Can FEMA do anything right?!! Look at this list!

[peabody71]

My personal opinion is that this was strictly political.
I hate to say it but the White House wanted a Democratic political fallout in Louisiana. God lets hope it backfires.

Just take a look at this list:

FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/84aa35cc-1da8-11da-b40b-00000e2511c8.html

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/5/105538/7048

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspecial/05blame.html?ex=1283572800&en=1d14ebfbd942a7d0&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspecial/05blame.html?ex=1283572800&en=1d14ebfbd942a7d0&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15147862&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=68561&rfi=6

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/171718/0826

FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509040369sep04,1,4144825.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050902daley,1,2011979.story?coll=chi-news-hed

FEMA turns away generators
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html

FEMA: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond"
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18470


That last one is real ---not satire but straight from FEMA's website.

[stillcool]

1. Wow...another bookmark...thanks!!!

so many bookmarks...in so little time...

[peabody71]

2. It's almost impossible to believe.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Good job, Peabody.

This removes any doubt that FEMA is in charge.

[mopinko]

4. they are mad as hatters

all of them. nuts attract nuts. megalomaniacs attract sickos.
:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[DemsUnited]

5. I'm worried about the last link ...look at the whole thing.

Could be used to blame State & Local Governments

-------------------------
First Responders Urged Not To Respond To Hurricane Impact Areas Unless Dispatched By State, Local Authorities

Release Date: August 29, 2005
Release Number: HQ-05-174

WASHINGTON D.C. -- Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response and head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), today urged all fire and emergency services departments not to respond to counties and states affected by Hurricane Katrina without being requested and lawfully dispatched by state and local authorities under mutual aid agreements and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.

“The response to Hurricane Katrina must be well coordinated between federal, state and local officials to most effectively protect life and property,” Brown said. “We appreciate the willingness and generosity of our Nation’s first responders to deploy during disasters. But such efforts must be coordinated so that fire-rescue efforts are the most effective possible.”

The U.S. Fire Administration, part of FEMA, asks that fire and emergency services organizations remain in contact with their local and state emergency management agency officials for updates on requirements in the affected areas.

“It is critical that fire and emergency departments across the country remain in their jurisdictions until such time as the affected states request assistance,” said U.S. Fire Administrator R. David Paulison. “State and local mutual aid agreements are in place as is the Emergency Management Assistance Compact and those mechanisms will be used to request and task resources needed in the affected areas.”

Paulison said the National Incident Management System is being used during the response to Hurricane Katrina and that self-dispatching volunteer assistance could significantly complicate the response and recovery effort.

FEMA prepares the nation for all hazards and manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, trains first responders, works with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.

[SeanQ]

7. So the mayor of New Orleans is supposed to call

around to other cities and states asking for help?!?

"Hello, is this the Chicago Fire Department Chiefs office? This is Nagin down New Orleans. Do y'all have a few emergency response resources you could send our way? Maybe a few EMT's, with vehicles and equipment. And load them up with food and water please"

...

"Hello, Arkansas National Guard? This is Nagin, mayor of New Orleans. I hear tell y'all have a few Humvee's equipped with snorkels you been told to stay put with 'till I called. Well, if you could fill all the Hummers you can spare with food, water and first aid supplies with two or three well armed guardsmen each and send them on down we would right appreciate it!"

WTF!?!?!

The most useful thing FEMA could do is just act as a central point of organization for not just federal resources but volunteers as well. Set up a command post in N.O.. Comm's personnel there receives notes from Mayor etc. in N.O. - "We still have ~20,000 people stranded to rescue - we need more boats and/or helicopters, as well as trained search & rescue professionals or we are going to loose a lot more lives", "We have ~40,000 people we need to evacuate ASAP. We need sufficient supplies to feed and hydrate them for say 4 days while we evacuate them. Recommended assembly and pick-up positions are x, y and z", yada yada. Those needs are communicated to central command, staff there look at those requests and say "OK, we have a 70 unit urban S&R team just hit the ground in Houston. Dispatch them to point Y in N.O. and inform personnel there they are on their way. Make sure the S&R team get a direct contact # for the N.O. comms center to keep them updated on ETA".

It just doesn't seem like fucking rocket science to me. How about hiring ex-military supply chain personnel as the core staff? I bet there would be a pool of retired military personnel who would be happy to be reservists for just this sort of duty.

...

