You're Doing a Heck of Job Brownie

[tw]

Originally Posted by Beestie

I guess my point is that there is nothing that FEMA could have done in advance of the storm that NO could not have done and done better. FEMA would have had to start from scratch whereas NO knew everything and everyone they needed to know to empty the city.

FEMA's own exercise called Hurricane Pam in 2004 demonstrated that local and state resources would be overwhelmed immediately; that FEMA would have to move in immediately. In that study, it was determines that city and state could not get about 100,000 people out of New Orleans; that FEMA would have to assist before the storm struck.

Futhermore, FEMA is about avoiding damage before that damage can occur. A most famous case is Evansville and Graphton IL where FEMA moved the towns. Other lesser know examples include FEMA's campaign to convince AL homeowners in flood-prone Elba area to sell their homes and relocate. FEMA in the 1990s demonstrated how it is better to solve problems before they happen - which is a well proven William Deming concept.

Such programs were ongoing in CT, DE, CO, IL, MA, MN, MS, MI, MO, ND, SD, WY, UT, TX, and PA when something happened.

These 'mitigation activities' by FEMA were terminated in about 2001 - about the same time that professional disaster managers were being replaced by political appointees.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Pam demonstrated that another Hurricane Andrew scenario would happen if FEMA did not act before disaster struck. Remember, FEMA did zero - no response - to Hurricane Andrew for five days. A famous quote is from that lady county commissioner who said, "Send everything now. People will be dying in hours." Once that soundbyte got carried on network news, only then did FEMA start sending aid. That was the worse case scenario that caused FEMA to change in the 1990s.

As Jefferson Parish demonstrates, FEMA literally stopped and turned back rescue assistance that local officials requested. NYC police refused to be turned back when they knew who had asked for them - Jefferson Parish. However assistance from western NC counties was turned back.

FEMA did nothing effective knowing full well from Hurricanes Andrew and Pam that they had to respond before Katrina hit. FEMA also stopped a convoy of four hundred air boats requested by Jefferson Parish. They turned back four 18 wheelers of water shipped by Wal-Mart saying the water was not needed as people were dehydrating in the Superdome.

In that Ted Koppel interview some three days after Katrina, Brown finally admitted that the only reason they did not try to get people out of New Orleans was that they could not find vehicles. Whereas Koppel then says that you take every flatbed and tractor trailer and haul those people out. Brown does not respond.

FEMA knew that local officials would not have resources to respond to the disaster. But it gets even worse. When local officials organized volunteer assistance, then FEMA turned back that assistance. This has been documented too many times.

Brown did not know that so many people were in the Superdome? Bull. He met Mayor Nangins in the Superdome where thousands were waiting without any food or water. Brown says he did not learn of conditions in the Superdome until two days after he had seen it (or should have seen it) for himself. But then his staff was nothing more than political appointees.

Bottom line - FEMA knew the disaster would only be worse if they did not respond early. Brown himself was bragging that weekend how FEMA had supplies already propositioned in adjacent states just waiting to move. He was braggin about preparations days before Katrina struck. Well how many days did it take to get food to the Superdome and Convention center? Four. Four days to move only a few hundred miles. And then we have a fully functional international airport that remained totally unused except as a hospital in its terminal buildings. No waves of aircraft flying in aid for most of a week. All this because FEMA did not start their response until exposed by the press - including Geraldo Rivera. All of this made only worse because FEMA did not respond before disaster struck. Made worse because top FEMA people were replaced with political appointees.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by richlevy

FEMA is a soup-to-nuts agency. While it does not get involved with every landslide, it is supposed to handle the big disasters that cities and states can't handle alone.

I agree that in the first six hours the city should have had an effective evacuation plan. After that, it was FEMA's show. 4 days for food and water? Turning away corporate shipments of food and water?

You're not supposed to expect anyone to show up for help for at least 72 hours after a disaster.

Mitigation means fema provides consulting services to reduce the overall impact of a disaster BEFORE it happens. Communities can listen to FEMA or not.

New Orleans did not.

The Presidential disaster declaration was made BEFORE Katrina made landfall. This released the resources, like FEMA, to be available when the local government called for them. They didn't call. As I've said before, FEMA doesn't just go. They have to be invited. If local resources are able to handle a situation, that's what's supposed to happen.

That the city did manage to evacuate a large number of residents prior to the storm hitting indicates that there were some plans in place, but not all of them were followed. Even if the busses had been used, that would be one trip out ... with the contraflow in place, egress from the city was possible, reentry wasn't. I haven't seen numbers on how many seats were available on those flooded busses, but probably far fewer than were needed. Lifeboats on the Titantic fewer.

It was a mess, but Brown didn't cause it.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The Governor of LA requested federal help on Friday, two days before the storm hit.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by wolf

This released the resources, like FEMA, to be available when the local government called for them. They didn't call.

I'm pretty sure that's just one of the talking point excuses that made the rounds in the aftermath, and isn't really true.

[tw]

Nixon's problem was that some Republicans were more patriotic rather than loyal. Loyalty at the expense of partiotism is a hallmark of the George Jr administration. But something has happened. What was obvious is, well, from the NY Times of 13 February 2006:

Republicans' Report on Katrina Assails Response
House Republicans plan to issue a blistering report on Wednesday that says the Bush administration delayed the evacuation of thousands of New Orleans residents by failing to act quickly on early reports that the levees had broken during Hurricane Katrina.

A draft of the report, to be issued by an 11-member, all-Republican committee, says the Bush administration was informed on the day Hurricane Katrina hit that the levees had been breached, even though the president and other top administration officials earlier said that they had learned of the breach the next day.

That delay was significant, the report says, rejecting the defense given by the White House and the Department of Homeland Security that the time it took to recognize the breach did not significantly affect the response.