Why I hate politics [Hurricane Katrina]

[UncleJoseph]

Since I volunteered to aid in the disaster effort, and some of my coworkers were sent to Louisiana and Mississippi, I know that the following news story has a lot of truth to it.

CNN Story

It never ceases to amaze me how stupid people can be. I have less faith in humanity every day. We will eventually go the way of the Dodo bird.

[Cain]

You know what really blows my mind? This was the American Red Cross's largest mobilization in their history. The logistics of such a move are complicated, yes-- but they pulled it off without a hitch, and were moving in the moment it was clear.

The whole point of Homeland Security was to provide a clear chain of command in case of emergencies. The entire *job* of FEMA is to do the same. And they can't even get started as fast as the Red Cross?

FEMA and Homeland Security have no excuses. The Red Cross managed to do everything that they were supposed to, just on a smaller scale. Yes it was a disaster of unprecedented scale-- but if it's so hard to prepare for, how come the Red Cross did it? Bush's administration bungled the job, pure and simple-- and hundreds, perhaps thousands of people died because of it.

[UncleJoseph]

Yeah, after 9/11, FEMA and Homeland Security were supposed to have protocols in place to deal with large scale disasters. Although I think the president and many agencies fragged the whole thing up, there is one thing I thought of. A terrorist attack, such as 9/11 or the Pentagon, is a small (large casualty) incident. The logistics of trying to deal with the geographical scale and death toll of Katrina is staggering. Still, when you consider that polictics (not logistics) are what contibuted to the lack of response, it pisses you off.

[DV8]

Can you really expect national organisations like Homeland Security to function well when faced with a natural disaster of this magnitude when the have never really been tried and tested before? An organisation that big, across a nation of that size is bound to have bureaucratic problems, and will most likely not survive it's baptism very well.

Especially not when there's an incompetent fuckhead at the head of FEMA.

[Paul]

I think it's interesting you can find time to blame "Bushes administration", managing to single them out with ease as the sole propietors of blame here. It must be an amazing talent to so deftly choose who is deserving of guilt, and who isn't.

[DV8]

I don't think I was blaming the Bush administration. Either you're knee-jerking, or you'll have to clarify who you were responding to.

[Paul]

Cain. Sorry that wasn't meant for anyone but him.

[FlakJacket]

One of the few organisations that seems to have come out of this with their reputations intact or actually enhanced has been the Coast Guard. Shame they're not getting as much credit as they should.

[Salvation122]

One of the few organisations that seems to have come out of this with their reputations intact or actually enhanced has been the Coast Guard. Shame they're not getting as much credit as they should.

Indeed.

And I've said it elsewhere, but FEMA did a very good job in Mississippi.

[Cain]

I think it's interesting you can find time to blame "Bushes administration", managing to single them out with ease as the sole propietors of blame here. It must be an amazing talent to so deftly choose who is deserving of guilt, and who isn't.

Well, let's look at the facts of the case, shall we?

First of all Bush has taken responsibility for FEMA's bungled job. That's actually a positive step, in my book-- as the saying goes, the buck stops here. A president should not try to place blame; he should accept the responsibility and get the job done. I think Bush is now doing the right thing, in this regard. He's not even making the hindsight excuse; he's simply admitted culpability, and is trying to fix the mess.

Second, Mike Brown had *no* disaster relief experience. None whatsoever. According to the article: "Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Brown had spent a decade as the stewards and judges commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association."

And if that's not bad enough, check out the next paragraph: "The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the top three FEMA officials had ties to Bush's 2000 presidential election campaign. Five of eight top FEMA officials had no crisis management experience, the newspaper said."

So, we see very clearly that Bush put his buddies into the job, and didn't even try to select from a pool of qualifed candidates. As president, part of his job is to make sure our government is staffed by qualified and skilled experts in their fields. (In fact, the core job of the Executive branch is to run our government. Basic law 101: The Legislative branch writes the laws, the Judicial branch interprets them, and the Executive branch runs them. You can't run something if you don't know what you're doing; so the president's job includes putting people who know what they're doing on the job.)

Now, let's take a look at who else could have been responsible for this mess. Brown claimed that there was total disarray at the state and city levels, which hampered his response. Okay, fine.

Problem is, first of all, FEMA is *supposed* to come in and take over for paralyzed systems. They're the Federal response, and Federal laws always trump local ones. They should be prepared for a complete mess at the local level-- if they aren't, then they're not developing plans for every contingency, let alone most of the likely ones.

Second, you cannot assume that the local government will have *any* assets left to bring into play. For example, among the record losses of life on 9/11, that was also the single largest loss of firefighter lives in world history. New York lost most of their firefighting force in one fell swoop. So, we have one very clear example: in the city where the disaster happened, it is more than possible that their emergency services could be completely wiped out. The FEMA reorganization and new plan development came in response to 9/11-- they should be prepared for some of the same things to have happened again.

Look, the FEMA reorganization, leadership, and procedures were *all* developed as part of Bush's administration. Most of it was specifically developed as a response to 9/11. Bush made a lot of decisions on this, and a lot of them turned out to be bad ones. Fortunately, Bush has since made the right decision: to admit that he messed up, to apologize, and then to start fixing the situation.

[Cain]

Can you really expect national organisations like Homeland Security to function well when faced with a natural disaster of this magnitude when the have never really been tried and tested before? An organisation that big, across a nation of that size is bound to have bureaucratic problems, and will most likely not survive it's baptism very well.

Again, the Red Cross and the Coast Guard. The Red Cross has been tested by fire many times; but never on this scale. If they were ever going to have a bureaucratic fuckup, this would have been the time-- but they got their job done without a hitch. The Coast Guard also was ready and swung into action immediately, and had assets coming in the moment it was clear.

If FEMA and Homeland Security were doing a lot of disaster drills, practicing their coordination with state and city assets, they could have worked a lot of the kinks out early. There may have still been some hangups, but they would not have been nearly this bad. Look, we train our military by massive repeated drilling, and they survive their baptism by fire just fine-- the same thing is true for just about any activity. Practice, practice, practice, until you get it perfect-- and then the real thing isn't quite as hard.

Especially not when there's an incompetent fuckhead at the head of FEMA.

Bingo!

[TheScamp]

The Coast Guard also was ready and swung into action immediately, and had assets coming in the moment it was clear.

Well, that's a part of the problem (or the bonus on the CG side). The CG is a relatively autonomous entity. A couple days before the hurricane even hit, they had rescue choppers on the way down from places like Cape Cod just so that things were in the area the instant the storm passed. Once the winds did die down, they simply moved in and started doing their thing without really needing anyone's say-so.

It's our pesky federalism that was one of the huge barriers to a well-organized response from fully national government-run agencies. They really needed not only permission, but specific invitations to swoop in and get to work. Now, naturally having absolute incompetants at the reins only magnified the already difficult to navigate red tape. But in this case, the fact that we're not exactly a nation (but rather an association of pretty independant states) is probably one of the major causes, if not the major cause, of the serious fuck-up.

[WillyGilligan]

It's our pesky federalism that was one of the huge barriers to a well-organized response from fully national government-run agencies.

I agree with you, but this line makes me think: "And I wouldv'e gotten away with it if it hadn't been for you meddling kids and your pesky checks and balances."