Department and the Pentagon, and then at the White House, decided not to urge Mr. Bush to take command of the effort. Instead, the Washington officials decided to rely on the growing number of National Guard personnel flowing into Louisiana, who were under Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco's control. ...To seize control of the mission, Mr. Bush would have had to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows the president in times of unrest to command active-duty forces into the states to perform law enforcement duties. But decision makers in Washington felt certain that Ms. Blanco would have resisted surrendering control, as Bush administration officials believe would have been required to deploy active-duty combat forces before law and order had been re-established. While combat troops can conduct relief missions without the legal authority of the Insurrection Act, Pentagon and military officials say that no active-duty forces could have been sent into the chaos of New Orleans on Wednesday or Thursday without confronting law-and-order challenges. But just as important to the administration were worries about the message that would have been sent by a president ousting a Southern governor of another party from command of her National Guard, according to administration, Pentagon and Justice Department officials. "Can you imagine how it would have been perceived if a president of the United States of one party had pre-emptively taken from the female governor of another party the command and control of her forces, unless the security situation made it completely clear that she was unable to effectively execute her command authority and that lawlessness was the inevitable result?" asked one senior administration official, who spoke anonymously because the talks were confidential. Officials in Louisiana agree that the governor would not have given up control over National Guard troops in her state as would have been required to send large numbers of active-duty soldiers into the area. But they also say they were desperate and would have welcomed assistance by active-duty soldiers. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/09/n...&pagewanted=all

More is said further in the article about the woulda/coulda/shoulda situation on both sides. But again I can't help but walk away with the feeling that once a State of Emergency was declared, why the Feds. didn't step up and take over the coordination, as it is made painfully clear on the DHS and FEMA websites that I've pointed out in other threads.

___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...

quote:

Originally posted by Shakka No, I think he should be the head of NAMBLA.

Unless FEMA stood for Federal Equine Management Agency.

quote:

But again I can't help but walk away with the feeling that once a State of Emergency was declared, why the Feds. didn't step up and take over the coordination, as it is made painfully clear on the DHS and FEMA websites that I've pointed out in other threads.

Don't forget the white house press release:

quote:

Statement on Federal Emergency Assistance for Louisiana The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the parishes located in the path of Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 26, 2005, and continuing. The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the parishes of Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn. Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding. Representing FEMA, Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response, Department of Homeland Security, named William Lokey as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected area. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: FEMA (202) 646-4600 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/rele...20050827-1.html

FEMA had "jurisdiction" on Saturday.

___________________
Retro ...

no, Blanco will be given the Medal of Freedom

...and Nagin will be given gift certificates to Appleby's

quote:

Originally posted by Q5echo no, Blanco will be given the Medal of Freedom ...and Nagin will be given gift certificates to Appleby's

Applebee's? That would be some serious fucking punishment. God I hate that place.

___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...

quote:

Originally posted by MisterOpus1 Applebee's? That would be some serious fucking punishment. God I hate that place.

LOL! I didn't even start going there after seeing an ambulance leave from the one here in Toronto...

And as far as Brown goes...good riddance.
There's speculation that he padded his resume to get that position...

___________________
"...End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path...one that we all must take.
The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all change to silver glass...and then you see it...
...white shores...and beyond...the far green country under a swift sunrise."

Last edited by Fir3start3r on Sep-09-2005 at 22:05

quote:

Originally posted by Fir3start3r There's speculation that he padded his resume to get that position...

D'oh!!