Oh yeah, if they offered reservist duty for this maybe they would have been called up to Iraq. :(

[Peace Patriot]

9. This is just Brown's bullshit. It's cover for slowing everything up,

and delaying aid, until Bush could strongarm Gov. Blanco into turning over all authority to the Feds, so the Bushites can better loot the new FEMA funds, and the donation funds from many generous countries, get Halliburton the first contract, and start assessing real estate--for their final looting of our federal treasury, and creation of a high-security enclave for the rich, in NO, near sources of oil, after they got rid of all the poor.

You don't WAIT in an emergency like this, with a whole city going down, and thousands of people dying. You just DON'T. You get your people on the road, into airplanes, GETTING there--THEN you do the paper work. Jeez, this guy is so full of shit.

"...urged all fire and emergency services departments *NOT TO RESPOND* to counties and states affected by Hurricane Katrina without being requested and lawfully dispatched...". (emphasis added)

"It is critical that fire and emergency departments across the country REMAIN IN THEIR JURISDICTIONS until such time...".

That is bullshit!!!!

[dogday]

28. Since the Governor wrote to the President on the 28th August

and specifically asked for help. We are talking about Brownie-the horse trainer. He either does not know what the President's office knew on purpose or just by ignorance...

[soup]

46. The letter was dated August 27th.

Not that it matters one whole hell of a lot in this fiasco of gargantuan proportions - other than it gave them one more full day to make preparations.

>Pursuant to 44 CFR § 206.35, I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster. I am specifically requesting emergency protective measures, direct Federal Assistance, Individual and Household Program (IHP) assistance, Special Needs Program assistance, and debris removal.<
http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=976

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

6. Under Clinton they could. This is a snip from yesterday's LA Times

FEMA was created in 1979 in response to criticism about Washington's fragmented reaction to a series of disasters, including Hurricane Camille, which devastated the Mississippi coast 10 years earlier. The agency was rocked by scandal in the 1980s and turned in such a poor performance after Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida in 1992 that President George H.W. Bush is thought to have lost votes as a result.

But according to a variety of former officials and outside experts, the agency experienced a renaissance under President Clinton's director, James Lee Witt, speedily responding to the 1993 Mississippi flood, the 1994 Northridge earthquake and other disasters.

Witt's biggest change was to get FEMA to focus on reducing risks ahead of disasters and funding local prevention programs.

After the 1993 flood, for instance, Witt's agency bought homes and businesses nearest the water and moved their occupants to safer locations. The result in one Illinois town was that although more than 400 people applied for disaster aid after the flood, only 11 needed to apply two years later when the river again jumped its banks.

"He got communities to take practical steps like encouraging homeowners to bolt buildings to foundations in earthquake-prone areas and elevate living space in flood-prone ones," said Howard Kunreuther, co-director of the Wharton Risk Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

[rainbow4321]

8. Here's another one....

Would-be rescuers cool their heels (FEMA urban search/rescue stuck in Dallas)

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/katrina/stories/090605dnmetkatfema.d400626.html

Since Friday, they have been sitting tight at the luxury hotel with members of five other teams of specialists...

"We've been trying like hell to get out of here," said Battalion Chief Hawkins, one of the Orange County task force leaders.

[Doctor_J]

10. What makes you think these were errors?

An array like like can't be just "mistakes" - this was willful, prosecutable negligence.

[mzteris]

11. Turned away state of the art MEDICAL HELP!!

Katrina medical help held up by red tape
Doctors waiting to treat victims in tax-funded, state-of-the-art unit

Monday, September 5, 2005; Posted: 12:16 p.m. EDT (16:16 GMT)

. . . "The bell was rung, the e-mails were sent off. ...We all got off work and deployed," said one of the frustrated surgeons, Dr. Preston "Chip" Rich of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "We have tried so hard to do the right thing. It took us 30 hours to get here," he said. That government officials can't straighten out the mess and get them assigned to a relief effort now that they're just a few miles away "is just mind-boggling," he said.

While the doctors wait, the first signs of disease began to emerge Saturday: A Mississippi shelter was closed after 20 residents got sick with dysentery, probably from drinking contaminated water. . .



. . . As they talked with Mississippi officials about prospects of helping out there, other doctors complained that their offers of help also were turned away.

A primary care physician from Ohio called and e-mailed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after seeing a notice on the American Medical Association's Web site about volunteer doctors being needed. An e-mail reply told him to watch CNN that night, where U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt was to announce a Web address for doctors to enter their names in a database. "How crazy is that?" he complained in an e-mail to his daughter.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/09/04/katrina.sick.redtape.ap/

[Wordie]

30. Jeez! And all the while the Admin talking heads are going on and on about

how its people helping people, faith-based groups, etc., who can really make the difference. Leaving the argument of who is ultimately responsible for protecting us for just a moment, here is the question that comes to my mind:

If the Feds are preventing the non-governmental rescuers from getting there, and yet they aren't doing anything either, then how in the world can they blame it on the states and local mayors?

And all this stuff of waiting until the local authorities made specific requests (proper forms filled out in triplicate, perhaps?) sounds to me like some sadistic twisted up game of "Mother, May I?" that the feds were playing. I myself, heard on the news, Nagin was making DESPERATE pleas for assistance. Were those pleas not in the proper format? Jeez!

Edited to add: This thread has my vote!

[peabody71]

12. PLEASE NOMINATE!!

This cannot be ignored.

[Peace Patriot]

13. And wasn't there a big group of doctors that got turned away, or it

took endless time to get them assigned and at work with the victims? I don't have the link, but I'll look for it. It might be in the Katrina timeline.

Oh, I see, someone just posted it above!

--------

The chaos in Louisiana is no more of a mistake than the chaos in Iraq was and is--from the initial looting of Baghdad, the insufficient troops to keep order, and the critical water and electrical power problems, to the chaos of the insurgency.

In both cases, the purpose is to create conditions for grandscale looting by the Bushites and their criminal accomplices.

There may be some small comfort in this--that they are really not interested in empire, or ideology, or functioning governments and societies of any kind, even fascist ones. They are only looking for, and creating, opportunities for thievery--for draining our federal coffers dry, for quickly grabbing all resources, for amassing money and property--and in the case of NO, control over property (by federal fiat, by confiscation, by imminent domain, etc.). They don't have the organization, the desire for order, the ambition or the competence to run governments or transform societies (a la the Third Reich). They are just a gang of murderous thieves.

And our military and intelligence establishments aren't going to take this much longer. The Bushites have inspired no loyalty there--because the Bushites are empty people who have no beliefs, just pure self-interest and greed. They have rewarded toadyism, and have punished the best and the brightest. And they have brought disgrace on the military in many ways--with things like their torture and imprisonment violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions, and their starting an unjust war and then understaffing it, so that the military can't even win it, let alone pull out with any honor in tact. They have not given people in public service, especially the military, any reason to respect or follow them. And they have utterly abused the troops and the national guard.

This is unlike Nazi Germany, or the Stalin regime. The Bushites purpose is not the same or even similar. It is not empire or ideology. Their purpose is THEFT.

At first I thought that their destruction of morale in the gov't is what caused the utter incompetence in Louisiana. I don't think that now. I think they had the very deliberate motive of creating chaos in order to profit from the disaster. They've done it three times now--9/11, Iraq and Louisiana. Each time, the profiteers are the key--not the phony ideological window-dressing. This may make them easier to defeat and remove from power. Long term, there is only one way to defeat this kind of crime--or the crime that may be worse to follow, an efficient fascist machine run by a War Democrat--and that is, by recovering our right to vote--getting it out of the hands of rightwing electronic voting machine companies, with their secret, proprietary programming code.

[peabody71]

14. kick

[Emit]

15. Thanks you so much for putting this together....

I had been following these various stories early on, and had been checking into FEMA website.

There is a big disconnect here with what FEMA's press releases were saying and what the reality was/is. Bush & Co. reality vs. reality based community. Not surprising, I know, but truth needs to be told.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4602266

Here's a Reader's Digest version:

includes these (some text at link):
Emergency Aid Authorized For Hurricane Katrina Emergency Response In Louisiana
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18447
Release Date: August 27, 2005


Homeland Security Prepping For Dangerous Hurricane Katrina
Residents in path of storm "Must take action now"
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18461
Release Date: August 28, 2005


First Responders Urged Not To Respond To Hurricane Impact Areas Unless Dispatched By State, Local Authorities
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18470
Release Date: August 29, 2005


Assistance Continues To Areas Impacted By Hurricane Katrina
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18471
Release Date: August 29, 2005


Cash Sought To Help Hurricane Victims, Volunteers Should Not Self-Dispatch
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18473
Release Date: August 29, 2005


President Declares Major Disaster For Louisiana
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18478
Release Date: August 29, 2005


Evacuees Cautioned Not To Re-Enter Damage Areas Prematurely
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18488
Release Date: August 30, 2005


http://www.fema.gov/news/newsarchive.fema?year=2005&month=8
Nevada Disaster Medical Assistance Team Deployed To Gulf States For Hurricane Katrina, Aug 30
Texas Disaster Medical Assistance Team Deployed To Gulf States For Hurricane Katrina, Aug 30
Arkansas Disaster Medical Assistance Team Deployed To Gulf States For Hurricane Katrina, Aug 30
Oklahoma Disaster Medical Assistance Team Deployed To Gulf States For Hurricane Katrina, Aug 30
New Mexico Disaster Medical Assistance Team Deployed To Gulf States For Hurricane Katrina, Aug 30
North Carolina Disaster Medical Assistance Team Deployed To Gulf States For Hurricane Katrina, Aug 30
Washington Disaster Medical Assistance Team Deployed To Gulf States For Hurricane Katrina, Aug 30
Massachusetts Disaster Medical Assistance Team Deployed To Gulf States For Hurricane Katrina, Aug 30

Life Safety Tops FEMA Priorities, Supplies Pour In
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18497
Release Date: August 31, 2005



IN OTHER WORDS, ACCORDING TO FEMA, THEY"VE HAD IT UNDER CONTROL SINCE BEFORE KATRINA HIT AND ALL THE CHAOS WE ARE WITNESSING WITH OUR VERY OWN EYES IS A FIGMENT OF OUR IMAGINATION!

[opihimoimoi]

16. These guys are truly inept....they are over whelmed??? no homework

last night, eh. and you expect a good grade.... with that work?

More like and F if you ask me... unless it was deliberate...

Hardly anyone fucks up that bad... unles they wanted to....


why? HMMMM>

[SammyWinstonJack]

17. One outrage after another. nt

[demo dutch]

18. Dismantling of the FEMA under Homeland Sec. is to blame!

[rainbow4321]

19. FEMA and FAA would not let mosquito spraying happen..

yesterday <Monday> per a local worker on the scanner...he sounded pretty frustrated and exasperated.


No link..it was heard via scanner.

[anarch]

20. you know all those "detention camps" FEMA apparently built?

I used to dismiss peoples' freaking out about this as paranoid ranting...but now, I dunno.

I bet when it comes down to it, they'd do a fine job filling those...

[yowzayowzayowza]

21. Good Gawd!

Sumbodyz got sum splainin to do.
Sumbodyz got a hole heap o blood on their handz.

[Spazito]

22. Take all these and then take a look at what should have been done

based on FEMA's own plan:

Planning & Prevention


National Response Plan: Local/Federal Response Strategies & Coordination Structures

National Response Plan Main Page >> Local/Federal Response Strategies & Coordination Structures

Emphasis on Local Response

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.

Proactive Federal Response to Catastrophic Events

The National Response Plan provides mechanisms for expedited and proactive Federal support to ensure critical life-saving assistance and incident containment capabilities are in place to respond quickly and efficiently to catastrophic incidents. These are high-impact, low-probability incidents, including natural disasters and terrorist attacks that result in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, economy, national morale, and/or government functions.

Multi-Agency Coordination Structures

The National Response Plan establishes multi-agency coordinating structures at the field, regional and headquarters levels. These structures:

Enable the execution of the responsibilities of the President through the appropriate Federal department and agencies;

Integrate Federal, State, local, tribal, nongovernmental Organization, and private-sector efforts; and

Provide a national capability that addresses both site-specific incident management activities and broader regional or national issues, such as impacts to the rest of the country, immediate regional or national actions required to avert or prepare for potential subsequent events, and the management of multiple incidents.

New Coordinating Mechanisms Include

Homeland Security Operations Center (HSOC)

The HSOC serves as the primary national-level multi-agency situational awareness and operational coordination center. The HSOC includes elements of the Department of Homeland Security and other Federal departments and agencies.

National Response Coordination Center (NRCC)

The NRCC, a functional component of the HSOC, is a multi-agency center that provides overall Federal response coordination.

Regional Response Coordination Center (RRCC)

At the regional level, the RRCC coordinates regional response efforts and implements local Federal program support until a Joint Field Office is established.


Interagency Incident Management Group (IIMG)

A tailored group of senior level Federal interagency representatives who provide strategic advice to the Secretary of Homeland Security during an actual or potential Incident of National Significance.

Joint Field Office (JFO)

A temporary Federal facility established locally to provide a central point for Federal, State, local, and tribal representatives with responsibility for incident support and coordination.

Principal Federal Official (PFO)

A PFO may be designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security during a potential or actual Incident of National Significance. While individual Federal officials retain their authorities pertaining to specific aspects of incident management, the PFO works in conjunction with these officials to coordinate overall Federal incident management efforts.


http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/editori...


Does it look like any of this was done or, indeed, being done now?


I extracted this part from the local level component:

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.

[mom cat]

23. Great Job!...When we get the go ahead for the Katrina Resources

and Research Forum. I will use this to start the FEMA thread.

[Sapphire Blue]

24. Forwarded to my Senators & Representative.

[peabody71]

25. kick

[Minstrel Boy]

26. This consistency cannot be a mistake.

This is sabotage of rescue efforts and premeditated murder.

[batmansmom]

55. Exactly!

As I've posted before, you need only witness FEMA's response to the Florida hurricanes last year:

http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/000246.htm

This is not incompetence, folks. This was deliberate.

THAT is the smoking gun.

[recycledindi]

27. hmmmmm

makes you wonder what their motivation really is...

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

29. What a fantastic list!

Hope you don't mind, but I posted it to the front page of leftandrightfight.com ( http://www.leftandrightfight.com ) with credit to you and a link to this thread.

We have to get this out!

[RBHam]

31. They followed orders...

Where was Dick?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

32. another FEMA screwup- flys evacuees to wrong City

How about keeping a running list of FEMA screwup links?

Right city, wrong state
FEMA accused of flying evacuees to wrong Charleston

Tuesday, September 6, 2005; Posted: 11:29 p.m. EDT (03:29 GMT)

Dr. Robert Ball, right, waits for evacuees to arrive Tuesday at a Charleston, South Carolina airport.

(CNN) -- Add geography to the growing list of FEMA fumbles.
A South Carolina health official said his colleagues scrambled Tuesday when FEMA gave only a half-hour notice to prepare for the arrival of a plane carrying as many as 180 evacuees to Charleston

But the plane, instead, landed in Charleston, West Virginia, 400 miles away.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/06/katrina.charleston/

[Clintmax]

52. Yeah, I was thunderstruck when I heard about THIS one!

Saw it on CNN a few minutes ago. All those people scrambled to prepare to receive the injured and was waiting for the plane to land...but it never did! This was one of the stupidest mistates EVER!

[bassman79]

33. Great Post! FEMA is deliberatly sabotaging relief effort!

[Peace Patriot]

34. To add to your list...

(not sure about dupes). The first one is huge--doctors, med clinic, food, water, rescue helicopters, everything, on US battleship offshore, couldn't get presidential authorization, Pentagon Lt. Commander says...

Pentagon: USS Bataan Waited Days For Orders to Help Out(BBC)

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/06/149235 (...235)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1758182 (...p?az=view_all&address=102x1758182)

-----

U.S. Rejected Cuban Offer of 1,100 Doctors

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/06/149235 (...235)

-----

Cuba Praised for Hurricane Preparation
Some commentators on the web are suggesting the U.S. could learn about hurricane preparedness from Cuba. Last year the United Nations commended Cuba as a model for hurricane preparation after surviving Category 5 hurricane. Ivan destroyed 20,000 houses but reportedly no one died because the government orchestrated the evacuation of 1.5 million people to higher ground.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/06/149235 (...235)

-----

1000 Firefighters Not Deployed! Some told 2 STAND BESIDE BUSH On His Tour!

http://www.informationliberation.com/index.php?id=1010

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4666076 (...p?az=view_all&address=104x4666076)

-----

FAA spokeswoman says NO SNIPER SHOTS at rescue helicopters!!!

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1087205

Post #21 at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4665492 (...p?az=view_all&address=104x4665492)

-----

DU thread with several links on FEMA failure in the comment section

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4665492 (...p?az=view_all&address=104x4665492)

Video/audio archive

http://news.globalfreepress.com/gallery/index.php?cat=19 (...9)

[Peace Patriot]

35. Another link: misallocation of firefighters and first responders

Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA (note: ...and be used as props for Bush photo op...)

