Head on a Platter Please

Someone had better explain this one.

The head of FEMA waited a mind-boggling five hours after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf before even contacting his boss about sending personnel to the area — then suggested workers be allowed two days to get to the ravaged region, shocking internal documents reveal.
One stunning Aug. 29 memo — sent from embattled Federal Emergency Management chief Michael Brown to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff — called killer Katrina a "near-catastrophic event," but otherwise lacked any other urgent language underlining the potential magnitude of the disaster.

Brown then politely ended his memo with: "Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities."

In another note sent later to FEMA workers, Brown said one of their duties would essentially be to make the agency look good.

"Convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public," he wrote.

In Brown's memo to Chertoff, he proposed sending 1,000 Homeland Security workers within 48 hours and then another 2,000 within seven days.

Actually, don't bother explaining. Brown needs to be dismissed post haste and replaced with someone who actually knows something about disaster preparedness. It's inexcusable that he could delay parts of the federal response. Sending a total of 3,000 DHS workers to the region is a drop in the bucket, and the idea that the delay was in order to make sure they were trained is absolutely pathetic. Just what are these DHS workers doing to deserve their current pay. The whole idea is that DHS and FEMA are supposed to be fully prepared to deal with disasters of this sort. They game these scenarios and prepare contingencies and know that the outcomes will be disasterous unless there is a swift response. Instead, it looks like a cluster$%@^ at FEMA.

Thankfully, FEMA and DHS isn't the only federal agency or department involved and the Department of Defense had thousands of troops taking part in the efforts within 24 hours. Kudos also go to the Coast Guard, which was busy rescuing survivors from buildings even as the storm was in its final stages.

Unlike after 9/11 where no federal officials lost their jobs as a result of intel failures or adding to the bureaucracy, this situation must be remedied immediately. FEMA is supposed to be the federal government's front line in handling emergency response, and unless and until it is properly staffed by competent leadership, it puts people at risk.

This doesn't minimize the failures at the state or local levels either. They are just as culpable, though they did warn local residents in New Orleans that they would be on their own for up to a week should a hurricane hit. In fact, that's exactly what Mayor Nagin said in the press conference on the 28th. He told people to take a couple days worth of food with them into the refuges of last resort - though the city didn't have any special preparations there either. And delays by the LA governor meant that the delays at the federal level pushed the response back even further.