Here's who contracted for New Orleans emergency management.

[madfloridian]

This is the team that contracted for New Orleans in June of last year. It looks like FEMA is contracting out cities to previous FEMA leaders in many cases. I have an article with more on that, too late to get the post together tonight. They are privatizing it all, and I hope these companies come through big time.

It was pre-election time in Florida last year when the hurricanes came, and we got only mediocre service from FEMA. It was like there really wasn't a central agency with which to coordinate, and it now appears there really was not.

Low income housing is not being rebuilt in many areas of Florida, and it may never be. There is not much news coverage of the areas that are still not recovered. In fact there was hardly any coverage at all of Katrina's hit in Miami. Not much at all.

Here is the team which contracted for the management and planning for the city of New Orleans in June of 2004. I believe I read that the CEOs of Dewberry and James Lee Witt are both former FEMA guys. Witt also has the contract for Orlando, I think.

http://www.ieminc.com/Whats_New/Press_Releases/pressrelease060304_Catastrophic.htm

IEM Team to Develop Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & Southeast Louisiana
June 3, 2004

IEM, Inc., the Baton Rouge-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

In making the announcement today on behalf of teaming partners Dewberry, URS Corporation and James Lee Witt Associates, IEM Director of Homeland Security Wayne Thomas explained that the development of a base catastrophic hurricane disaster plan has urgency due to the recent start of the annual hurricane season which runs through November. National weather experts are predicting an above normal Atlantic hurricane season with six to eight hurricanes, of which three could be categorized as major.

The IEM team will complete a functional exercise on a catastrophic hurricane strike in Southeast Louisiana and use results to develop a response and recovery plan. A catastrophic event is one that can overwhelm State, local and private capabilities so quickly that communities could be devastated without Federal assistance and multi-agency planning and preparedness.

Thomas said that the greater New Orleans area is one of the nation’s most vulnerable locations for hurricane landfall.

“Given this area’s vulnerability, unique geographic location and elevation, and troubled escape routes, a plan that facilitates a rapid and effective hurricane response and recovery is critical,” he said. “The IEM team’s approach to catastrophic planning meets the challenges associated with integrating multi-jurisdictional needs and capabilities into an effective plan for addressing catastrophic hurricane strikes, as well as man-made catastrophic events.”

www.ieminc.com

http://www.dewberry.com/

http://www.wittassociates.com/

http://www.urscorp.com/EGG_Division/index.php

[mom cat]

1. Follow the money!

[FrenchieCat]

9. Rather than following the money here, it more following the lack thereof

the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."

The panel authorized that money, and on July 1, 2004, it had to pony up another $250,000 when it learned that stretches of the levee in Metairie had sunk by four feet. The agency had to pay for the work with higher property taxes. The levee board noted in October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.

The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313

The problem is Bush and his war and his cutting of the budget....not the contractors in this particular case.

Unlike contractors that don't do the work and get paid....like Halliburton in Iraq, here it appears that we have contractors not getting paid at all. It's not the same thing.

[mom cat]

11. I totally agree with you. I am just afraid that there will be a whole lot

of no bid contracts when the "emergency legislation" gets passed. and that those new contracts wil be a repeat of the Halliburton style schemes. Bush will try to look good with a flurry of projects that will fatten his friends and not address the real problems.

[FrenchieCat]

13. That's possible.....

Of course and most likely to happen. That's why Bush has to fucking go!

Maybe if we don't divert attention by blaming the companies that didn't get paid, we can put some heat on the piece of doo-doo in our White House.

Wacha think?

[mom cat]

16. I agree.

[madfloridian]

18. Are you saying the companies mentioned in my post were not paid?

I did not know that. The 4 groups I mentioned?

[havocmom]

2. Privatizing essential services best done collectively is just a method

for stealing. It is also failure to act in the interest of the governed. I believe the founders mentioned that there are legitimate responses to such negligence and malfeasance.

[Erika]

3. Just more of W's redistribution of the wealth from the poor

to the rich.

[madfloridian]

4. All but one of the sites has their leaders listed.

Wayne Thomas is with the IEM group, and he is the VP of Homeland Security...he also is the FEMA spokesman.

They all list their leaders except URS, and I don't see anything there.

