Hurricane Aftermath (Political Observations)

[citygirlsmom]

<p>barrons, look beyond NOs, look, listen, learn</p>

<p>People all over the gulf are still stranded, still without little water and food, still after 5 days</p>

<p>Do you think the people sleeping by the side of the road are safe and sound?</p>

<p>Watch the tv…see what everyone else is seeing and tell me its all safe now</p>

<p>ANd remember, these are human beings, people</p>

<p>To avoid the ENTIRE situation- look at the people all over there with barely any food, look at the people STILL hand pumping venilators for medical equipment, look at Biloxi, look at people that got out and are sleeping on the ground,</p>

<p>If you can’t see what is going on all over the south- the hungry, the dying, then you don’t care about your fellow humans </p>

<p>And if you think its okay for those people all over the south to still be waiting for food and water, well, I can just hope you never are in this situation, with nothing</p>

[citygirlsmom]

<p>Oh yeah and generous low rate loans- so someone will make money off of this</p>

[citygirlsmom]

<p>After the authorities in Baton Rouge had prepared a field hospital for victims of the storm, Fema sent its first batch of supplies, all of which were designed for use against chemical attack – including drugs such as Cipro, which is designed for use against anthrax.
“We called them up and asked them, ‘Why did you send that?’, and they said that’s what it says in the book,” said a Baton Rouge official.-MailGuardian online</p>

[citygirlsmom]

<p>And for the entire time Bush was in the state, the congressman said, a ban on helicopter flights further stalled the delivery of food and water/nice</p>

[lizschup]

<p>This is an excerpt from WaPo:</p>

<p>“The roots of last week’s failures will be examined for weeks and months to come, but early assessments point to a troubled Department of Homeland Security that is still in the midst of a bureaucratic transition, a “work in progress,” as Mencer put it. Some current and former officials argued that as it worked to focus on counterterrorism, the department has diminished the government’s ability to respond in a nuts-and-bolts way to disasters in general, and failed to focus enough on threats posed by hurricanes and other natural disasters in particular. From an independent Cabinet-level agency, FEMA has become an underfunded, isolated piece of the vast DHS, yet it is still charged with leading the government’s response to disaster”</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301653.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301653.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>And speaking of the blame game, it seems the Bush admin. is following the strategy of placing responsibility for the delay on the governor and mayor.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[oib1]

<p>This is a long thread and I have just a few observations to add:</p>

<p>1) The U.S. Military (including the Coast Guard) is the only efficient part of our government. Why? There is a chain of command that is followed, there is hopefully still relatively little politics in promotion, and people sign up for the military to serve their country, not to do the minimum amount of work for the maximum pension and benefits. [contrary to idiots like Eleanor Clift saying we have a mercenary Army] I spent a number of years working in Washington running a Congressional Office - try calling the Department of Agriculture after 4:30 p.m. and see if anyone picks up the phone. Every American should go spend a week in a government office - Federal, State, local - they would be appalled. [Of course there are exceptions, but the “system” is rigged against the good people. Other notable exception, NYC Fire and Police.]<br>
2) Democrats will delight in criticizing Bush Administration about Katrina - but eventually the public will get wise to the whole idea of Big Government and how inefficient it is and who put it in place and who is protecting the bureaucracy. Imagine, the Dems wanted to allow the employees of TSA to organize a labor union - it would have taken over a year to fire a truly bad worker.<br>
3) Let’s stop microcriticizing the relief effort - Citygirlsmom - my daughter just got back from Peru and was prescribed Cipro for a stomach bacteria she picked up from bad water, hmmmm, might there not be similar bacteria in the polluted water in New Orleans. Maybe you should get out of the City to the Country for awhile - it might open your thinking a bit. [From the BayerUSA website re: Cipro - “Bacterial infections have become a concern for both physicians and patients, especially infections caused by certain difficult-to-treat bacteria. Take aim at these pathogens with Cipro, a prescription antibiotic effective against a broad range of bacteria. In addition to learning more about Cipro, this site provides information on urinary tract infections, chronic bacterial prostatitis, and other infections.”]</p>

[bandit_TX]

<p>Here is the FEMA/DHS policy.

