Letters Show FEMA Knew Response 'Broken'

[Kadie]

Letters Show FEMA Knew Response 'Broken'
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
18 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - FEMA realized its response to Hurricane Katrina was "broken" and braced for rioting over woefully low supplies in Mississippi in the days just after the storm, according to new documents released Monday.

The correspondence among Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, provided by a special House committee investigating the government response to the storm, follows the release last week of more than 100,000 documents by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Taken together, the details from both states provide evidence that FEMA was unable to provide fast help at disaster sites — even when the needs were obvious.

"This is unlike what we have seen before," William Carwile, FEMA's former top responder in Mississippi, said in a Sept. 1 e-mail to officials at the agency's headquarters. He was describing difficulties in getting body bags and refrigerated trucks to Hancock County, Miss., which was badly damaged by the Aug. 29 storm.

"I personally authorized Hancock County to buy refer (sic) trucks that had been carrying ice becasue (sic) the coroner was going to have to start putting bodies out in the parking lot as his cooler was getting full," wrote Carwile, who has since retired from FEMA. "Still lots and lots of bodies out there."

more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_documents;_ylt=As98p8a2dxjLv.XBIu8ndams0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

[SpiralHawk]

1. FEMA was, and is, broken because BushCo is a failed crony-packing

culture of corruption.

It's that simple.

[cliss]

2. I'm SO glad my tax dollars are being wisely spent,

just in case something should happen to poor little us, all the way in Portland, Oregon.

NOT.

[RC]

3. The government wanted rioting as an excuse to send in federal troops.

"FEMA realized its response to Hurricane Katrina was "broken" and braced for rioting over woefully low supplies..."

This was done on purpose.

[Dunvegan]

4. And the decency of the average citizen...

...not to mention the bravery...foiled their plan.

The Administration and Repubs expected citizens to act as they do: with wholesale looting, war in the streets, and every person for themselves.

However, the last thing the Bush administration could have conceived of happened: Decency and heroism