FEMA: Sorriest bunch of bureaucratic jackasses I've ever known./Hollings

[KoKo]

The FEMA Phoenix
Reform of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
By Daniel Franklin
Rarely had the failure of the federal government been so apparent and so acute. On August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew leveled a 50-mile swath across southern Florida, leaving nearly 200,000 residents homeless and 1.3 million without electricity. Food, clean water, shelter, and medical assistance were scarce. Yet, for the first three days, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is responsible for coordinating federal disaster relief, was nowhere to be found. And when FEMA did finally arrive, its incompetence further delayed relief efforts. Food and water distribution centers couldn't meet the overwhelming need; lines literally stretched for miles. Mobile hospitals arrived late. In everything it did, FEMA appeared to live up to the description once given to it by South Carolina Sen. Ernest Hollings: "the sorriest bunch of bureaucratic jackasses I've ever known."

Fast forward one year to the summer of 1993: Weeks of unrelenting rainfall had driven the level of the Mississippi River and its tributaries far beyond the previous records. Every county in the state of Iowa was declared a federal disaster area, as were portions of eight other states in the river basin. But this time, FEMA's response earned nothing but praise. The agency met the needs of the flood victims quickly and with few of its trademark bureaucratic tangles. Said Congressman Norman Mineta, then chair of the committee that oversees the agency, "FEMA has delivered finally on its promise to stand with the American people when floods or hurricanes or earthquakes devastate their communities."

MUCH MORE ON FEMA's SORRY HISTORY....HERE...
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:V4x1aPLu5CgJ:www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0509.franklin.html+FEMA+%2B+Hurricane+Hugo&hl=en

[dchill]

1. Hey! FEMA does OK at their REAL job...

drills!

[chaska]

2. I heard some woman call in to Johnny Wendall's show (I think) this AM...

She had worked for another emergency response org. She said that FEMA was known as "Federal Experts, My Ass". The implication being, of course, that they're a buncha jackasses.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

3. Andrew was under

poppy's watch. It's actually part of the reason he didn't get re-elected. Floridians thought he didn't care about them. In the summer of '93, Clinton was in charge.

Coincidence? I think not.

best

[Island Blue]

4. I think you are EXACTLY right

and I think it's what we need to be stressing - it's not the agency itself, it's the person(s) in charge of the agency AND the person in charge of the White House! If we start blaming the agency itself, the Neocons will have won and you can bet FEMA and many other federal agencies will be privatized before you can say boo.

[KoKo]

9. You said it!...I was around then...Poppy LOST because of Hurricanes &

not "giving a shit." His helicopter "fly over" of Charleston Area which was Devastated caused even Red State SC'linians to find him disgusting...and Andrew sealed his fate.

If anyone had access to Poppies Video's about Hurrican Relief ...you would find it an interesting comparison to his Idiot Son's. "DIM SUN"..."Dim SUN..."

How many times can I repeat this. I think that Bush II must have been CLONED from Bush I...neither can speak a coherent sentence...and neither have any compassion or empathy/sympathy with the AMERICA they Govern.

It makes me ill to have live through BOTH FATHER AND SON. Gibbering, idiots who mangle syntax and are FOOLS but the "powers that BE" somehow figure that we Americans are so "simple minded" that we get what we diserve.

Oh...give the the "Peasants with Pitchforks Storming the Bastille...any day compared to this Hell we live in...those of us who care about America...the PATRIOTS..

[Bryn]

5. "WHERE THE HELL IS THE CAVALRY?"

The famous saying of Kate who was the director of Emergency or something like that in Miami 3 days after Hurricane Andrew struck in 1992. Bush, Sr was the President at that time. I was there and I'll never forget it.

[Bryn]

7. Found It!!

10 years ago, her angry plea got hurricane aid moving


Three days after Andrew, an official's bluntness stirred Washington into action.


By BILL ADAIR, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 20, 2002
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three days after Hurricane Andrew struck, thousands of people in south Dade County were desperate for food and water. They swarmed the few relief trucks that arrived, but many left empty-handed.

Andrew had been the most destructive natural disaster in U.S. history and the federal government was nowhere in sight.

Then Kate Hale spoke up.

"Where in the hell is the cavalry on this one?" Dade's emergency management director asked at a news conference, her voice filled with exasperation. "They keep saying we're going to get supplies. For God's sake, where are they?"

Within hours, the feds sprang into action. President Bush ordered the Army to send mobile kitchens and build a massive tent city.

[JuniperLea]

6. FEMA did a good job when my sister's house burned down

during the Lake Arrowhead, CA fires in '03. Someone else must have been in charge then I suppose.

[KoKo]

8. '03 is Bush Regime...but it could be that FEMA is good with small disaster

and not Massive Disaster? :shrug:

I'm glad you had a good experience with it through your sister, though.

But, what about ALL THESE PEOPLE. It might mean that so much goes beyond what FEMA can do. The Libertarians would say...drown Govt. in a bathtub...Let people fend for their own...and in the end they will come out better than when Government takes hold of their lives.

But ...if you lived in New Orleans and didn't get out...what would you think of Norquist. I guess a "crass person" could say...You Chose to Live HERE given that it was of Huge Risk...NOW YOU MUST DIE FOR YOUR CHOICE...and be glad you enjoyed your time of FUN in "NO."

Maybe that's true. The choices we make can lead us down paths that aren't safe and we take the consequences of our actions, for our choice to live in "unsafe/unstable areas."

BUT...we pay huge taxes to the Feds...assuming they are protecting our decisions about where we live...and they owe us something?

It's a hard choice.

[stickdog]

10. Before the election, don't you know,

They also handed out money like candy in 2004 in Florida.

Wonder why?

[KoKo]

11. Yes...Jeb got mega bucks but those who suffered Five Fla. Hurricanes....

what did they get. "FEMA TRAILOR PARK, FOREVER."

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

12. dumbya was really fast at rushing to the rescue

in Florida, but Louisiana can go suck rocks. Probably, jebbie told dumbya what to do & dumbya told FEMA to give them whatever they needed.

His compassionate conservatism ran out by the time Katrina came around.

I know people are putting these together. I heard it last night when DH & I went out: Florida got buckets of cash & Louisiana got buckets of shit.