Ex-officials say weakened FEMA botched response

[UpInArms]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitribts/20050903/ts_chicagotrib/exofficialssayweakenedfemabotchedresponse

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.

<snip>

But many suspected that FEMA's apparent problems in getting life-sustaining supplies to survivors and buses to evacuate them from New Orleans--delays even Bush called "not acceptable"--stemmed partly from changes at the agency during the Bush years. Experts have long warned that the moves would weaken the agency's ability to effectively respond to natural disasters.

<snip>

And there isn't an experienced disaster-response expert at the top of the agency as there was when James Lee Witt ran it during the 1990s. Before Michael Brown, the current head, joined the agency as its legal counsel, he was with the International Arabian Horse Association.

...more...

[fasttense]

1. Ahh, leave them alone, they just want a nice quiet weekend

to rest and eat gourmet food in their luxury hotels. It's hard work pretending to care. Didn't you hear bush say over and over and over again how it was hard work.

[malaise]

2. This is what happens when you replace

proefssionals with political hacks and it has happened in every agency and institution that deal with critical life saving issues. They've even fugged up the army.

[oscarmitre]

3. What was that about the downfall of

Rome?

Outsource everything? Put hacks in place? Reward cronies?

[JoFerret]

5. Exactly. Brown is a hack

Incompetence by design.
Arrogance, ignorance and who gives a f***?
Todays NYTimes editorial suggests much the same thing.

Check out Brown's background and "credentials"" for this appointment.
May they all go down, and soon.

[malaise]

9. Correct

nature has sure exposed their asses -for those who did not see this long ago.

[goforit]

4. And I believe intentionally so. Changes to naturally de-populate.

[Teaser]

6. I can't agree with this...

It's not that I think they aren't this evil. It's that they're another kind of evil. It's passive evil. They don't care if these poor and black people live or die. Either way, it just doesn't matter to them.

[wli]

7. They're pretty actively evil in Iraq. Ordering torture etc.

I don't put anything past them.

[cybildisobedience]

8. I concur

They are EVIL. I think that after this display this past week, it's safe to assume that you can't put anything past these people.

[kestrel91316]

10. See, people, this is why we need to gut the government and

privatize all its functions.

Corporations can do SOOOOO much better.