You only hear about the gov't failures

[GOPFighter]

I work for the federal government and I'm damn proud of the agency I work for. The office where I work is responsible for marine safety. We have emergency response crews that are responsible for surveying channels into ports after major storms. Few realize that after a storm, commercial vessels will not come into a port until they are absolutely confident there are no hazards in the channel leading into the port. Also, few realize how quickly an interruption in marine commerce can starve a nation.

As usual, days before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, we had our crews in place at strategic locations around the south, ready to move in after Katrina moved out. They were self-contained, equipped with satellite radios that can be recharged by a car or boat engine. We had other crews from around the country on standby, ready to relieve the front-line crews in case the storm turned into a monster (which it did). Another office in our agency had aircraft ready to fly aerial photography of the affected coastline to be posted on the Internet for all other emergency responders to use for their rescue and relief efforts.

Once Katrina moved past the Gulf Coast our crews went to work. Their work was coordinated from our office in suburban Washington. The team leaders lined up fuel, accommodations, and coordinated our efforts with the other federal agencies involved in this effort. The crews went from port to port, running side scan sonar surveys and reporting the condition of the channels to the Coast Guard. You can probably imagine how sick our people in the field felt to be responding quickly to open up shipping while watching the more important human relief effort fail miserably. (I have a feeling there are a lot of hard-working, conscientious FEMA employees who are furious at their agency's leadership for dropping the ball and sullying their entire organization's reputation.)

The Washington Post reported today that the first cargo ship started unloading it's cargo in the port of New Orleans yesterday, months earlier than anyone expected. Much of the credit for this is due to work our crews did to survey the Mississippi River from it's mouth to New Orleans under very dangerous conditions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091302073.html

I am not writing this to tout my agency. Ours was just one of many, including the Coast Guard and the Corp of Engineers, who responded quickly - as always - and worked together like government agencies are supposed to. I'm writing this to let people know that the government is capable of responding quickly and successfully in an emergency. All it requires is a lot of planning, imagination, good employees,redundancy, and good points of contact with all the other agencies involved. We've been doing it for years. Maybe that's why it was doubly hard for us to watch as days went by with no appreciable response from the federal government to the human disaster in New Orleans, because we know it can be done. I just wish the press had been able to show a few of the emergency responses that did work well.

[donco6]

1. I'll bet the head of your agency isn't a political appointee.

No?

[despairing optimist]

2. You're right. When people knock the government, they usually mean

the appointed heads of government agencies and not the career officers and line workers out there battling in the trenches with limited resources. I can speak only for myself, but when I complain about the government or its agencies, I aim at the politically appointed honchos rather than the vast majority of workers doing what they can no matter who's allegedly in charge.

As for the press reporting the good work of government agencies, that's what a public information officer is for. Does your agency have one? If so, request a meeting and find out what's been done to promote the good works, and what can be done to get out the message more effectively.

[GOPFighter]

5. Our problem is we're a small agency

Our public information office is good but when you work alongside big agencies like the Coast Guard, guess who gets the press? The press is no big deal, in fact the Coast Guard did a great job during Katrina and certainly didn't get the praise they deserve.

I''m only upset because Bush's crony appointments in DHS and FEMA and their subsequent failure made everone in the government look bad, and that's sad.

[Land Shark]

3. You're right, it can be done, and not by just the 82nd airborne

[seabeyond]

4. good point and thank you for sharing. i dont think any of us want to

bash the people that wanted to help and couldnt or the few that were out their risky life and doing a hard and challenging job so successfully.

most of us are able to see the problem created by hollowing out fema and appointing and incompetent. like appointing an incompetent into the white house. it does matter on brain power