Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA

[donsu]

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3004197


Not long after some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight hours of training, the whispering began: "What are we doing here?"

As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta.

Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.

Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA
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aaaarrrrgggghhhhh

[JPZenger]

1. Very Frustrating

The smart people have learned to go around FEMA. Their best bet is to go directly to a local municipality and offer their help. That is what happened with a group of volunteer firefighters last week from PA. They dealt directly with the New Orleans Mayor's Office and saved hundreds of people with their rescue boats, without waiting for FEMA approval.

[Zenlitened]

2. Well, that's an excellent use for their skills, training and experience.

:crazy: