FEMA and Texas

[nadinbrzezinski]

Look folks we are getting reports of mismanagement at historical levels

Logistics chains broken

Food given to people that needs cooking (WTF)

Not enough ice in some areas

Closed off areas

The stadium becoming a small tragedy

Not enough food or water for first responders

Some of you know this, I USED to do this for fun. These are BASIC mistakes. I know, the kind made by well meaning but poorly trained civies, or on purpose

Discuss...

[RoyGBiv]

1. As your first line states ...

It's a failure of management. Intentional or not, it's still a failure.

From what I've seen, the people on the ground are trying their damnedest to help people, but the organizers within FEMA, the people in the suits, aren't doing shit, and that means the people on the ground aren't able to do their jobs as well as they could.

Well ... I shouldn't be all encompassing. Their PR department is doing a helluva job. They were organized and on-message from the get-go.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Yeah but legally it has consequences

if you don't do it on purpose... ok it is being an idiot... and though it should, it is not a crime.

:-)

On purpose... manslaughter at least comes to mind

And I feel sorry for the poor responders TRYING to do their job with no support... I really do

Been there, done that too... why I got into the logistics side of it... in fact... one of many hats... I once wore

[tom_paine]

15. They learned to handle natural disasters like they handle everything else

A Full Sovietization of Old America is roughly 60-70% complete now.

Inverted Totalitarianism. Mr. Rogers Fascism.

Katrina caught them by surprise. And Old American protocol or more or whatever you want to call it was full access (or close to full, safety-permitting) of the media to disaster areas.

Another Old American ideal eradicated by the Bushies, likely never to return (maybe if Obama is permitted to sit on the throne in January).

How many is that now? 6,742?

[EFerrari]

3. I don't think this mess is on purpose unless you count massive disregard

as active evil, which it may be.

I've been wondering if I should just organize this one block in our earthquake/tsunami zone. People will think I'm crazy (they may already, lol) but, if we know who has a baby or who has mobility problems or who has a generator, I don't see a down side.

Cuba drills disaster response. I don't see how you can really be prepared for a disaster without that kind of practice. :shrug:

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Civil defense, you are in california, start by becoming CERT

certified, and go from there

Not a bad idea

[progressive_realist]

4. To paraphrase Houston mayor Bill White...

FEMA overall has done well... but some individuals are operating in a capacity they are inadequate for.

Just goes to show we shouldn't appoint unqualified cronies to sensitive crisis management positions like FEMA, the military's Strategic Command, the Treasury Department, or... the Presidency. The nation can't afford mistakes, poor judgment, or incompetency in any of these roles.

Edit to add clarifying italics.

[EFerrari]

6. That pretty much covers the whole Bush government.

Mayor White has understatement down to a fine art.

[opihimoimoi]

7. Ya would think they would get it by NOW....them Cronies still there it seems

[tannybogus]

8. Katrina was mismanagement at historical levels.

With Ike coming, FEMA was supposed to have learned some lessons.

They haven't learned anything. That's not only criminal, it's scarey.

[MiniMe]

13. The only thing FEMA learned from Katrina is how to control the news

The first responders are doing what they can, they want to help. It was the same with Katrina. It is those at the top who are covering it up. Welcome to an election year.

[pnutbutr]

9. perhaps privatization

would be the answer if FEMA and the government are unable to get it right time and time again.

Not all of the people working on the ground assisting FEMA in many ways are employed by the federal government, most are local volunteers from all over the country who have flocked there to help. Don't diminish their efforts just because FEMA is lacking.

[tannybogus]

10. My remarks are aimed at FEMA!

hey just get in the way of the volunteers who have a clue!

[eShirl]

12. FEMA seems to work great when it's not part of a Bush administration

just sayin'

[pnutbutr]

14. Bush's cut it, Clinton

abused it. Seriously, he handed out FEMA cash for anything and everything. California was a big receiver of FEMA cash even without disasters.

FEMA has been mismanaged and abused ever since Carter created it.

[eShirl]

16. Bush tore down the FEMA that Clinton built up

Of all the sad tales of cronyism and ineptitude emerging out of the Katrina catastrophe, probably none is more telling than the history of FEMA under the oversight and management of President Bush.

So let’s review the outlines of the story, beginning with the president’s inauguration in January 2001. Like everything in the second Bush White House, the surest clue to how the administration would proceed was to find what the Clinton White House had done and then expect the opposite.

President Clinton had appointed the first FEMA director with actual emergency-management experience, James Lee Witt. And Witt had gone on to reshape the organization into what was considered a model government agency. Clinton even gave FEMA Cabinet-level status.

Bush demoted the agency’s status and put it in the hands of his chief political fixer, Joe Allbaugh, who went about dismantling much of what Witt had built. As he told Congress in May 2001: “Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program and a disincentive to effective state and local risk management. Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level.”

http://thehill.com/josh-marshall/bush-tore-down-the-fema-that-clinton-built-up-2005-09-08.html

[pnutbutr]

17. true

but that does not invalidate that he used FEMA as a political tool. It most certainly was run better under him that either of the Bush's but was still mismanaged and abused, just in a different way.

[eShirl]

18. because you say so?

[pnutbutr]

19. good read

http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2002/2002-012.pdf

[seemslikeadream]

11. I see black people

and georgie still hates them



In Haiti

Yn New Orleans

In Texas