"Leading" by Photo Op: How FEMA abuses the good will of rescuers

[BurtWorm]

"As specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas."


<To view photo op product, follow link and scroll down: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/6/233139/2154>


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

Article Last Updated: 9/06/2005 02:04 AM


Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA

By Lisa Rosetta
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune

ATLANTA - Not long after some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight hours of training, the whispering began: "What are we doing here?"

As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta.

Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.

Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.
On Monday, some firefighters stuck in the staging area at the Sheraton peeled off their FEMA-issued shirts and stuffed them in backpacks, saying they refuse to represent the federal agency.

Federal officials are unapologetic.
"I would go back and ask the firefighter to revisit his commitment to FEMA, to firefighting and to the citizens of this country," said FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak.

[Warren DeMontague]

1. Link not workin', Burt nt

[BurtWorm]

2. Follow this link and scroll down

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/6/233139/2154

(Read kos, too, for an excellent rant.)

[Rose Siding]

3. This is so wrong

"They've got people here who are search-and-rescue certified, paramedics, haz-mat certified," said a Texas firefighter. "We're sitting in here having a sexual-harassment class while there are still in Louisiana who haven't been contacted yet."
The firefighter, who has encouraged his superiors back home not to send any more volunteers for now, declined to give his name because FEMA has warned them not to talk to reporters.

I understand they need help, but how many people does it take to get out FEMA's phone number? and how highly qualified must they be? You'd think some locals might even be up to that task.

There would be TONS of things for qualified firefighters to do in the disaster area.

[txindy]

5. Tons of things to do, yes, but not if Junior wants the city to burn.

That is the only reason I can think of to redirect firefighters - deliberately letting the fires burn NO to the ground. Then declaring it seized by the feds because it is 'unsafe' or 'toxic'. At some point in the future, when the govt. has gained complete title to the land, it will miraculously become 'detoxified' and the city will 'rise from the ashes' and make a lot of neocons (and their toadies) wealthier.

[BurtWorm]

6. If handing out fliers is truly "important," (which I doubt)

there are plenty of less skilled people around looking to be helpful somehow. This is a total waste of skill, typical of the shabby agency FEMA is under Brown/Bush. Disgusting!

[txindy]

4. Sounds like that FEMA spokesperson is threatening those firefighters

Why does she hate America? Junior had his arm around one of them after 9/11. He also had a bullhorn. Were the firefighters passing out fliers and phone numbers at that moment, too? No, I don't think so!!

Political bureaucrats justifying their existence. Gotta love 'em. Not. :puke: