re: Uh, we don't send in emergency workers until the storm is over.
Yes... but you don't wait until after the storm is over to request them, knowing it takes 48 hours ---
The top U.S. disaster official waited hours after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast before he proposed to his boss sending at least 1,000 Homeland Security workers into the region to support rescuers, internal documents show.
Part of the mission, according to the documents obtained by The Associated Press, was to "convey a positive image" about the government's response for victims.
Acknowledging that such a move would take two days, Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29.
And another gem...
The same day Brown wrote Chertoff, Brown also urged local fire and rescue departments outside Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi not to send trucks or emergency workers into disaster areas without an explicit request for help from state or local governments. Brown said it was vital to coordinate fire and rescue efforts.
The locals didn't do as good a job as they could... but they are not hurricane experts. FEMA is... or is supposed to be.
Hell, I was saying on the Saturday before, on a different thread, that this looked like a worst case disaster. Am I more aware than FEMA? What's up with that... I'm just a normal guy with an internet connection. FEMA, the disaster experts, are not reacting until Monday afternoon!!!
They screwed up... big time.
John |