[FrenchieCat]

5. I Think your finger should be pointing where it belongs.....

Bush took New Orleans disaster funds and used them for the Iraq war and for his tax cuts
by John in DC - 8/30/2005 09:57:00 PM

An amazing late-breaking article from Editor & Publisher. Bottom line: Experts knew this was coming, and all the preparations ground to a halt because Bush stole New Orleans' disaster preparation money so he could use it for his Iraq debacle:

New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

...after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/08/bush-took-new-orleans-disaster-funds.html

[madfloridian]

6. I am NOT finger pointing. I am pointing out reality.

They are privatizing FEMA, and thusly the companies with the contracts do bear some responsibility. Bush has totally fallen down on the job, he is a totally incompetent man. I agree. He bears the blame overall.

However I went through 3 hurricane eyes, and I know that they are letting us down...all of us...the whole country. When companies contract for services, they owe a city those services.

[FrenchieCat]

7. Your are simply incorrect.

All the plans in the world (and JWitt&Associations part of writing a plan which they did) won't help if there is no money to implement the plan.

From reports (notably Editor & Publisher) http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313

Instead of following the plan, Bush gutted the budget over the last few years that was supposed to be going to strengthen the levees. In 2003 and 2004, New Orleans did not get the funding that it was supposed to get.

"Local officials are now saying, the article reported, that had Washington heeded their warnings about the dire need for hurricane protection, including building up levees and repairing barrier islands, "the damage might not have been nearly as bad as it turned out to be."

Sounds like the the Iraq Waar cost trumps needs here at home which is why a sane foreign policy is so dire. Because it affects us right here at home.

If FEMA is being cut down next to nothing, what are states supposed to do? Just sit there with their fingers up their asses? The plans written by the contracting companies called for the building up of levees and repairing barrier islands, but the problem is that there was no money (which was supposed to be allocated and disbursed by the federal Government to get it done).

The Bush Administration is the culprit here.....but you'd rather blame the only alternative that states now have.

[madfloridian]

8. They are contracting to the companies.

I am not being ugly, I am being realistic. When contracts are given, these companies have a responsibility.

I blame this administration, but I do believe there was no real plan for New Orleans. There should have been something in place. It is so overwhelmingly that attaching blame is really too much, so I am not doing that.

I have interest in this issue....I have been there 3 times and I know the helpless feeling. There was no logistics in place to drop food, to evacuate hospitals, nothing.

I blame Bush for cutting the funding, but someone should have screaming to the rooftops about this.

Companies can not handle this without massive help, but there should have been more things in place. Bush should be impeached for his leadership, but the others have a responsibility.

[FrenchieCat]

10. You may be correct to a point.....if you want to insist.....

But one of the company that you listed, James De Witt and Associates only wrote the plans....yet you list them as though they didn't do what they were contracted to do; although they did.

But again, what good are plans if there is no money to implement them?

If an architect draws the plans for a new house for you.....and you and your contractor sign to have the house build....and starting two years ago, you don't pay your general contractor...to think that the contractor should have a responsibility to finish your house is one thing (although technically why would they?)....but to blame the architect who's plan you have in your hands...that's taking a big far, wouldn't you say.

Does the architect have the responsibility to see that your house gets finished? I just don't think so! :shrug:

[madfloridian]

14. I said no such thing.

You are misreading or something. I am not especially attaching blame, just pointing out that it started showing in Florida last year. There really is no central agency to take over anymore...we are in between in transition. I know how hard it was last year.

These are international companies which have a lot of clout and power.

I do blame Bush, though. We were victims last year of the beginning of privatization and lack of oversight. New Orleans is a victim of little planning.

[FrenchieCat]

15. Wrong again on your last statement....

New Orleans is a victim of losta planning, but little money to implement the plans....

They knew.....they had planned......but the money didn't come in to finish what had been planned.

Local officials are now saying, the article reported, that had Washington heeded their warnings about the dire need for hurricane protection, including building up levees and repairing barrier islands, "the damage might not have been nearly as bad as it turned out to be."

the waters may still keep rising in New Orleans. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until it's level with the massive lake.

New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313

[FrenchieCat]

12. "they" who is privatizing FEMA......

is who?
The Bush Administration, that's who.