**Emphasis on Local Response **</p>

<p>All incidents are handled at the lowest possible organizational and jurisdictional level. Police, fire, public health and medical, emergency management, and other personnel are responsible for incident management at the local level. For those events that rise to the level of an Incident of National Significance, the Department of Homeland Security provides operational and/or resource coordination for Federal support to on-scene incident command structures.

<a href=“http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/editorial_0569.xml[/url]”>http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/editorial_0569.xml&lt;/a&gt;

**A Guide to the Disaster Declaration Process and Federal Disaster Assistance **</p>

<p>Local and State governments share the responsibility for protecting their citizens from disasters, and for helping them to recover when a disaster strikes. In some cases, a disaster is beyond the capabilities of the State and local government to respond.

<a href=“Law Enforcement & Mission Support | Homeland Security”>Law Enforcement & Mission Support | Homeland Security;

[alice]

<p>oib1</p>

<p>please do not be rude to the posters who know everything about everything. People are putting their lives on hold here, in order to read every news-site, blog, ap wire, etc. and share it with us.</p>

[marite]

<p>

Homeland security specialists attributed the delay to a series of holes in the federal plan. They mentioned the failure to require that local officials buy proper equipment, the lack of preparation for an evacuation and the officials’sluggish response.
“It’s not as if people didn’t know this could happen,” Paul Light, a professor of organization studies at New York University said. “The Department of Homeland Security is doing a terrific job of developing planning scenarios, ideas, and directives for preparedness. But the follow-through, the grant money, the actual movement toward preparedness at the local level is a real weakness.”
[…]</p>

<p>Police, trying to keep order and direct people to safety, could not communicate with one another. Congress has spent billions on homeland security grants, but pork barrel politics dispersed it thinly around the country, and local officials often chose to upgrade ordinary equipment rather than focusing on things that could be used in an emergency, such as satellite radios.
“Every nickel we spent in New Orleans is now under six feet of water” said James Carafano, a homeland security specialist at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “When something serious happens, you need a national response. Spreading the money around and making sure that everyone gets something is a stupid idea.”

</p>

<p>Boston Globe, Sept. 4, 2005.
<a href=“http://www.Boston.com%5B/url%5D”>http://www.Boston.com</a></p>

[hayden]

<p>Where do FEMA and local/state governments’ responsibilities lie? It seems to me that we on this board have the same problems that our governments - national, state and local - did: no one seemed to know who was supposed to be in charge, and at what point. </p>

<p>Seems to me the first order of business is to clarify these roles, because if no one knows who’s supposed to be in charge, then no one is in charge.</p>

[marite]

<p>

For those events that rise to the level of an Incident of National Significance, the Department of Homeland Security provides operational and/or resource coordination for Federal support to on-scene incident command structures.

Hayden makes a very good point. There is plenty of blame to go around. In the quote above, it is not clear at what point DHS steps in and when it can leave things to "the lowest possible organizational and jurisdictional level when it involves an “Incident of National Significance.” Katrina clearly deserves that level; and New Orleans has long been the poster child of the worst case scenario. Indeed, there had been a planning exercize last year:</p>

<p>Federal Regional Center</p>

<p>

Region VI - Serving AR, LA, NM, OK, TX</p>

<p>Hurricane Pam Exercise Concludes</p>

<p>Release Date: July 23, 2004
Release number: R6-04-093
Printer friendly version icon</p>

<p>BATON ROUGE, La. – Hurricane Pam brought sustained winds of 120 mph, up to 20 inches of rain in parts of southeast Louisiana and storm surge that topped levees in the New Orleans area. More than one million residents evacuated and Hurricane Pam destroyed 500,000-600,000 buildings. Emergency officials from 50 parish, state, federal and volunteer organizations faced this scenario during a five-day exercise held this week at the State Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge.</p>

<p>The exercise used realistic weather and damage information developed by the National Weather Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the LSU Hurricane Center and other state and federal agencies to help officials develop joint response plans for a catastrophic hurricane in Louisiana.</p>

<p>“We made great progress this week in our preparedness efforts,” said Ron Castleman, FEMA Regional Director. “Disaster response teams developed action plans in critical areas such as search and rescue, medical care, sheltering, temporary housing, school restoration and debris management. These plans are essential for quick response to a hurricane but will also help in other emergencies.”</p>

<p>“Hurricane planning in Louisiana will continue,” said Colonel Michael L. Brown, Deputy Director for Emergency Preparedness, Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. “Over the next 60 days, we will polish the action plans developed during the Hurricane Pam exercise. We have also determined where to focus our efforts in the future.”</p>

<p>A partial summary of action plans follows:</p>

<p>Debris</p>

<pre><code>* The debris team estimates that a storm like Hurricane Pam would result in 30 million cubic yards of debris and 237,000 cubic yards of household hazardous waste

• The team identified existing landfills that have available storage space and locations of hazardous waste disposal sites. The debris plan also outlines priorities for debris removal.
  </code></pre>

<p>Sheltering</p>

<pre><code>* The interagency shelter group identified the need for about 1,000 shelters for a catastrophic disaster. The shelter team identified 784 shelters and has developed plans for locating the remaining shelters.

• In a storm like Hurricane Pam, shelters will likely remain open for 100 days. The group identified the resources necessary to support 1000 shelters for 100 days. They planned for staff augmentation and how to include shelterees in shelter management.
• State resources are adequate to operate shelters for the first 3-5 days. The group planned how federal and other resources will replenish supplies at shelters.
  </code></pre>

<p>Search and Rescue</p>

<pre><code>* The search and rescue group developed a transportation plan for getting stranded residents out of harm’s way.

• Planners identified lead and support agencies for search and rescue and established a command structure that will include four areas with up to 800 searchers.
  </code></pre>

<p>Medical</p>

<pre><code>* The medical care group reviewed and enhanced existing plans. The group determined how to implement existing immunization plans rapidly for tetanus, influenza and other diseases likely to be present after a major hurricane.

• The group determined how to re-supply hospitals around the state that would face heavy patient loads.
• The medical action plan includes patient movement details and identifies probable locations, such as state university campuses, where individuals would receive care and then be transported to hospitals, special needs shelters or regular shelters as necessary.
  </code></pre>

<p>Schools</p>

<pre><code>* The school group determined that 13,000-15,000 teachers and administrators would be needed to support affected schools. The group acknowledged the role of local school boards and developed strategies for use by local school officials.

• Staffing strategies include the use of displaced teachers, retired teachers, emergency certified teachers and others eligible for emergency certification. Displaced paraprofessionals would also be recruited to fill essential school positions.
• The group discussed facility options for increasing student population at undamaged schools and prioritizing repairs to buildings with less damage to assist in normalizing operations
• The school plan also calls for placement or development of temporary schools near temporary housing communities built for hurricane victims.
  </code></pre>

<p>The Hurricane Pam scenario focused on 13 parishes in southeast Louisiana-Ascension, Assumption, Jefferson, Lafourche, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John, St. Tammany Tangipahoa, Terrebonne. Representatives from outside the primary parishes participated since hurricane evacuation and sheltering involve communities throughout the state and into Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas.</p>

<p>On March 1, 2003, FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. FEMA’s continuing mission within the new department is to lead the effort to prepare the nation for all hazards and effectively manage federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates proactive mitigation activities, trains first responders, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration.

<a href=“http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=13051[/url]”>http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=13051&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[barrons]

<p>My questions for the Mayor and Governor whose job it was to handle the storm pre-the actual event:
First you did not even use your own massive fleets of busses to provide a means of evacuation in advance of the storm–MAJOR ERROR.</p>

<p>Why were there no provisions in the shelter areas–water, food, portopots, cots, blankest,clothes?? It would not have been that hard to have some advance prep knowing that some people would not leave. My office has food and water for at least 3 days in case of emergency.</p>

[Mr.B]

<p>I saw the tv footage of a group of nurses struggling up the highway, with gashes in their feet and legs…trying to walk to get help…in tears</p>

<p>I heard that two New Orleans police officers have committed suicide, many others have just up and quit…the help they waited days for never came.</p>

<p>Don’t tell me this is the locals fault…they were the only ones there working, while Bush was in San Diego partying it up.</p>

<p>Food, water, equipment and personnel should have been on standby ready to hit the ground running as the storm left town.</p>

<p>Bush’s MO - never admit to a mistake, blame others. His followers seem to follow that same path.</p>

[unsoccer-mom]

<p>Mr. B., you are right! I think W must have taken Truman’s “the Buck stops here” sign off his desk when he first moved in to the oval office.</p>

[barrons]

<p>Nice rant but you did NOTHING to answer my basic questions. Where was the state and local planning? What does the fact that Bush was in California have to do with 100’s of parked busses going nowhere. The lack of provisions in the shelters?? They are the first line of defense and responsibility. The Feds come in after and help clean up the mess that would be there no matter what anyone did. The damaged area is massive and you know what–we just can’t get to everyone as fast as you might like. People have to take some responsibility to prepare and be ready too. I have been through several hurricanes including a big one in 1955 and planned for a few more that never came. The first you do is go to the store and stock up on provisions. Water, food, candles, batteries. The government can’t do it all for you. One backpack can hold enough for 5 days.</p>

[lizschup]

<p>I would agree that none of us truly know who should have been in charge or should have done things differently. I’m sure in the end, mistakes on all levels will be found. </p>

<p>The one thing I do observe though is that Bush was slow to act as a symbolic leader if nothing else. Why did he fly to California and all the way back to Washington when he was literally right next door? If nothing was being done, then why didn’t Bush step in and call someone? Waiting for mayors and governors to go through the right channels is just an excuse. Using the excuse of big government vs. little government is also an excuse and a very disingenuous one at that with this particular administration.</p>

<p>The one thing that I have continually seen from this president is an inability to lead when real leadership is needed. He seems as though he does not know what to say or do and that he only knows when those around him tell him what to do.There was a great piece on CNN.com that showed side by side comparisons of Chertoff reacting to the disaster with comments of reporters on the ground. It was astounding how out of touch Chertoff was. Bush we know doesn’t read the newspaper and it seems Chertoff can’t seem to find a TV to watch.</p>

[marite]

<p>In re: FEMA and DHS (not Bush, Nagin or Blanco):

There’s also this Statement on Federal Emergency Assistance for Louisiana, which appears on the White House website dated August 27th, which begins: “The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the parishes located in the path of Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 26, 2005, and continuing.”</p>

<p>Key excerpts include …</p>

<pre><code>The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe … Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.

</code></pre>

<p><a href=“http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com%5B/url%5D”>http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com</a></p>

[Mr.B]

<p>I suspect the state and local people were overwhelmed which is why the plan is for FEMA to take control…which they clearly didn’t.</p>

<p>Which of us, watching on TV wouldn’t have said get help down their now…unfortunately the person in charge only moves when corporations tell him to. Bush let this country down, again.</p>

<p>Why is it that when someone points out that Bush has made a mistake, his followers call it a rant, but when Rush spews forth his venom it is considered (By them only) to be an informed statesman like speech?</p>

<p>You need help…so repeat after me…Bush makes mistakes…Bush makes mistakes…Bush makes mistakes…
just once a day in the beginning and eventually you will catch up to the rest of us that have to repeat it whenever we realize what he is up to next.</p>

[lizschup]

<p>Mr. B, thank you for saying what needs to be said.</p>

<p>Barrons,
In response to your question I’m using this excerpt from Andrew Sullivan who is responding to a similar criticism from Kevin Drum:</p>

