kennyboy and demoRATS have no cause to whine: FEMA: Dean Prep Far Exceeds Katrina
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 19, 2007
Filed at 4:53 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government on Sunday advised people in south Texas to prepare for possible evacuations as Hurricane Dean heads into the Gulf of Mexico.
''The storms are unpredictable. If I was a Texas resident, particularly along that southeast coast, I would make sure that my home was ready. I would make sure that I had my three-day supply of food and water,'' R. David Paulison, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told reporters at FEMA headquarters.
''If I was in an evacuation zone, I would have my plan in place, of where I'm going to go, and how I'm going to get there, what I'm going to take with me,'' he said. ''This is not a time to be complacent.''
The storm is on course for northern Mexico, but could shift and hit the region around Brownsville, Texas, Paulison said.
Of particular concern, he said, is the state's southeastern coast and its colonias, or immigrant shantytowns, that are prevalent a few miles from the Mexican border.
''There's probably about 400,000 people living in some very substandard housing. Texas is saying that they may have evacuate, if this storm does come up further north, over 100,000 out of that area. They primarily do not have any transportation,'' Paulison said.
Colonias, which is Spanish for neighborhoods, started appearing in Texas in the 1950s, usually outside city limits where there were no building codes. Already in place to help with a possible evacuation are 1,300 buses in San Antonio as well as more than 130 fixed-wing commercial aircraft and several hundred helicopters, Paulison said.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry mobilized the National Guard and search and rescue teams and shipped 60,000 to 80,000 barrels of gasoline to stations in the Rio Grande Valley.
Texas had 2,500 National Guard members ready Sunday, with plans to increase that to 10,000 by Wednesday afternoon if necessary, Paulison said. At Perry's request on Saturday, President Bush signed a pre-landfall emergency disaster declaration for Texas, allowing federal equipment and supplies to be moved in preemptively.
''We have responded very forcefully and very quickly to this event,'' Paulison said. ''We are ready.''
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco declared a state of emergency Friday, and requested a federal declaration to allow aid to flow to the state should Dean strike any part of the Louisiana coast. But Paulison said she withdrew that request once the storm seemed to veer away from her state.
Government agencies have 10 million liters of emergency water and 4 million MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) food packs available in Texas, Paulison said, while the American Red Cross has 7 million liters of water ready and its own supply of MREs.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the first hurricane of the Atlantic season was projected to reach the most dangerous hurricane classification, Category 5, with winds of 160 mph, before crashing into the Mexican coastline near Cancun by Monday night or Tuesday. The Mexican mainland or Texas could be hit later.
''We are going to continue to operate as if this storm is moving into the United States. I think that is a prudent thing to do,'' Paulison said after a video conference with the various federal agencies preparing to respond if necessary.
''You can't wait too long,'' he said. ''If you have to evacuate 100,000 people, particularly by bus and by air, you can't do that overnight. It takes a couple days to do that.''
He said U.S. officials already have spoken with the Mexican government about expedited processing by U.S. customs and border agencies should Mexican residents temporarily need to cross the border.
''This could be very much a border issue,'' the FEMA chief said. ''We're going to protect people regardless of which country they are in.''
Paulison took over in 2006 after his predecessor, Michael Brown, was criticized for the government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina in the summer of 2005.
Asked about the problems that ensued after that storm smashed into the Gulf Coast, Paulison said, ''From my perspective, it's not going to happen.'' He cited improved communications among agencies and said contracts are in place for buses, ambulances and relocations. ''We have those in place ahead of time, we can simply take them off the shelf,'' he said.
''Katrina was a wake-up call for all of us in emergency management and also for the federal government. We know we have to play together as a team, we know we have to respond as the federal government, not as individual agencies,'' he said.
''I do not see this country allowing another Katrina-type event to happen.''
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On the Net:
Federal Emergency Management Agency: fema.gov |