To think that companies are not going to take on contracts if the state or local officials contact them and ask them to do so is ridiculous. :shrug:

The blame should sit firmly on the shoulder of the Bush admin. They are privatizing FEMA, they are not even providing the funds required....and they are the vilains.

[FrenchieCat]

17. More....

Not only is Bush and his administration the culprit...but it was discussed and the local officials asked specifically for this money over and over again...citing it as security issue.

"It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.
edit to provide link
http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/00233...

also check out this thread....
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2050029

[madfloridian]

19. I see the original link to the IEM team is no longer workable.

Here is the cache. Since I had this happen to me once before about something someone wrote in a letter, I save things to my hard drive. I do have the original on my computer.

Cache of IEM
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:wysqBgAkPdsJ:www.ieminc.com/Whats_New/Press_Releases/pressrelease060304_Catastrophic.htm+IEM+Team+to+Develop+Catastrophic+Hurricane+Disaster+&hl=en

IEM, Inc., the Baton Rouge-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

In making the announcement today on behalf of teaming partners Dewberry, URS Corporation and James Lee Witt Associates, IEM Director of Homeland Security Wayne Thomas explained that the development of a base catastrophic hurricane disaster plan has urgency due to the recent start of the annual hurricane season which runs through November. National weather experts are predicting an above normal Atlantic hurricane season with six to eight hurricanes, of which three could be categorized as major.

The IEM team will complete a functional exercise on a catastrophic hurricane strike in Southeast Louisiana and use results to develop a response and recovery plan. A catastrophic event is one that can overwhelm State, local and private capabilities so quickly that communities could be devastated without Federal assistance and multi-agency planning and preparedness.

Thomas said that the greater New Orleans area is one of the nation’s most vulnerable locations for hurricane landfall.

“Given this area’s vulnerability, unique geographic location and elevation, and troubled escape routes, a plan that facilitates a rapid and effective hurricane response and recovery is critical,” he said. “The IEM team’s approach to catastrophic planning meets the challenges associated with integrating multi-jurisdictional needs and capabilities into an effective plan for addressing catastrophic hurricane strikes, as well as man-made catastrophic events.”

IEM President and CEO Madhu Beriwal is the recipient of a s pecial merit award from the Louisiana Emergency Preparedness Association ( LEPA ) for her work in New Orleans hurricane emergency preparedness.

IEM, Inc. was founded in 1985, and is one of the leading emergency management corporations in the U.S. While some organizations include emergency management as one of many business areas, helping to plan for and manage emergencies is IEM’s core business . IEM’s clients include some of the foremost federal emergency and defense organizations in the U.S., including the Department of Homeland Security/FEMA, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. www.ieminc.com

Established in 1956, Dewberry is a multidisciplinary planning, engineering, and design firm, employing more than 1,600 individuals. As FEMA’s largest contractor, Dewberry plays a significant role in the national effort to reduce the impact of both natural (flood, fire, earthquake, tropical storm, cyclone, hurricane, tornado, and winter storm) and man-made (hazardous waste, terrorism, etc.) hazards on people, property, and the economy. www.dewberry.com

URS Corporation provides planning, engineering, architecture, and applied science to hundreds of government agencies and private industrial and commercial companies worldwide. The company has more than 26,000 employees -- the largest Architectural & Engineering firm in the U. S. for the fourth consecutive year.URS has approximately 500 employees in Louisiana. URS has over 30 years of experience in hazard mitigation planning and engineering support work for FEMA and other customers. www.urscorp.com

James Lee Witt Associates, LLC, established in 2001 by the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is a leader in public safety and crisis management. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in Atlanta, Chicago and Sacramento, James Lee Witt Associates works with state, local and foreign governments, corporations, hospitals, universities and utilities in conducting vulnerability assessments, after-event audits and reviews, developing all-hazard emergency and continuity of operations planning, as well as with the telecommunications industry on wireless interoperability. www.wittassociates.com

[FrenchieCat]

20. Witt & Associates did not win that contract bid

and actual did no work for the State of Louisiana, according to a source close to the company.

Go to the site and see that they are not listed on their client list.... :hi:

[madfloridian]

21. Do you know who did get it?

Which company or companies?