Chertoff: "FEMA is not a response agency for disasters" . . .

[OneBlueSky]

Chertoff: FEMA Changes Could Be Radical
Wednesday December 21, 2005 1:46 AM
By LARRY MARGASAK and LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5493670,00.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - Meeting notes, released Tuesday by a union representative for federal emergency workers, stated that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told employees that many changes planned after Hurricane Katrina were for publicity purposes.

Chertoff's spokesman firmly denied he ever made such comments.

The typed notes, purportedly taken by an unidentified official, said Chertoff told the employees the retooling of the Federal Emergency Management Agency ``is partially a perception ploy to make outsiders feel like we've actually made changes for the better.''

(snip)

Chertoff believes that FEMA is not a response agency for disasters. ``We essentially should be only doing recovery,'' the notes said.

- more . . .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5493670,00.html

if FEMA is "not a response agency for disasters," then what the hell is it? . . .

[Media_Lies_Daily]

1. Well, that's going to leave a mark....on Chertoff! :-)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. WTF?

Umm... the Federal Emergency Management Agency "is not a response agency for disasters"?

And if even if they should only be "doing recovery," as Chertoff says, didn't they just prove they suck at that?

Here's what FEMA's own web site says it does:

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency - a former independent agency that became part of the new Department of Homeland Security in March 2003 - is tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disasters." http://www.fema.gov/about/history.shtm

[MountainLaurel]

21. Better change that mission statement soon

What a fuckwit.

[NanceGreggs]

3. Just MHO ...

If FEMA is "not a response agency for disasters," then what the hell is it? . . .

It's a place for incompetent Bush cronies to pretend they have jobs, while they collect exhorbitant salaries for DOING SWEET F*CK ALL.

[Karmakaze]

30. A slight modification

It's a place for incompetent Bush cronies to pretend they have jobs, while they collect exhorbitant salaries for handing out even MORE exhorbitant no-bid "recovery" contracts to other Bush cronies.

[NanceGreggs]

38. ... who, in turn ...

... sub-contract those no-bid "recovery" contracts to companies who do the job on a shoe-string by hiring illegals.

Ah, the GOP Food Chain - it's a wondrous thing to behold!

[me b zola]

48. You took the words right out of my mouth

:grr:

[KittyWampus]

4. Help Me, I'm Suffering From Outrage Fatigue.

[Straight Shooter]

6. Here ya go.

:hug:

[ContraBass Black]

7. Just inhale deeply and then scream.

You'll feel it coming back to you.

[KittyWampus]

12. actually, I just started crying a little. Blackhearted, dirty rat bastards

[xultar]

11. Ditto on that. I'm like ok WTF. How much more angry and pissed

off can I get? :shrug:

[tavalon]

59. How much more evil and corrupt can they get?

It seems to be a bottomless well on their side. I suspect the anger is the same on our side. It is justified and deserved by them, the lying, evil bastards.

[roguevalley]

52. I'm suffering from Dumbfuck Overload Syndrome -DFOS- for which

there is no cure. This is the same man that said, "Louisiana is a city that is underwater."

[Ioo]

5. Leo Bosner is a good friend of mine, I will ask for detailed this evening.

I spoke to his wife last night, and she said some news was coming out, I will ask what he thinks is going to happen...

Please keep in mind Leo is very above board, so anything he tells me he says as a member of the public, not as a spokesman of FEMA or the UNION...

I am sure there is a rant in there somewhere...

[politicaholic]

8. So what does the "Management" part in FEMA mean?

I've managed a series of projects and usually I'm there at the beginning making sure things are in order prior to implimentation.

Obviously Chertoff knows very little about management. Brown certainly didn't have a clue.

[JHB]

29. PR management

What else would it stand for under these vandals?

[tavalon]

60. Yeah, but

you're likely competent. Chertoff, not so much.

I saw a poster use an acronym DFOS Dumbfuck overload syndrome. It is appropriate and I am going to steal it.

[indepat]

9. I feel so much safer with the likes of Chertoff at the helm of this admin-

istration. ;)

[jbonkowski]

10. Not to defend him...

What he is saying is that FEMA should only be dealing with the cleanup, rebuilding, etc. and not actually dealing with the disaster while its happening. He is saying that should be left up to the police, fire, national guard, etc.

jim

[SoCalDem]

14. hah

[KittyWampus]

15. Oh. but you know, the response afterwards need to be set in place PRIOR

to the whole mess. And it wasn't.

And then, it certainly seems to be the case that FEMA interferred with help happening in every stage of the storm...

[bpilgrim]

16. see post #2

Here's what FEMA's own web site says it does:

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency - a former independent agency that became part of the new Department of Homeland Security in March 2003 - is tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disasters." http://www.fema.gov/about/history.shtm

peace

[bettyellen]

18. so it' okay not to plan for, help with recovery from or mitigating against

disaters?

