BBC News: White House admits Katrina flaws (WH report)

[Up2Late]

Thursday, 23 February 2006, 16:08 GMT

White House admits Katrina flaws

Inexperience and a lack of planning, discipline and leadership undermined the US response to Hurricane Katrina, a White House report has concluded.

Federal disaster response plans had "significant flaws", it says. Among 125 recommendations in the report is a call for more control to be handed to the Pentagon for similar disasters.

The report is the latest in a string of critical judgements on the response to the hurricane which hit last August, killing about 1,300 people. Compiled by White House homeland security adviser Frances Townsend, the report highlights 11 key areas in need of improvement in case of future disasters.

Most of those recommendations focus on the need for between communication between government departments, federal agencies and relief organisations. A Pentagon contact should be embedded within emergency teams handling potential disasters, the report suggests.

(more at link below)

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4744000.stm>

[cliss]

1. Well, here's what Mr. Chertoff

thinks about this. Yes, he acknowledges that some people made a few mistakes. His solution: expand the agency and hire about 1,500 new people to make sure this doesn't happen again.

And of course, he will stay as the head of Homeland Insecurity.

So much for "small" government of the repubs.

[LynnTheDem]

2. "flaws"... dead Americans lying in American streets for weeks... "flaws"

Cuba didn't lose so much as a fucking CHICKEN... not one person.

bushCabal admit to "flaws"...


Gee, how big of 'em.

[Up2Late]

5. No kidding, and I've already found "flaws" in this stupid report...

...like in this paragraph from page 8:

In general terms, the challenges to our collective response to Hurricane Katrina are not difficult to identify. Hurricane Katrina, its 115-130 mph winds, and the accompanying storm surge it created as high as 27 feet along a stretch of the Northern Gulf Coast from Mobile, Alabama, to New Orleans, impacted nearly 93,000 square miles of our Nation—roughly an area the size of Great Britain. The disaster was not isolated to one town or city, or even one State. Individual local and State plans, as well as relatively new plans created by the Federal government since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, failed to adequately account for widespread or simultaneous catastrophes....

115-130 mph winds!?!

WRONG! Giving them the benefit of a doubt, maybe they meant Category 4, 115-130 knot winds, which translate to 131-155 Mph winds, but that still down plays Katrina, who's winds reached 150 Mph and the Storm surge has been estimated at 25-30 feet, not 27 feet.

It might not seem like much, but those "flaws" were the difference between life and death for some of those who survived it.

[DeltaLady]

3. Serious

I have a doctor's appointment I'm rushing to and will be busy the rest of the day BUT my daughter called me nearly hysterical. She said buried in the report is an item where in case of a national disaster the "president" will have the right to send in and assign military and national guard troops at his discretion. According to her understanding, this is to be or already has been per executive order and would over-ride any governor's stance. Please, somebody with time today, please check this out!!! Inquiring and anxious minds want to know.

Many thank yous.

Delta

[Up2Late]

7. Here's a report from Reuters

(I'm sure more outrage will emerge throughout the day, as folk are able to read this 217-page report.)

Katrina report urges clearer Pentagon role

Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:36 AM ET

By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon should have a clearer role in dealing with disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, the White House said on Thursday in recommending emergency-management changes after a problem-plagued federal response. President George W. Bush, who has been widely criticized for an administration response deemed too slow, had ordered the review on September 6 as New Orleans and other areas of the Gulf Coast struggled to recover from the disaster which killed about 1,300 people and left thousands homeless....

(clip)

...The report said the departments of Homeland Security and Defense should jointly plan for the military's disaster support, and in "extraordinary circumstances" the Defense Department should lead the federal effort. The federal government should not be the first responder to a disaster, but should help state and local authorities when they become overwhelmed, it said.

"Federal officials struggled to perform responsibilities generally conducted by state and local authorities, such as the rescue of citizens stranded by the rising floodwaters, provision of law enforcement, and evacuation of the remaining population of New Orleans," the report said. It cited a lack of planning and of a functioning state and local command structure.

On the military's role, it said, "The federal response to Hurricane Katrina demonstrates that the Department of Defense (DOD) has the capability to play a critical role in the nation's response to catastrophic events." "Since DOD, first and foremost, has its critical overseas mission, the solution to improving the federal response to future catastrophes cannot simply be 'let the Department of Defense do it'," it said. But the department's abilities to help must be better identified and built into response plans....

(more at link below)

<http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=11318389&src=rss/topNews>

[DeltaLady]

4. Here is a link with a clue

Among the White House's suggestions is a stronger role for the Pentagon in planning for disaster response, including working with Homeland Security to determine when the military should take over federal relief efforts in extraordinary cases.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/23/katrina.washington.ap/index.html

[DeltaLady]

6. Found mention of it here

Having already wrecked a legendary American city, Hurricane Katrina may now be invoked to undermine a fundamental principle of American law: When it comes to domestic policing, the military should be a last resort, not a first responder.

On Sept. 26, President Bush urged Congress to consider revising federal laws so that the U.S. military could seize control immediately in the aftermath of a natural disaster, noting that "it may require change of law."

The law the president seems to be referring to is the Posse Comitatus Act, the longstanding federal statute that restricts the government's ability to use the U.S. military as a police force.

Sen. John Warner, R.-Va., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, also has signaled his desire to change the law.

Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita called Posse Comitatus a "very archaic" statute that hampers the president's ability to respond to a crisis.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5115

[LynnTheDem]

8. "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier..."

"...just so long as I'm the dictator."
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0012/18/nd.01.html

-George "I'm an evil MFing idiot" W. bush

[Up2Late]

9. kick n/t

:kick: