Ex-officials say weakened FEMA botched responseBy Frank James and Andrew Martin
Washington Bureau
Published September 3, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Government disaster officials had an action plan if a major hurricane hit New Orleans.
They simply didn't execute it when Hurricane Katrina struck.Thirteen months before Katrina hit New Orleans, local, state and federal officials
held a simulated hurricane drill that Ronald Castleman, then the regional director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, called "a very good exercise."More than a million residents were "evacuated" in the table-top scenario as 120 m.p.h. winds and 20 inches of rain caused widespread flooding that supposedly trapped 300,000 people in the city."It was very much an eye-opener," said Castleman, a Republican appointee of President Bush who left FEMA in December for the private sector. "A number of things were identified that we had to deal with, not all of them were solved."
FEMA contracted Innovative Emergency Management to
'lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans'.In July, 2004, they heldthe 'Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Planning Workshop' it went like this;
Driven by a predetermined scenario, entitled Hurricane Pam, the participants developed 15 functional plans over the course of the week, including: pre-landfall activities; unwatering of leveeenclosed areas; hazardous materials; billeting of response personnel; distribution of power, water, and ice; transport from water to shelter; volunteer and donations management; external
affairs; access control and re-entry; debris; schools; search and rescue; sheltering; temporary housing; and temporary medical care.
The scenario involved a slow-moving Category 3 storm making landfall near Grand Isle in the early morning. In the scenario, the storm, sustaining winds of 120 mph at landfall, spawned tornados, destroyed over 75% of the structures in its path, and left the majority of New Orleans under 15–20 feet of water. The workshop was sponsored by FEMA and LOHSEP, with a weather scenario designed by the National Weather Service and damage and consequences developed by IEM, Inc. of Baton Rouge. IEM, Inc. also facilitated the workshop sessions.
From November 29–December 3, over 90 participants met in New Orleans to continue planning for three topics: sheltering, temporary housing, and temporary medical care. These three topics were chosen by the workshop’s Unified Command as areas that needed continued group planning.
The outcome of these workshops is a series of functional plans that may be implemented immediately. Along with these plans, resource shortfalls were identified early, saving valuable time in the event an actual response is warranted. It is because of the dedication of every workshop participant that Louisiana is much better prepared for a catastrophic hurricane.
More
here.A clear case of 'privatization' as failure has rarely been seen.
Storm Exposed Disarray at the TopBy Susan B. Glasser and Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 4, 2005; Page A01
...Despite four years and tens of billions of dollars spent preparing for the worst, the federal government was not ready when it came at daybreak on Monday, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former senior officials and outside experts.
Among the flaws they cited: Failure to take the storm seriously before it hit and trigger the government's highest level of response. Rebuffed offers of aid from the military, states and cities. An unfinished new plan meant to guide disaster response. And a slow bureaucracy that waited until late Tuesday to declare the catastrophe
"an incident of national significance," the new federal term meant to set off the broadest possible relief effort.
Born out of the confused and uncertain response to 9/11, the massive new Department of Homeland Security was charged with being ready the next time,
whether the disaster was wrought by nature or terrorists. The department commanded huge resources as it prepared for deadly scenarios from an airborne anthrax attack to a biological attack with plague to a chlorine-tank explosion.
But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday that his department had failed to find an adequate model for addressing the "ultra-catastrophe" that resulted when Hurricane Katrina's floodwater breached New Orleans's levees and drowned the city, "as if an atomic bomb had been dropped."
Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security has no access to the
'internets'.FEMA takes brunt of hurricane relief criticismBY MICHELLE MITTELSTADT
The Dallas Morning News
Though disaster planners have long ranked a direct hurricane strike on New Orleans as
one of the top three catastrophic scenarios facing the United States, authorities have lagged badly in evacuating the sick and vulnerable, passing out food and water, deploying military assets and quelling rampant lawlessness. And while the Superdome has long factored in disaster preparedness plans as the city's main hurricane refuge, no supplies were stocked there before the storm hit Monday.
Dr. Michael Lindell, a senior scholar at Texas A&M's Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, said
he cannot comprehend why federal officials had not deployed equipment and relief supplies before Katrina struck - or mobilized to relieve clearly outflanked state and local resources."If it's a Category 5 hurricane, then frankly
it doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that it's going to overwhelm local capacity and that they are going to be in a world of hurt," he said, referring to the storm that fell to Category 4 by the time it hit shore.
"You don't have to wait until there are bodies floating around in the water to start activating the National Guard."Many disaster relief specialists blame FEMA's stumble on its diminished standing within the government and a relentless focus on terrorism prevention by the agency's new overseers.
In a post-Sept. 11 reorganization, FEMA joined 21 other agencies in a new Homeland Security Department, stripped of the Cabinet rank that had allowed it to report directly to the president. And, in a further department shuffle in July, FEMA lost its historic mission of working with state and local governments on preparedness plans before disaster strikes.
The administration has been trotting out representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers to say that they didn't see the 'break' in the levee coming. But nearly in the same sentence they admit that the flooding was foreseen.
But there was a change in leadership at the Corps in 2002.
Ex-Army Corps officials say budget cuts imperiled flood mitigation effortsAs levees burst and floods continued to spread across areas hit by Hurricane Katrina yesterday, a former chief of the Army Corps of Engineers disparaged senior White House officials for "not understanding" that key elements of the region's infrastructure needed repair and rebuilding.
Mike Parker,
the former head of the Army Corps of Engineers, was
forced to resign in 2002 over budget disagreements with the White House. He clashed with Mitch Daniels, former director of the Office of Management and Budget, which sets the administration's annual budget goals.
"One time I took two pieces of steel into Mitch Daniels' office," Parker recalled. "They were exactly the same pieces of steel, except one had been under water in a Mississippi lock for 30 years, and the other was new. The first piece was completely corroded and falling apart because of a lack of funding. I said,
'Mitch, it doesn't matter if a terrorist blows the lock up or if it falls down because it disintegrates -- either way it's the same effect, and if we let it fall down, we have only ourselves to blame.' It made no impact on him whatsoever."Daniels, now governor of Indiana, did not respond to a request for comment.
Fire the employees that counter your agenda. Just another day in Bushworld. Damn the consequences.
On the front cover of the
Mississippi Press, the boldest headline is 'Where's FEMA?' They are still waiting.
Where's FEMA?
by Natalie Chambers
THE MISSISSIPPI PRESS
September 4, 2005
PASCAGOULA — County and municipal officials are asking aloud ‘Where’s FEMA?’
As word spread of temporary housing needs beginning to be met in neighboring Harrison County, more questions are being asked in Jackson County.
Leaders here can only hope that they are next on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s list.
An estimated 100,000 of 135,000 Jackson County residents are in need of housing assistance following Monday’s landfall of devastating Hurricane Katrina, county officials were told by a Red Cross’ national representative. They also need a dependable supply of water, ice, food and other necessities.
To summarize; there was ample warning, plenty of studies to predict the flooding, but budget slashing, downsizing and privatization were employed that crippled FEMA's disaster relief abilities.
To top it off,
cronyism.A failure to protect us on 9/11.
A quagmire in Iraq.
Katrina.
President George Walker Bush has finally hit the trifecta.
Katrina 'Prior Knowledge' Laundry List
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
