Materials released prior to this week's Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearings provide additional evidence of federal government failures in its response to
Hurricane Katrina: FEMA failed to act on Interior Department offers of both equipment and personnel. The Interior Department is formally a part of the FEMA-prepared January 2005 Southern Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Plan.
Committee Chair Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) called the documents "the most candid assessment that we've received from any federal agency... [W]e have another federal department offering skilled personnel and the exact kinds of assets that were so desperately needed in the Gulf region in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and there no response that we can discern from FEMA. That is incredible to me."
In addition, FEMA called off search-and-rescue operations on 1 September, three days after the storm hit, according to an e-mail from headquarters that cited security concerns. Post-event analyses have demonstrated that news reports of mayhem were exaggerated and that government officials were relying on news accounts for their "intelligence."
Examples of FEMA response and Interior Department offers follow:
- The Interior Department "proposed dispatching as many as 400 of its law enforcement officers to provide security in Gulf Coast cities ravaged by flooding and looting." It took FEMA almost a month to act on the offer. (cite)
Although FEMA called off search-and-rescue operations three days after the storm hit, according to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), ranking minority committee member, the Coast Guard and other local, state and federal personnel continued looking for victims.
(cite)
FEMA did request search-and-rescue help in New Orleans, St. Bernard Parish and St. Tammany Parish; however, the Interior Department "never received task assignments."
(cite)
The Interior Department made
"more than 300 boats, 11 aircraft, 119 pieces of heavy equipment, 300 dump trucks and other vehicles for clearing debris, as well as Interior-owned campgrounds and other lands that could be used as staging areas or emergency shelters" "immediately available for humanitarian and emergency assistance,"
according to the 7 November 2005 Interior Department report.
(cite)
Article Author: Kathy Gill
Kathy is a motorcyclist and writer; a prof at UW in digital media and an MSF instructor; formerly state and federal lobbyist. More About US Politics at her regular blog.
Article comments
1 - Bliffle
This is what happens when one appoints political hangers-on to top jobs instead of looking for talent. This administration has a terrible record on appointments, treating them like the old Jacksonian 'spoils' system.
2 - Kathy
I agree. And the recess appointments in January suggest that they have not learned this lesson. :-/