<p>“NO, KEVIN: Kevin Drum wants to say that the difference between conservatives and liberals is that liberals believe in funding organizations like FEMA or the Corps of Engineers and conservatives don’t. Nuh-huh. Real conservatives believe that the state should do a few things that no one else can do - defense, decent public education, police, law and order among the most obvious - and leave the rest to individuals. Funding FEMA and having a superb civil defense are very much part of conservatism’s real core. It’s when government decides to reshape society, redistribute wealth, socially engineer, and take over functions that the private sector can do just as well that conservatives draw the line. The reason I’m mad as hell over Katrina is precisely because I’m a conservative and this kind of thing is exactly what government is for. Bush in this sense is not now and never has been a conservative. A man who explodes government spending but can’t run a war or organize basic civil defense is simply a fiscally reckless incompetent. If this were a parliamentary system, we’d have a vote of no confidence. Instead we have three years of more peril.”</p>

[driver]

<p>Several very interesting pieces in the Sunday papers, two by native New Orleanians who make no bones about pillorying state and local government for their abdication and incompetence, nor do they absolve the federal government for its response. Good perspective. All are worth reading in their entireties. It is of course essential to remember that, between the city school bus fleet, and the NO regional bus service, the mayor had some 650 buses which he not only failed to deploy, but failed to protect. They were flooded in their low-lying parking lots and rendered useless. The governor’s response seems to have been cordoning the city with state police, allowing no one in or out–including rescue buses privately chartered by hotels to evac their clients. First from the WaPo:
<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/02/AR2005090202677_pf.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/02/AR2005090202677_pf.html&lt;/a&gt;

I began to notice groups of residents lugging water bottles and suitcases, heading for the convention center. Hours later they straggled back. At this point my chief means of communication was shouting from the balcony, and I learned that there were no evacuation buses. The city had ordered us to leave, but was allowing nobody in to rescue us and providing no transportation out. On Tuesday evening, my skeletal neighbor Kip, a kidney-transplant patient, waded home alone by flashlight from the convention center, where there were neither dialysis machines nor buses to get him to one. His last treatment had been four days earlier, and he was bloating. We had to get him out.
Despite the orders to leave, roadblocks had been set up, and nobody was being permitted to enter or leave the city. Molly’s, a local bar, opened by candlelight and the rumor spread like wildfire: They have ice. If evacuated residents and proprietors had been allowed to return, to take a stand, some public order would gradually have prevailed. Yet the only advice from the city was to head for the convention center.

From The New Yorker:
<a href=“http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/050912ta_talk_lemann[/url]”>http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/050912ta_talk_lemann&lt;/a&gt;

last week, as both the President and Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, offered bland, undignified, and ill-timed restatements of the obvious about the direness of the situation, you could practically see them thinking, I’m not getting blamed for this! But they were positively helpful next to Louisiana’s governor, who cried and said that we should all pray, and New Orleans’ mayor, who told citizens they should evacuate but didn’t say how, predicted a second major flood, which didn’t materialize, sniped at the federal authorities, and kept reminding everyone that the situation was desperate.

From IBD: I think this one addresses the misconception–which Marite and others seem to hold-- that FEMA’s “authorization to coordinate relief efforts” instantaneously relieves local authorities of securing the area and providing the initial boots on the ground that will permit an emergency plan to take effect.
<a href=“http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=20[/url]”>Investor’s Business Daily | Stock News and Stock Market Analysis - IBD;

No, this is not new. “Where’s the federal government?” is a question we seem to ask more often than ever. And not just when natural disasters hit. Terrorism, health care, jobs, AIDS, avian flu, gasoline prices, you name it — people expect the feds to do something — NOW! Sometimes it’s legitimate; sometimes it’s not.</p>

<p>Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, speaking on WWL radio Thursday night, screamed that federal officials “don’t have a clue what’s going on down here.” Yet, even as he spoke, tens of thousands of National Guard troops were on their way to afflicted parts of the Gulf. Tons of supplies — food, water, medicine — were being airlifted in.
Scapegoating the federal government misses the point. No president can stop a hurricane, or keep people from looting, rioting or shooting at government aircraft. Nor, for that matter, can a president know all that’s needed, and how much, in an emergency.
Indeed, the federal government’s response is almost always elephantine, and inadequate to local needs. That’s why we elect local officials and have local government.

</p>