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency - a former independent agency that became part of the new Department of Homeland Security in March 2003 - is tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disasters."

Looks like they failed on all three counts here. And where'd you get the idea that FEMA is a rebuilder?

[Marnieworld]

23. Sounds like you are defending him

See post #2

Here's what FEMA's own web site says it does:

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency - a former independent agency that became part of the new Department of Homeland Security in March 2003 - is tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disasters." http://www.fema.gov/about/history.shtm

It is the responsibility of FEMA to deal with an emergency before during and after. There is no excuse for such incompetence and dereliction of duty. There was so much warning and the NOLA and the Gulf Coast begged for help and were ignored.
If the locals are victims then are they just screwed then according to yur understanding? You mention the NG but what about the culpability of an administration that depletes their numbers and removes their equipment? How can they be responsible for anything if they are not in control?

[havocmom]

24. Federal EMERGENCY Management Agency

means not just a maid service for big clean up jobs. The Emergency part of FEMA would be, like, taking care of the immediate needs and problems. Clean up is what gets done after the emergency is attended to.

Scenario: Broken water pipe

Emergency: stop the flow of water and take care of any injuries that occurred. Get some food and potable water to displaced victims. Get temp housing arranged if place is not habitable.

Clean up: Get rid of water after the water flow is stopped and any injured folks get back from the emergency room, remove damaged materials and rebuild anything which was destroyed - stuff that can be done at a more leisurely pace

Federal
Emergency
Management
Agency
That is what is supposed to coordinate and oversee the work of first responder agencies and subsequent additional resources in event of large scale disasters.

Chertoff needs to go run a Merry Maids Agency if he thinks his job is to clean up.

[johnaries]

49. Yep! "Managing" an emergency requires a response.

The quicker the response , the easier it is to manage.

[Bridget Burke]

25. Yeah, the cleanup & rebuilding are going Real Well...

From their website: As it has for more than 20 years, FEMA's mission remains: to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a vision of "A Nation Prepared." At no time in its history has this vision been more important to the country than in the aftermath of Sept. 11th.

www.fema.gov/about/history.shtm

To me, "responds to" sounds a lot like "dealing with." Not to say they've done any better with the "prepare for, prevent" & "recover from" parts.

[baldguy]

26. "We'll help you AFTER your house is under water & you've nearly drowned."

"Until then, we won't be doing anything to move you out or keep the water away."

[Karmakaze]

32. That may be what he's saying...

but it is bullshit.

FEMA was created to act as a single focus point for MANAGING the efforts of police, fire national guard etc. Those agencies do not typically work that closely, and they all have seperate command structures. So to ensure CO-ORDINATED efforts FEMA was created to take command of those assets.

That is why the FEMA men marched into NOLA and said "I'm in command here!"

So forget about trying to cover for this dickhead, Chertoff has stepped in a big steaming pile of shit with this STUPID statement, and if the American people have ANY sense whatsoever, they will not rest until Chertoff is charged with negligent homicide for his actions in response to Katrina.

[jbonkowski]

47. Whatever...

...I said I'm not defending him. What he's saying here is just a rephrase of what been said before, sad but boring. The top management of FEMA and DHS have a "philosophy" about disaster preparedness that they have made very clear.

I DO think, however, that we tend to place too much of the blame for Katrina's outcome solely on Brown and Chertoff. The DHS is not a small agency. I tend to think of these guys as nothing more than suits who's job it is to talk to the cameras, and to receive updates and summarize them for the White House, not actually "running the show". Surely their deputies (or whatever) were also botching things horribly, and in probably much more of a hands-on way. The responsibility for any unnecessary loss of life is hard to pin on one person, and so far nothing has been done to analyze the federal government's response objectively.

Placing all the blame on one or two guys ignores the issue that a large organization dropped the ball in a hundred different ways, and needs a major shake-up.

jim

[notadmblnd]

56. FEMAs response was not a botched job

Search the DU "Katrina Scanner" threads and read through them. Many of us here knew by the Wednesday after Katrina, that FEMA's real mission was to disrupt and hinder disaster recovery.

[stanwyck]

34. Then he needs to read his own home page

because FEMA's website is contrary to what he is saying and what you are saying.
As Jon Stewart would say, the facts are now against you.

But, hey, good try anyway.

[sandnsea]

40. Well he would be dead fucking wrong

Hello? Federal Emergency Management Agency

EMERGENCY That's when something is actually GOING WRONG.

MANAGEMENT That means to direct police, fire, national guard who are responding to the EMERGENCY.

Jeeeeezus. If anything, you might want to argue that our other agencies should deal with the recovery. But certainly not that FEMA shouldn't respond to emergencies. If we don't have a national emergency response agency for massive disasters or attacks, we are truly fucked.

[tavalon]

61. And he is wrong

It's pretty clear what he's saying. It is also clear that it is bullshit. It doesn't pass the smell test.

[tavalon]

62. Mmmmmm

Time for popcorn!:popcorn: :rofl:

[BushOut06]

13. I actually did a term paper on FEMA in the 80s

In high school, I did a term paper on American post-nuclear plans in the event of a nuclear war with the Soviets. I believe FEMA was created primarily to deal with such an event. Uncle Sam even had plans on how to deliver mail and collect taxes in a post-nuclear nation.

But since then, FEMA has evolved into what it is now, an agency tasked with dealing with all types of disasters. For anyone to claim that FEMA isn't a response agency is simply absurd.

[tsuki]

17. Under this Admin, a pork barrel.

[FreedomAngel82]

19. Doesn't he know why FEMA was created?

:eyes:

[liberal N proud]

20. Just when you think they can't get any dumber

then they open their mouths again.
What in the hell are we going to do about this regime? They are killing America.
:nuke:

[Buns_of_Fire]

22. Gotta admit, he's right. FEMA certainly ISN'T a response agency anymore.

But yer doin' a heckuva job, Mikey. Whatever it is you're doing, that is. :eyes:

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. So what is FEMA suposed to do?

oh never mind, those who do not believe in government should never be allowed close to any government agency, not even dog catcher

[JHB]

35. The technical term is "Patronage Mill"

It's where you park people after you've run out of throwaway diplomatic posts.

[Osito]

51. A little explanation...

...may be in order. It's not your fault, but you have the wrong impression of FEMA's mission. The news, schools - heck, just about everybody - believes FEMA is supposed to be a response agency. Not true. I have been working with (not for) FEMA since a point in time, where FEMA had not yet published regulations. The key to understanding FEMA's function is the word "Management" in the title. FEMA was created to coordinate the existing response and relief resources (federal, state, local and private), to create the infrastructure for communication between agencies, and to set up and enforce a standardized methodology for preparing for disasters through planning. That is, FEMA facilitates and coordinates the activities of the response and relief agencies. FEMA is not a responder itself. Consider the fact that FEMA has a total staff numbering about 2500 for activities in all 50 states and the territories. That includes supervisors, lawyers, secretaries, plan reviewers and a number of bureaucrats whose function is to do the actual communication and coordination. That doesn't leave any staff for driving trucks, handing out water, rescuing people, etc.

Perhaps the disappointment should be directed at the actual lack of a governmental agency whose primary responsibility is to provide relief. Federal government capabilities for providing relief are pretty much limited to the military. Due to the current tangle of laws designed to sort out disputes regarding who has the power and/or responsibility to do what, FEMA's mission is greatly restricted. Perhaps we should scrap some of the current laws and regulations, so we might be able to create an effective entity for response.

[Usrename]

63. Yep, seamless coordination before, during, and after.

They're doing a heckuva job. The whole ice deal shows the tip of the iceberg. Decades of dealing with disaster relief had shown that getting ice in to victims as soon as possible was an appropriate response for many reasons. These numbnuts decide (God only knows why) that ice isn't any big deal and decide they will phase it out. Heard Brownie testify about it before Congress. He says ice is only for storing medicine and they have new refrigerator trucks for that. Don't need ice.

And with moronic decisions like this one, in all arenas of disaster mitigation, people suffered and even died. If you haven't been through a major hurricane, it is impossible to explain how stupid that decision was. Getting ice in requires that roads be cleared. People that need immediate help have somewhere to go to inform the first responders. It is sort of the keystone to the whole system. Perishable food can be eaten instead of rotting. People can drink the ice when it melts. It is just so fundamental that it defies the wildest imagination that the heads of FEMA would kill the ice trucks. Unless they are not trying to help at all.

I know FEMA doesn't deliver the ice themselves, nor do they clear the roads, nor are they the first responders. But if they are not the ones scheduling and paying others to do these things, then who is? It is really all about the ice. If you understand how it used to work it is brutally obvious how and why it got so screwed up under these guys. All that ice stuff was a big pain in the ass. Don't need it. Problem solved.

[Jara sang]

28. What he is saying is criminal.

Somebody needs to tell FEMA that they aren't a "response" agency:

Known as "Mt. Weather", today the center is a hub of emergency response activity providing FEMA and other government agencies space for offices, training, conferencing, operations, and storage.

http://www.fema.gov/rrr/weather.shtm

Mount Weather is a state of the art facility that is capable of monitoring all sorts of disasters. To have a facility like Mount Weather and not utilize it for response is criminal. It's a kin to having foreknowledge of a crime and doing absolutely nothing to stop it.

[countingbluecars]

41. Perhaps they are monitoring/planning other things

from Mt.Weather. The place sure has been fortified recently-higher fencing, new bypass road, etc.

[OneBlueSky]

43. just curious . . . what's your source for this info? . . . thanx . . . n/t

.