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3004197

Found at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4674353 (...p?az=view_all&address=104x4674353)

[Peace Patriot]

36. Firsthand account by EMS/paramedics of gross mistreatment and

neglect of displaced victims (themselves), and chaos wrought by FEMA standdown:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4674328 (...p?az=view_all&address=104x4674328)

Originally at: http://www.emsnetwork.org/artman/publish/article_18337.shtml (....shtml)

(One thing that strikes me about this article--that the authors don't really explain--is why these experienced paramedics were forced to endure all this hardship, and left to scrounge for food and water, and were so mistreated by authorities, and were not, instead, immediately snapped up and their expertise put to good use. Yet another example of resources squandered. Most of the mistreatment they encounter is at the hands of strained local authorities--but the context is a complete lack of support from FEMA that is chronicled in the other articles we've gathered. The paramedics were "refugees" on the ground in the middle of all this, in desperate circumstances, and could not have perceived the utter failure of rescue systems and even misdirection that FEMA was causing. This is the "other end" of the FEMA failure: how it felt to be stranded in a destroyed New Orleans with the federal government AWOL.)

[eridani]

37. Deliberate FEMA plan to leave poor behind

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2322

Though officials involved in the scenario acknowledged that tens of thousands of residents would be without the means to evacuate New Orleans in the absence of government help, the Hurricane Pam scenario teams did not determine strategies for evacuating people ahead of time. Instead, officials predicted that only one-third of the city’s residents would make it out in time and designed their response plan around that assumption.

Instead, in July, public officials began videotaping messages for distribution by DVD warning residents to begin making their own advance plans for emergency evacuation in case of a hurricane. According to the Times-Picayune, the messages, which were to be released this September, informed New Orleans residents that they were to be largely responsible for their own safety.

[eridani]

38. FEMA cancelled VA hospital evacuation plan

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/9/5/104830/2384/192#192

Just spoke to someone who works at the VA hospital in Jackson, MS.

She said that the VA system had told staff on Monday at 8am that they would soon be receiving patients and staff evacuated from hospitals in Biloxi and NOLA.

But the patients never arrived until Thursday night-Friday morning. And by then, they were in bad shape, with nurses having had to give each other IV's to stay hydrated, etc. It sounds like they had been through hell.

These were the lucky ones, she said.

Why didn't the evacuation of VA hospitals in NOLA and elsewhere happen as the VA had planned? Because FEMA stepped in and ordered them to cancel it.

[Peace Patriot]

39. And here's the post about Hurricane Center's briefing of Bush on 8/28,

by Max ("hair on fire") Mayfield. (Bush did nothing for three days.) (...and then, only did photo ops--FEMA continued to obstruct aid, no help...)

'Hair on Fire' Hurricane Forecaster Briefed Bush Sun Aug 28th
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4673977 (...p?az=view_all&address=104x4673977)

Comment section has pix of Bush at conference table with hurricane forecast on TV screen, Aug. 28. (Post #13.)

This post confirms the deliberateness of the inaction and obstruction. It's incredible, really. And I'm thinking, looking at this pix, the USS Bataan is meanwhile off shore, all prepped to give aid, and waited and waited, storm hits, NO blown all to hell, LA, Ala, Miss. devastated, days go by, still no order from Bush. People drowning, people dying, people starving and dehydrated, people injured, sick, stranded. No order from Bush.

[Peace Patriot]

40. Add to list: Navy pilots reprimanded for rescuing 100+ victims--

and the pilots note many desperate, stranded people, hardly any other rescue going on.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/national/nationalspecial/07navy.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1126072863-wH8ewn9+Jn3MhqdEDLWMXA (...ial/07navy.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1126072863-wH8ewn9+Jn3MhqdEDLWMXA)

found at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1759677 (...p?az=view_all&address=102x1759677)

(This is a very moving story. Incredible, that they got reprimmanded!)

"Flying over Biloxi and Gulfport and other areas of Mississippi, they could see rescue personnel on the ground, Lieutenant Udkow said, but he noticed that there were few rescue units around the flooded city of New Orleans, on the ground or in the air. 'It was shocking,' he said."

...

"Returning to pick up the rest, the crew learned that two blind residents had not been able to climb up through the attic to the roof and were still in the building. Two crew members entered the darkened building to find the men, and led them to the roof and into the helicopter, Lieutenant Shand said.

"Recalling the rescues in an interview, he became so emotional that he had to stop and compose himself. At one point, he said, he executed a tricky landing at a highway overpass, where more than 35 people were marooned."

"Lieutenant Udkow said that he saw few other rescue helicopters in New Orleans that day. The toughest part, he said, was seeing so many people imploring him to pick them up and having to leave some."

[Peace Patriot]

41. Yet another: FEMA turns away aid, rescue crews...

http://dominionpaper.ca/international_news/2005/09/06/fema_turne.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=104&topic_id=4660874&mesg_id=4660874 (...p?az=post&forum=104&topic_id=4660874&mesg_id=4660874)

The article contains a number of reports from various sources, including the FEMA rejection of considerable aid from Chicago (which Mayor publicly criticized it for), rejection of aid from Loudon County, VA, and rejection of 500 fully stocked and piloted airboats from Florida...

"On September first, Sheriff's deputies and emergency personnel from Loudon County, Virginia, responded to a request from Jefferson Parrish in Louisiana for aid and set off towards the disaster area on the Gulf Coast. According to the Loudon Times-Mirror, 'Sheriff Steve Simpson and his staff spent 12 hours trying to get the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the State of Louisiana Emergency Operations Center to act.'

"They didn't, and the 20 deputies and six emergency medical technicians–all volunteers–turned around and came back to Loudoun."

--

"According to a report in the Orlando Sentinel, 'up to 500 airboat pilots' volunteered to help rescue flood victims. 'We cannot get deployed to save our behinds,' Robert Dummett, state coordinator of the Florida Airboat Association, was quoted as saying. He added that the boaters, who spent thousands of dollars stocking their boats to help in the rescue effort, 'are physically sick, watching the New Orleans coverage and knowing that the resources to help these poor people is sitting right in our driveways.'"

------

(I've been noticing a lot of anger and upset on the part of rejected aid offerers--in a lot of different articles. And I've often thought that the worst thing George Bush has done to our country is to DEMORALIZE people. Americans are practical, generous people, and want to help. It's like he shoves that back in our faces. It's so brutal. The military want to do a good job. He abuses and misuses them, and breaks their rules--discrediting them and demoralizing them, for instance, with torture directives, then has his lawyer write memos to save his own hide from the law. Bush and the Bush Cartel. It's not just him. It's the whole criminal gang. So sickening--and heartbreaking.)

[Peace Patriot]

42. FEMA chief sent help only when storm ended

http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/090605ccKatrinacaresponse.68f01be8.html (...caresponse.68f01be8.html)

found at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1760061 (...p?az=view_all&address=102x1760061)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The top U.S. disaster official waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast before he proposed to his boss sending at least 1,000 Homeland Security workers into the region to support rescuers – and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents...

-------

FEMA relocations a disaster unto itself

http://cbs4boston.com/homepage/

found at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1759250 (p?az=view_all&address=102x1759250)

Just heard on CBS news ALL FEMA RELOCATIONS STOPPED

[Junkdrawer]

43. Why, it's almost like you put the people who would cover-up MIHOP II...

in charge of disaster relief, huh? :shrug:

[omshanti]

44. kicked and nominated. Un-freaking-believable. n/t

[Peace Patriot]

45. NWS 8/28 memo predicting terrible devastation hits NBC

(...further exposing Bush and FEMA lie that they didn't know. This memo was seen by many ordinary people--a lot of discussion on it, then and later, at DU. Sounds like NWS, not being heard in Washington (or Crawford, or San Diego, or Wymoning, or 5th Ave. New York, where all the Bushites were having fun), put out some emotional language about the coming devastation in order to warn people, and were dead on as to accuracy of predicted impacts...)

NBC Blog: NWS Message Predicted Devastation

http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/4939779/detail.html

found at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1760024 (...p?az=view_all&address=102x1760024)

[Junkdrawer]

47. .

[Junkdrawer]

60. .

[lonestarnot]

48. Failure Experience Made Actual

[lpbk2713]

49. FEMA --- The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

Hello Mr Brown. We're standing by waiting for your orders sir.






Remember boys. Look for the journalists first and smile pretty.

[paineinthearse]

50. Add another one - the Fairfax Rescue Team

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2060611&mesg_id=2060611

"...It never occurred to the Fairfax Rescue Team that they'd be turned away from their specialty URBAN rescue and sent to RURAL Mississippi (where they did great work). They heard about NOLA and rolled on their own. Everybody wants them all over the world. They helped greatly at 911 and many other disasters. It's a select group of highly trained volunteers from the Fairfax Fire and Public Safety Department.

THEY WERE TURNED AWAY FROM NEW ORLEANS...."

[Peace Patriot]

51. Incredible! It goes on and on. FEMA fucks up foreign aid.

FEMA refusing offers of aid worth $10M

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1760292&mesg_id=1760292 (...p?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1760292&mesg_id=1760292)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/06/AR2005090601994.html (...05/09/06/AR2005090601994.html)

"Offers of Aid Immediate, but U.S. Approval Delayed for Days

"By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 7, 2005; Page A01

"Offers of foreign aid worth tens of millions of dollars -- including a Swedish water purification system, a German cellular telephone network and two Canadian rescue ships -- have been delayed for days awaiting review by backlogged federal agencies, according to European diplomats and information collected by the State Department.

"Since Hurricane Katrina, more than 90 countries and international organizations offered to assist in recovery efforts for the flood-stricken region, but nearly all endeavors remained mired yesterday in bureaucratic entanglements, in most cases, at the Federal Emergency Management Agency...."

[paineinthearse]

53. Add two more: MAP and the Red Cross

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050902/ap_on_bi_ge/katrina_relief_aid_hk3

<snip>

Still another group, MAP International, said it had dispatched a truck full of medical supplies and other goods Wednesday from its Brunswick, Ga. offices and was readying another shipment. The goods were headed for a staging site in northern Florida, for eventual movement into the storm-stricken area.

But aid groups said their efforts were limited in important ways.

"We are not in New Orleans," the Red Cross' Dodge said. The federal Department of " Homeland Security has basically told us they don't want us, our Red Cross folks, in New Orleans because our presence would keep people from evacuating."

A spokesman for the federal agency said Friday that there is not an absolute policy barring relief groups from the entire city, but that its own efforts were taking precedence there. "There may well be situations where it merits the Red Cross holding back while our personnel go in first," said the spokesman, Russ Knocke. "But our priority is meeting the immediate life-saving and life-sustaining needs of those who've gone through a nightmare."

Other groups also reported that they were not being allowed into the city. MAP International said it was working to send medical supplies to a New Orleans hospital, but that the shipment was being held up by a difficulty in getting the credentials needed for drivers to get through roadblocks set up by the National Guard.

more......

[Divernan]

54. None of this was standard operating procedure for FEMA under Clinton

I have reluctantly concluded that Bush/Chertoff/Brown are sabotaging FEMA every way they can think of to destroy everyone's prior belief in the necessity of this agency. When Bush put Albaugh in charge of FEMA, Albaugh's assignment was to gut and destroy the agency. After 9/11, Albaugh was able to leave the agency in charge of his lapdog, Mike Brown, and become a bigtime war profiteer with his private contracting/consulting company in the field of counter-terrorism.

Just as Chaney/Rumsfeld/Rove saw 9/11 as an opportunity to invade Iraq, they now see Katrina as their opportunity to deliver the final death blow to FEMA. And that is a damn shame, because it was the crown jewel of federal agencies under Clinton & Witt.

[Peace Patriot]

56. Here's another: Military was ready--no order from president

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/5167.html

found at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4676692 (...p?az=view_all&address=104x4676692)

Northern Command isn't happy
(blogger report on BBC interview with NorthCom Lt. Commander Sean Kelly)

"Northcom started planning before the storm even hit. We were ready when it hit Florida, because, as you remember, it hit the bottom part of Florida, and then we were planning once it was pointed towards the Gulf Coast.

"So, what we did, we activated what we call 'defense coordinating officers' to work with the states to say, 'OK, what do you think you will need?' And we set up staging bases that could be started.

"We had the USS Bataan sailing almost behind the hurricane so once the hurricane made landfall, its search and rescue helicopters could be available almost immediately So, we had things ready.

"The only caveat is: we have to wait until the president authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can't just act in this fashion; we have to wait for the president to give us permission."

[Ian_rd]

57. Good work, Peabody, thanks. (nt)

[Pacifist Patriot]

58. Anything about FEMA dragging feet on okaying Superdome as...

shelter and refusing to supply it?

[Nothing Without Hope]

59. two of your bookmarks are broken. These were also Du threads with

additional info on them. And there are more.

How about those cut emergency phone lines? There can be no reason for that except sinister ones. Jefferson Parish had to repair the cut lines and post armed guards to protect them from FEMA!!! No time now to get the link - if it's not already on this page I'll post it later.

[cynatnite]

61. 'FEMA didn't need it. Everyone's already helping' - My RW mom

Read off this list to her and told her I'd send her the links. She said she doesn't need to read them. :banghead:

[Blue_In_AK]

62. This is moving beyond criminally negligent homicide

into the realm of premeditated murder. These bastards need to be indicted and imprisoned for life, maybe in Gitmo. The death penalty is too good for them.