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September 09, 2005

Good Call

FEMA Director Michael Brown has been removed from Katrina relief efforts. Not that there's not plenty of blame to go around from the federal to state to local level, but. When you make screw-ups like:

--Aid shipments are backed up at LRAFB because FEMA directed the first deliveries to the wrong areas of the Gulf Coast, and

--A FEMA rep asked our governor Wednesday if we even had any refugees in the state. Umm, yeah, just a few....like an estimated 75,000, second only to Texas.

That's pretty freaking clueless.

Posted by Rita at September 9, 2005 12:49 PM

Comments

I, for one, am glad that he's no longer in charge of these efforts. I've read too many stories about out-and-out-f*ups by FEMA for me to believe that he should be in charge any more. There's blame to a number of administrations (Reagan, G.H.W.B, Clinton, and G.W.B.) and Congresses for concentrating too much on pork and not enough on fixing the New Orleans levees. However, FEMA simply screwed the pooch here. I remember hearing an NPR interview where Brown commented that he knew nothing about evacuees in the Convention Center. This, despite the fact that NPR, CNN, and many others had people reporting from that site for at least 24 hours.

The pathetic part was told to me by my brother. He's a volunteer fireman in IL and has had some dealings with FEMA on various matters. He said that this is "par for the course for them" and that the organization "generally doesn't know its a** from a hole in the ground."

I honestly think that part of the problem comes from putting FEMA under the Homeland Security blanket. DHS is massively concerned with terrorist attacks and attacks by foreign agents, which is basically the reason that the organization was formed. Unfortunately, this doesn't leave a lot of funds, time, and effort for plans ni the event of a major natural disaster.

Just my $0.02.

Posted by: Bob at September 10, 2005 08:06 PM

Yep, though from what I remember about post-Andrew in Florida, FEMA has had plenty of problems prior to being under the DHS umbrella. Bottom line, if you are depending on any gov't bureaucracy to save your ass in situations like this, you are pretty damn foolish IMO.

And let's not forget the local/state administrations, who were happy to spend all that pork. They didn't have much of a plan to deal with this either. I think there was a certain amount of complacency on everyone's part that the levees would hold and that the storm damage wouldn't be as bad as predicted. After all, that's been NO's history for hundreds of years.

Posted by: Rita [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 11, 2005 03:18 AM

NOT BLOG SPAM EVEN THOUGH IT KINDA SOUNDS LIKE IT

Hi Rita,

Just found your blog and love it. Trying to find an e-mail address for you so I can ask you a few questions, but can't find it. Probably right in front of my face.

Sorry to be off topic. . .

Would you get in touch?

girlarkansas@gmail.com

Posted by: YGA at September 11, 2005 10:25 AM