The President, the National Response Plan, and "Catastrophic Incidents"

[expatriot]

http://www.greatamericannero.com/research/nrpresearch/index.htm

from the National Response Plan....

"The President leads the Nation in responding effectively and ensuring the necessary resources are applied quickly and efficiently to all Incidents of National Significance.As necessary, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security convenes interagency meetings to coordinate policy issues. Though White House-level coordination mechanisms are not described in detail in the NRP, all other Federal coordinating mechanisms and entities described in the NRP support, and are consistent with White House-level interagency coordination."

later on...

"A catastrophic incident, as defined by the NRP, is any natural or manmade incident, including terrorism, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, economy, national morale, and/or government functions. A catastrophic incident could result in sustained national impacts over a prolonged period of time; almost immediately exceeds resources normally available to State, local, tribal, and private-sector authorities in the impacted area; and significantly interrupts governmental operations and emergency services to such an extent that national security could be threatened. All catastrophic incidents are Incidents of National Significance. These factors drive the urgency for coordinated national planning to ensure accelerated Federal/national assistance."

and

"Federal support must be provided in a timely manner to save lives, prevent human suffering, and mitigate severe damage. This may require mobilizing and deploying assets before they are requested via normal NRP protocols."

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. ".....prevent human suffering..."

things that make you go hmmmmm.

[Wordie]

2. Yes!!! The nonsense about the locals being responsible is belied by *'s

OWN National Response Plan...it was his administration that pushed it through and got it put into place, as a result of 9/11. The idea being that the U.S. needed to improve coordination among governmental agencies in response to disaster.

In another section it also SPECIFICALLY states that the President should set the emergency response into motion when the state/local resources are overwhelmed.

[Igel]

4. You know, the people defending Nagin/Blanco

from having their efforts taken over by the feds--supporting Blanco 4 days post-Katrina in saying *she* was in charge--and the people who claim that the feds were in charge straight along, really have to get on the same planet.

That said, in Louisiana the 'incident of national significance' bit I think was only declared a couple of days post-landfall; in Tx, it was declared on Wednesday or Thursday, well pre-landfall. Still, in Tx, it was the locals that ran things. It was their call, not *'s, when they were overwhelmed. This seems reasonable.

[Wordie]

5. In Katrina, it appears that NOBODY was really in charge for several days,

at least. The question is, who was supposed to be. We could go through all the stuff about the governor requesting assistance, etc., but I'm not certain that is really useful.

As for declaring Katrina an "incident of national significance," I believe I read someplace that it was not even Brown's responsibility, and in fact Brown was not authorized to act according to the National Response Plan, until an incident of national significance was declared. I believe the NRP gives that responsibility to CHERTOFF! Whose own actions appear to have been forgotten in the aftermath and the media focus on Brown.

Ultimately, of course, we all know where the buck stops...

[Igel]

6. That's pretty much what I think.

I butt heads with those saying Blanco/Nagin are completely without blame, and those that say they bear all the blame.

Most embarrassing is watching politicians playing games. This is too important for that.

[Wordie]

7. Sadly, the politics part will be hard to avoid; EVERYTHING is political.nt

[neweurope]

3. "A catastrophic incident....severely affecting....national morale".

Now what might that be?

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Bush to The Hague!