[Rhodes22-list] Horse shit and drinking.

[brad haslett]

Bill,

Once again you are correct, I wrote first, leaning on
the study I did as a seventh grader in Civics class
some 40 years ago.  As it turns out, nothing has
changed and I am right.  FEMA has no authority over
state and local governments unless invited.  That Sir,
is the rub!  Fan and I had this discussion over dinner
last night - comparing the response of the US
government to that of China.  In China (which knows a
thing or two about floods) the national government
would have been right on the spot (they always are),
in fact, they would have sacrificed a few hundred PLA
just to make sure they had the locals under control.  
 Here, we depend more on our local government and
ourselves because we have that freedom and right.
Below is a narrative of FEMA's frustration with the
government of NOLA.

Brad

--------------

By RITA BEAMISH, Associated Press Writer
Sat Sep 17, 2:36 PM ET
 


As far back as eight years ago, Congress ordered the
Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop a plan
for evacuating New Orleans during a massive hurricane,
but the money instead went to studying the causeway
bridge that spans the city's Lake Pontchartrain,
officials say.

The outcome provides one more example of the
government's failure to prepare for a massive but
foreseeable catastrophe, said the lawmaker who helped
secure the money for FEMA to develop the evacuation
plan.

"They never used it for the intended purpose," said
former Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La. "The whole intent was
to give them resources so they could plan an
evacuation of New Orleans that anticipated that a very
large number of people would never leave."

In Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, attention has
focused on the inability of local and federal
officials to evacuate or prepare for the large number
of poor people, many of them minorities, who had no
access to transportation and remained behind.

That possibility was one of the concerns that led
Congress in 1997 to set aside $500,000 for FEMA to
create "a comprehensive analysis and plan of all
evacuation alternatives for the New Orleans
metropolitan area."

Frustrated two years later that nothing materialized,
Congress strengthened its directive. This time it
ordered "an evacuation plan for a Category 3 or
greater storm, a levee break, flood or other natural
disaster for the New Orleans area."

The $500,000 that Congress appropriated for the
evacuation plan went to a commission that studied
future options for the 24-mile bridge over Lake
Pontchartrain, FEMA spokesman Butch Kinerney said.

The hefty report produced by the Greater New Orleans
Expressway Commission "primarily was not about
evacuation," said Robert Lambert, the general manager
for the bridge expressway. "In general it was an
overview of all the things we need to do" for the
causeway through 2016.

Lambert said he could not trace how or if FEMA money
came to the commission. Nor could Shelby LaSalle, a
causeway consulting engineer who worked on the plan.

LaSalle said it would be "ludicrous" to consider his
report an evacuation plan, although it had a
transportation evacuation section, dated Dec. 19,
1997. That part was tacked on mainly to promote the
causeway for future designation as an official
evacuation route, LaSalle said.

"We didn't do anything for FEMA," he added.

Asked why the congressional mandate was never
fulfilled, Barry Scanlon, senior vice president in the
consulting firm of former FEMA Director James Lee
Witt, said he believes the agency did what it needed
when it gave the money to the state.

"FEMA received an earmark which it processed through
to the state as instructed by Congress," Scanlon said.
Witt is now a private consultant to Gov. Kathleen
Blanco, D-La., on the Katrina aftermath.

Tauzin said he, too, could never find out where the
money went. "They gave it to the causeway commission?
That's wacky," he said.

At the time eight years ago, the Louisiana delegation
had plenty of political muscle to get the money.
Then-Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., was chairman of the
House Appropriations Committee, which controls the
government's purse strings.

Livingston, now a lobbyist, said he could not explain
what happened either, although he knew of other
predictive hurricane studies over the years.

"Do I wish the study had been made? Sure, but now
that's by the boards. We're doing the best we can
right now to repair and rebuild," he said.

FEMA typically contracts its studies to private or
government entities. Kinerney, the agency spokesman,
said it appeared the money went through the Louisiana
government. State emergency and transportation
officials said they did not recall it. 

After nothing came of its first directive, FEMA
addressed the need for an evacuation plan "off and on"
over the years, Kinerney said. Last year, the agency
undertook the massive "Hurricane Pam" project that was
supposed to create a comprehensive emergency plan for
New Orleans. 

That work was unfinished when Katrina struck, though
its first phase involved an elaborate hurricane
simulation that was eerily predictive of Katrina's
disaster. 

Asked about any earlier FEMA-funded plan, Mark Smith,
spokesman for the state Office of Homeland Security
and Emergency Preparedness, said, "To the best of our
knowledge we can find no information on this." 

Congress' 1999 language directed that FEMA consult
with that state agency as well as the Louisiana
Department of Transportation and Development. 

FEMA's parent agency, the Homeland Security
Department, did provide $75,000 to print 1 million
evacuation maps that were distributed this year for
the state's updated transportation evacuation
blueprint, state transportation spokesman Mark Lambert
said. 

That plan used phased evacuation orders and
reverse-flow traffic patterns to avoid the highway
snarls New Orleans saw during Hurricane Ivan in 2004. 

But that plan was designed for traffic management, not
to provide transportation or contingencies for the
infirm, elderly and poor who could not get out on
their own, officials said.



--- Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:

> Brad,
> 
> Study first, write later.
> 
> If you seriously believe we are spending more than
> $5 billion a year for 
> FEMA to fund studies that it is not responsible for
> implementing, it's 
> time for some more letters to the editor.
> 
> Bill Effros
> 
> brad haslett wrote:
> 
> >Bill,
> >
> >You are dead wrong about that.  FEMA nor the
> National
> >Guard have the authority to intervene without State
> >permission.  Now if you're not happy with that, you
> >better lobby for a change in the constitution
> quickly
> >because hurricane season is not over yet.  NO had
> an
> >evacuation plan that they developed but did not
> >implement.  FEMA supplies funds for studies of
> proper
> >response of local authorities but they do not write
> >them, approve them, or implement them.  NO used
> their
> >FEMA funds for other purposes (I'm late for a class
> >and will supply the facts on that issue later). 
> Your
> >assessment on the Federal response to 9/11 is
> >essentially correct - the military launched
> fighters,
> >the FAA grounded airplanes, the Secret Service flew
> >the POTUS to a pre-determined and pre-planned
> location
> >(against the Presidents wishes), all actions within
> >the scope and authority of the federal government. 
> >The first responders on the scene was the NYPD and
> >NYFD under direct supervision from the Mayor of
> NYC,
> >also on the scene.  As it should be.  Here is an
> old
> >article that summarizes NOLA.
> >
> >Brad
> >
> >-------------------Don't Blame Bush for Katrina 
> >Christopher Ruddy
> >Monday, Sept. 5, 2005 
> >George Bush and the federal government are not to
> >blame for the disaster we have witnessed in the
> >aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
> >
> >In fact, the primary responsibility for the
> disaster
> >response lies with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin,
> >Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and other local
> >officials.
> >
> >
> >Yet leading Democrats and their allies in the major
> >media are clearly using this disaster for political
> >purposes and ignoring one obvious fact.
> >
> >
> >Story Continues Below
> >
> >
> >
> >This fact - which needs to be repeated and
> remembered
> >- is that in our country, state and local
> governments
> >have primary responsibility in dealing with local
> >disasters. 
> >
> >
> >The founding fathers devised a federal system of
> >government - one that has served us remarkably well
> >through great disasters that have befallen America
> >over more than two centuries.
> >
> >
> >But if we believe the major TV networks, George
> Bush,
> >FEMA and the Republicans in Congress are all to
> blame
> >for the current nightmare.
> >
> >
> >Let's remember that FEMA, the Federal Emergency
> >Management Agency, was created only in 1979. It was
> >formed to coordinate and focus federal response to
> >major disasters - to "assist" local and state
> >governments.
> >
> >
> >Common sense suggests that local and state
> governments
> >are best able to prepare and plan for local
> disasters.
> >
> >
> >Is a Washington bureaucrat better suited to prepare
> >for an earthquake in San Francisco, a hurricane in
> >Florida, or a terrorist act in New York?
> >
> >
> >After the Sept. 11 attacks against the World Trade
> >Center, no one suggested that the Bush
> administration
> >should have been responsible for New York's
> disaster
> >response or that federal agents should have been
> >involved in the rescue of those trapped in the
> >buildings.
> >
> >
> >Last year, four major hurricanes slammed into
> Florida.
> >Governor Jeb Bush led the disaster response and did
> a
> >remarkable job, with nothing happening like what we
> >have seen in New Orleans.
> >
> >
> >The primary response in disasters has always come
> from
> >local communities and state governments. 
> >
> >
> >First responders and the manpower to deal with
> >emergencies come from local communities: police,
> fire
> >and medical. Under our federal system, these local
> >departments answer to local authorities, not those
> in
> >Washington. These first responders are not even
> under
> >federal control, nor do they have to follow federal
> >orders.
> >
> >
> >In addition to local responders, every state in the
> >Union has a National Guard. 
> >
> >
> >State National Guards answer first to the governor
> of
> >each state, not to the president. The National
> Guard
> >exists not to defend one state from an invasion by
> >another state, but primarily for emergencies like
> the
> >one we have witnessed in New Orleans and in other
> >areas impacted by Katrina. (See:
>
>http://www.arng.army.mil/about_us/organization/command_structure.asp)
> >
> >
> >
> >Tim Russert and the Blame Game
> >
> >
> >The media would have you believe that this disaster
> >was worsened by a slow response from President Bush
> >and his administration, though the primary
> >responsibility for disaster response has always
> been
> >with local and state governments.
> >
> >
> >It is true that federal response was not as fast as
> it
> >could have been. The president himself has
> >acknowledged that fact. 
> >
> >
> >But the press has focused on the first 48 hours of
> >federal response, not uttering a word about the
> fact
> >that New Orleans had 48 hours of warning that a
> major
> >Category 4 or 5 would make landfall near the city,
> yet
> >local officials apparently did little to prepare. 
> >
> >Obviously, Gov. Blanco did not effectively deploy
> her
> >state's National Guard. 
> >
> >And New Orleans' city leaders did almost nothing to
> >evacuate the portion of the population with no
> >transportation. In failing to follow their own
> >evacuation plan, these officials did little to
> >pre-position food, water and personnel to deal with
> >the aftermath.
> >
> 
=== message truncated ===


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