NYT: FEMA, Slow to the Rescue, Now Stumbles in Aid Effort

[Pirate Smile]

BATON ROUGE, La., Sept 16 - Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Katrina cut its devastating path, FEMA - the same federal agency that botched the rescue mission - is faltering in its effort to aid hundreds of thousands of storm victims, local officials, evacuees and top federal relief officials say. The federal aid hot line mentioned by President Bush in his address to the nation on Thursday cannot handle the flood of calls, leaving thousands of people unable to get through for help, day after day.

Federal officials are often unable to give local governments permission to proceed with fundamental tasks to get their towns running again. Most areas in the region still lack federal help centers, the one-stop shopping sites for residents in need of aid for their homes or families. Officials say that they are uncertain whether they can meet the president's goal of providing housing for 100,000 people who are now in shelters by the middle of next month.

While the agency has redoubled its efforts to get food, money and temporary shelter to the storm victims, serious problems remain throughout the affected region. Visits to several towns in Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as interviews with dozens of local and federal officials, provide a portrait of a fragmented and dysfunctional system.

The top two federal relief officials in charge of the effort both acknowledged in interviews late this week that they too have listened to the frustrated voices of local officials and citizens alike, and find their complaints valid.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/17/national/nationalspecial/17fema.html?hp&ex=1126929600&en=3d1b3e2be5958146&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[aquart]

1. Jesus H. Christ.

FEMA seems to have no plans in place for anything.

What's going on with those ice trucks, btw.

And what happened with the Red Cross? Did they take all those donations and go to a spa?

[Pirate Smile]

6. This is infuriating.

"Up north in the poor parish of Washington, residents are sleeping in houses that were chopped in half by oak trees. The promised wave of government inspectors have not shown up to assist them.

James McGehee, the mayor of Bogalusa, a small Louisiana city near the Mississippi border, could barely contain his rage in an interview on Thursday.

"Today is 18 days past the storm, and FEMA has not even put a location for people who are displaced," he said. "They are walking around the damn streets. The system's broke."'

[Coastie for Truth]

14. "And what happened with the Red Cross?"

You asked "And what happened with the Red Cross? Did they take all those donations and go to a spa?"

No.

They are manning the temporary relocation shelters outside of Orleans Parish -- and doing the relocation work in the "new homes."

[intheflow]

17. The Red Cross money is getting to people.

I spent all day yesterday in Houston writing names on Red Cross relief checks that went directly to evacuees. The place I was volunteering has been handing out checks for a week. I admit the Red Cross was slow on the uptake, but people are getting that donted money now.

[Arkansas Granny]

29. I got a big surprise Friday night while watching NOW on PBS.

According to one of the speakers at a town hall type meeting that they broadcast, the first aid they received was from Wal-Mart! This man (sorry, don't remember where he was from) claimed that Wal-Mart trucks delivered food, water and ice days before anyone else got to the region.

[Beetwasher]

2. I Knew This Would Happen

They don't care, so they continue to fuck it up.

[Lars39]

3. MIWOP

Make It Worse On Purpose. Credit to nothingshocksmeanymore.

[Pirate Smile]

9. That is the problem. The people who screwed it up are still running it.

Recipe for disaster.

[emulatorloo]

4. kick n/t

[Lindsay]

5. This is just inexcusable.

At this point it's clear that nobody in authority in Washington wants anything to get done, or they'd make it happen. I suppose it's their way of proving that government is not a solution in times of crisis. To me it just proves that BushCo has no business trying to run a weenie roast, let alone a government.

[melody]

7. This isn't a stumble, it's a self-induced slouch

Bush can always chalk it off to that "evil bureaucracy" and evade the fact that he just didn't give a goddamn.

[grasswire]

8. think back -- Baghdad in chaos

It's Baghdad all over again. This is the plan. The BFEE and Bushco profit from chaos. More chaos=more profit. It's deliberate. It's something called Hegelian theory -- the Bush cronies have studied and practiced it since the 1830s. Controlled conflict and controlled chaos is the cover for piracy. They're looting America all over again!

[Divernan]

10. Bush/Chertoff/Brown left 900 FEMA job slots unfilled

In five years of driving hard-working, dedicated, and experienced FEMA employees into early retirement or otherwise out of the agency, Bush has dictated that the empty job slots not be filled. In an agency of only about 7000 employees, that is a major impact. Add to that the several layers of political hacks/children of politcial hacks foisted on FEMA, and it is no surprise that there are not enough trained, experienced people left to set up and man the telephones and field offices needed. Please just keep in mind that the professional, civil service, non-politically connected FEMA workers are giving their all. I talked to one yesterday who worked 105 hours last week. That's roughly 7 am to 10 pm, 7 days a week.

As to Bush's promises - we've seen that for years. He makes promises but doesn't deliver on them.

PS: The FEMA regulars respect and like their new (acting) director because he has great field experience with disasters and knows what he's doing. I quote: "The administration hates him because the Thursday after Katrina hit, he told them to get their thumbs out of their asses." Tells you Bush couldn't find
ANY loyal neocons capable of taking over.

[primavera]

15. I hope people are paying attention

I may be mistaken, but my recollection is that, before Bush, FEMA used to have a glowing reputation as being one of the most efficient federal agencies, the agency everyone liked and believed was doing a good job. Now, in the last four years, that's all changed. Gosh, isn't that ironic! What, I wonder, could possibly have transpired in the last four years that would produce such a dramatic reversal in an agency's fate? Hmmm, that is a poser!

[SharonAnn]

25. It was bad under Bush, Sr. and Clinton Fixed it. But * broke it again.

[Trevelyan]

26. NEW ORLEANS AREA BIOWEAPONS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/~~September 13, 2005

NEW ORLEANS AREA BIOWEAPONS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE

RESEARCH LABS JEOPARDIZED BY KATRINA - by Michael C. Ruppert
Tulane’s National Primate Research Center Reports No Release of Nearly 5,000 Test Monkeys or Disease Agents – Other NOLA Defense or Research Projects Involve HIV, SIV, SARS, Herpes-B, Anthrax, Botulism, Measles, West Nile and Mousepox

No Confirmed Information on Other NOLA Level-3 Labs Involved in Bioweapons Research – At Least One Lab Reportedly Compromised
Read Summary Here

[ok_cpu]

11. No Victim Left Behind n/t

[robbedvoter]

12. Uhhh - so this is officially W's responsibility then? (he "assumed" it)

Why isn't his name mentioned?

[Im with Rosey]

18. You are so right

I think we MUST hammer home the point that idiot boy is the ultimate screw-up. A true leader would be making sure this gets taken care of and handled correctly. We can't continue the scape-goating fallacy, we need to keep making the point that it is failed leadership from the top. Idiot-no-brain gutted FEMA, idiot-no-brain gave the job to brownie, who completely destroyed fema, idiot-no-brain can't seem to follow through to get things corrected. Pass the duct tape to the rescue man doesn't seem to be making much of an impact. But everything will be okay because idiot-for-brains has put KKKarl in charge, Halliburton in charge and has told us he feels the pain. It is all BS and until we place the responsibility firmly on the empty head of idiot-for-brains we are not doing our job.

[Pirate Smile]

13. kick.

[nvliberal]

16. It's deliberate incompetence.

When a government agency fucks up as badly as FEMA, then that "proves" the fascists' (that's what I call the radical right in this country) theory government can't do anything right, and therefore the public outcry gives them every excuse to eliminate that agency and privatize those functions.

Remember, we are dealing with not only crooks, liars, and thieves, we are also dealing with cultists who refuse to see the truth their filthy philosophy of Greed is God is a recipe for the destruction of the United States.

[pooky]

19. There's plenty of blame to go around

The problem is "all" levels of Government are to blame. The poor were screwed by everyone !

This is so depressing... $60 million !

"And federal auditors are still trying to track as much as $60 million in unaccounted for funds that were funneled to the state from the Federal Emergency Management Agency dating back to 1998."

They all suck!


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-money17sep17,1,5736422.story

[Joe Chi Minh]

20. "The problems of this world

cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that produced them". -Albert Einstein.

Nuff said.

[milkyway]

21. It's very unusual for the NYT to use a direct, clear word like "stumbles"

in a headline. I don't know if people understand how bold this is for the NYT. It's the lead story on page one. I was taken aback when I saw it this morning. The Times usually uses phrases like, "results have been mixed."

The headline is a slam at bush personally. While bush has tacitly admitted that he was slow to react, the admin storyline is that once bush got personally involved two weeks ago, the general has arrived to take command and everything is fine now. This headline, coming barely a day after bush's speech, is a refutation of the feel-good story we're supposed to be swallowing.

Can it actually be that the mainstream media is finally feeling a sense of responsibility (and a sense of guilt)? This is definitely a signal that the Times isn't going to be so willing to roll over for the bush admin. And when Patrick Fitzgerald is heard from soon, things are going to get real bumpy for bush.

[DollyM]

22. I can confirm that . . .

My 25 year old nephew (and girlfriend) evacatuated N.O. on Saturday before the storm hit and drove home to Illinois where he has family. He is now homeless and jobless and has tried the Fema number hour after hour and can't get through. He at least has family to take care of him and help him but what good does FEMA do if you can't get through to them? Also, my nephew's car was stolen and used to get out of N.O. and abandoned outside of N.O. (They used his girlfriends car as it had a full tank of gas since they couldn't get any in N.O. with all the people evacuating.) The police found his car and put it in storage and now has over $200.00 in storage fees pending against it, fees which are growing by the day. Nice huh, no job, no home and cough up money to get your car out of impound!

[leesa]

23. The real issue is that the actively obstructed rescue and recovery efforts

Why aren't they screaming that part?

[Jamastiene]

24. The hits just keep on coming. How can anyone spin this shit at

this point? Is there some sort of newfangled toilet that Satan, I mean KKKarl Rove, has invented that effectively spins stuff like this into something seemingly positive. I am glad some in the media have taken the gloves off though. That's a good start. Let the truth set the victims of this catastrophe free. If nothing else, I want good justice for the victims and Bush's kind of justice for Bush and his cronies. That's the best wish I have right now. I think our government should rebuild brand new homes, not trailers, for all the victims who were displaced and comensate them with reparations for the injustice of being abandoned by our government. Nothing short of complete reparations will do at this point. Otherwise, I have lost complete faith in our system forever.

[area51]

27. Galveston, TX hurricane of 1900

As another poster mentioned on another thread, even in the Galveston hurricane of 1900, where 6000+ people were killed and 3/4ths of the island levelled, aid was gotten to people w/in 2 days. What Bush is doing is criminal (no surprise).

[0007]

28. Better send junior down to New Orleans again. He seems to be

the only that can get things done. Well, at least for the sake of good photos ops and flowery speeches.

"It is a sad experience," said Frank Link,, who was sent from to Missouri, then to Mississippi, then to Alabama and then to Tennessee - all with the same load of 41,580 pounds of ice that he had loaded in Chicago. "I went down there to help. All I did was get the runaround from FEMA."

I think the U.S. has finally turned the corner into becoming a banana republic.