the arrogance of FEMA - they pull plug on Jefferson Parish

[donsu]

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1129096776273280.xml


FEMA pulled Jeff's plug
Antenna unhooked days after Katrina


As if the kick by the deadliest storm in Louisiana history didn't create crisis enough, Jefferson Parish officials say the Federal Emergency Management Agency knocked out their radio communications with field workers for several critical hours on Aug. 31, two days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

Telecommunications Director JoAnn Becnel said Tuesday that a contractor investigating the failure discovered that radio cables and equipment leading to an antenna atop the Galleria office building in Metairie had been disconnected and replaced with cables and equipment belonging to FEMA. The contractor called Becnel from the Galleria's roof.

"I told him to unplug theirs and plug ours back in," Becnel said.

-snip-

The disruption lasted no more than four hours, but officials with Parish President Aaron Broussard's administration said it complicated a desperate situation. The radio failure stymied attempts by Jefferson's emergency managers, in the Emergency Operations Center in Marrero, to direct personnel on the ground at a time when much of East Jefferson was flooding, people were being rescued from rising water and thousands of displaced residents were seeking food and shelter. The storm already had knocked out conventional phone service.

Greg Buisson, a political consultant to Broussard, said that when radio communications abruptly failed that day, contract engineers were sent to check the system's two antennae, one atop the Marreo emergency center and the other atop the Galleria. The antennae communicate with each other via microwaves. When one is down, the system is skewed.

Buisson said FEMA could have added its own antenna to the Galleria tower without fiddling with Jefferson's equipment.
-snip-
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america is a crime scene

[Kagemusha]

1. So that was it.

Pardon me for saying it but, isn't FEMA not adding its own antenna and "fiddling" with the Jefferson equipment pretty damn... cheap?

[donsu]

2. it's also a crime

nt

[DemoTex]

3. FEMA truck arrived fully loaded. " ..all they have to do is find power."

Find power? FIND power? Surely a "fully-loaded" emergency response truck has at least one gasoline- or diesel-powered electrical generator on board. You don't pull up to the curb after a major hurricane expecting to find one scintilla of electrical "power." This FEMA spokesperson, Kim Pease, is either lying, incredibly stupid, or the victim of FEMA's gross ineptitude.

Also, if FEMA or a FEMA contractor unplugged the antennae from Jefferson Parish radio transmitters without their knowledge, damage might have been done to the equipment if transmissions were attempted (high SWRs). I'd look into that, too.

[shance]

4. They were also cutting phone lines - intentionally cutting off communicat

FEMA should be sued, or actually Michael Brown and Chertoff should be sued.