[countingbluecars]

46. Mt. Weather is located on a public roadway.

I have friends who live on "the mountain" where the Mount Weather facility is located. I have noticed the changes on drives over the mountain. They have done major road work around the facility in the last couple of years. You can not get as close to the facility as you once could. Those of us who live nearby have also discussed the increased helicopter traffic in and out of the area.

[OneBlueSky]

57. thanks . . . n/t

.

[Cocoa]

31. then they did an excellent job

they magnificentally didn't respond to Katrina. :toast:

[melissinha]

33. F off Chertoff! If James Lee Witt were still chief...

Its too late Chertoff, we've already seen what FEMA can and should do.... you can't just dismiss responsibility to remove the liability for poor actions in the past.

We all know that if our election hadn't been stolen in 2000 or 2004, we would have a competent FEMA chief and there would be 1000 less dead people in New Orleans. I believe this with all my heart, Bushie himself praised James Lee Witt, but went ahead and ruined the agency in spite of all the good work he had done. As far as I am concerned CHertoff and Brownie are responsible for a lot of death and mismanagement.


Here's some info about JAmes Lee Witt and his tranformation of FEMA. http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/15369.html

[paparush]

36. Chertie's Doin a Fine Job! nt

[The Backlash Cometh]

37. Oh, holy Key-rist. Oh holy Key-rist. Can these people get any more

absurd?

[applegrove]

39. There is something inherently sadistic in neocon policy. They don't

like change that happens over time. They like people to be terrorized. I don't know why. In Ontario the new neocon government implemented welfare reform over 6 months - when people had leases and needed more time to adjust to whatever wrong headed policy was being implemented.

For sure - the kaos created by certain events like war or a hurricane - is part of the planning and thinking and hopes of neocon policy.

Why I call PNAC document Kaos manuals for the New American Century.

Forcing strife and pain is one of the main tenants of neocon thinking. Forced revolution. Apparently traumatized people make better sheep. Or something.

Disgusting!

[Lars39]

42. A terrorized populace is more easily controlled.

Neo-cons are for anything that keeps people "wrong footed", and the more things going at the same time, the better in their eyes.

[applegrove]

44. Exactly. Neocons in Ontario in 1995 implemented the change in

"shelter allowance" for those on Welfare three weeks after they got elected. Then they put the deadline 6 months away. Why could they have not implemented it over the course of a year or two? They had a majority in the province. They had 5 years till the next election.

Why didn't the neocons force everyone on welfare (with the exception of people with kids) to run out, break leases, and all together in the hundreds of thousands try and find shelter at a price that didn't exist? Why put the dealine at 6 months?

The only reason is to cause social revolution and pain.

They are sadists.

[DFWdem]

45. I have serious doubts about the validity of this report

..."The typed notes, purportedly taken by an unidentified official, said Chertoff told the employees the retooling of the Federal Emergency Management Agency ``is partially a perception ploy to make outsiders feel like we've actually made changes for the better.'..."

I have a very hard time believing a career bureaucrat would be dumb enough to make a statement like that in a room full of employees, knowing that more than likely at least one person doesn't like him and would love to release those statements to newspapers nationwide. However, with this administration practically anything is possible.

[centristo]

50. agreed --nt

[Stephanie]

53. I agree with you - this doesn't pass the smell test.

That is highly improbable language for him to use. I think you will find this on snopes.com before long. Not plausible, IMO. Not that they wouldn't do it, but they would never, ever say it, at least not in those words.

[DoYouEverWonder]

54. Then if that's the case

let's stop kidding ourselves and just shut them down. Think of all the money we would save.

[Nothing Without Hope]

55. So, is this being blacked-out in the US major media? K & R

Thank goodness for non-US press - it's not -yet-wholly owned by the puppetmasters of the Administration.

But will this join all the other important stories censored by the US "free" press at the order of the WH?

[tavalon]

58. You're doing a heck of a job, Mikey!

WTF has this idiot been smoking?

[mom cat]

64. It is a slush fund, not a responce agency for disasters.

[fearnobush]

65. "Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater." M. Cherkoff

Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff declare to reporters that

"Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater."

[rman]

66. To bad the Fed Govt. didn't know that

when they decided to let FEMA handle the mess in NO.

[jhain]

67. he should have checked on the internets first:

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/theme_home2.jsp
n the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort. The new Department will also prioritize the important issue of citizen preparedness. Educating America's families on how best to prepare their homes for a disaster and tips for citizens on how to respond in a crisis will be given special attention at DHS.

[Blue_Tires]

68. at least he's being candid

under the bush admin, FEMA is NOT about disaster response, just like the EPA is not about the environment, the Labor department is not about workers' rights, and NCLB is not about education...

[SharonRB]

69. What a moran!

Your last line was my first response when I saw the opening title of your post.

:wtf: