Conversation I overheard at dinner last night:

[girl gone mad]

A man, his wife and their three kids were sitting at a table near me. They were talking to a lady in the booth behind me. We came in during the middle of their conversation.

Man to lady: "FEMA's been calling me all day."

Lady: "Oh, so you're going out there?"

Man: "NO. I've got kids to take care of, let my coworkers with no responsibilities go and deal with it."

At that point, the lady started talking about her family members that are working in the disaster area and how inexperienced and "flaky" they were, but how the pay was pretty good.

So, what I gather from this eavesdropping, admittedly anecdotal, is that FEMA is in need of more people, and they are basically scraping the bottom of the barrel. I got more bits and pieces, and it sounded as if FEMA was disorganized. They have the things they need, but don't have any means of getting them to the people.

IMO, this is WORSE than a third world response.

[jobycom]

1. They hired political cronies to run it, instead of anyone who could run it

[Erika]

2. This is the GOP response

let someone else take care of it...much like the Iraqi war. They don't do inconvenience but they do snobbishness quite well.

[KT2000]

3. That explains alot

something is very wrong. The Director was saying before the hurricane that they were ready to go. Then nothing.
Just not very impressive until they military got in there.

[havocmom]

4. repeat after me: Where's the Guard?

Keep asking. Do not stop asking.

[fooj]

12. That's right! DO NOT STOP ASKING!

Where's The Guard? They are reporting on local news channels that thousands of Guard Units are there and more are on the way. Brian Williams said much of the same. Then...where are they?

Peace.

[Kerrytravelers]

5. If FEMS's been calling, than I assume this person is an emergency worker.

You think responding to an emergency would be in their job duties.

Up is down.
In is out.
Insanity is sane.
* is leadership.

[girl gone mad]

7. Some of his other statements..

led me to assume that he was a fireman.

[earth mom]

18. Don't forget "War is Peace". eom

[flygal]

6. This confirms we are living in Bushworld

The haves and have nots. I want my country back :cry:

[I_Make_Mistakes]

11. Maybe the police and fire men are responding to their post 911

treatment. Think of all their efforts and losses and the cuts in dept's across the country. Seriously, if you are a first responder and got crapped on, would you rush into a bad situation, knowing your family wouldn't be taken care of if something happened?

[ewoden]

8. New to here but not to FEMA

In a past job I spent quite a lot of time with FEMA Personnel. Years ago they used a lot of double dippers to staff post disaster relief efforts. Some very good, many a waste of space. I worked in the early 90's in flood hazard mitigation in the upper Mississippi watershed in the early 90's. We moved whole towns. Also spent some time in Albany GA in mid 90's. The Flint River flooded. Bunch of real loser FEMA temps worked that disaster. Real frustrating dealing with them and the folks who kept spray painting KKK epithets on the FEMA housing trailers. Bottom line, FEMA has never really ben taken incredibly seriously, even in the Clinton era.

[Kerrytravelers]

14. Welcome ewoden !

Nice to have you here at DU!

:party: :hi: :toast: :party:

[Speck Tater]

9. That's why I'm not worried about...

... the Bushistas instituting a police state. That can't do ANYTHING right. They'd screw that up too.

[TheDebbieDee]

16. Actually, I was worried about * declaring martial law......

but now that you've reminded me that this is the Administration of Ineptitude......you're right! They would mess that up, too!

[bhunt70]

10. I don't agree about "scraping the bottom of the barrel"...

They might need people.

A close unnamed family member of mine works for FEMA in the field. Many (not all) of the field workers are government retirees. They get paid ok but no benefits(once again some, not all).

As to the response that it's a typical republican attitude that it's not the guys problem and let someone else take care of it, that's ignorant. He doesn't get to go down there and come back on the weekends to see his kids. If he goes, he goes for 7 days a week, 12 hour days, probably for a minimum of 2 months.

Not knowing his circumstances I can't condemn the guy for not being able to go. Normally at the beginning of each month the field personnel call it to make themselves available if they can, obviously this guy wasnt.

I understand people want to turn an evil eye towards FEMA because it falls under DHS, but the people that work in it in the field do some good work to help out people.

[girl gone mad]

17. I agree with you that..

he shouldn't be criticized for wanting to stay with his family. HIs wife clearly wanted him to stay.

As for scraping the bottom of the barrel, I got that from the Lady's statements about her relatives. I don't think that means everyone working for FEMA is untrained, just that at this point they are getting desperate.

[Kerrytravelers]

13. Sam Sedar talked about this tonight.

Apparently, the FEMA budget was cut and basically given to Homeland Security (you know, the ones who show up at our protests and videotape us and take pictures of our cars...) FEMA hasn't been given much money or training over the past four/fove years in Emergency training and proceedures. If anyone has a transcript of The Majority Report tonight, please be sure I am reporting it accurately. I was listening while driving around lost. :)

[ewoden]

15. FEMA has asked for 1000 DHS personnel within 48 hours and

an additional 1000 within a week. Seems that a little bit on infighting might be breaking out among the Whitehouse troops. DHS got all the funds and now have to pony up the manpower.