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Sep 7, 9:42 AM EDT

FEMA Chief Sent Help Only After Storm Hit

By TED BRIDIS Associated Press Writer


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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top U.S. disaster official waited hours after 
Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast before he proposed to his boss 
sending at least 1,000 Homeland Security workers into the region to
support 
rescuers, internal documents show.

Part of the mission, according to the documents obtained by The
Associated 
Press, was to "convey a positive image" about the government's response
for 
victims.

Acknowledging that such a move would take two days, Michael Brown,
director 
of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from 
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff roughly five hours after 
Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29.

Before then, FEMA had positioned smaller rescue and communications teams 
across the Gulf Coast. But officials acknowledged the first
department-wide 
appeal for help came only as the storm raged.

Brown's memo to Chertoff described Katrina as "this near catastrophic
event" 
but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended,
"Thank 
you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities."

The initial responses of the government and Brown came under escalating 
criticism as the breadth of destruction and death grew. President Bush
and 
Congress on Tuesday pledged separate investigations into the federal 
response to Katrina. "Governments at all levels failed," said Sen. Susan 
Collins, R-Maine.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said Brown had positioned
front-line 
rescue teams and Coast Guard helicopters before the storm. Brown's memo
on 
Aug. 29 aimed to assemble the necessary federal work force to support
the 
rescues, establish communications, and coordinate with victims and
community 
groups, Knocke said.

Instead of rescuing people or recovering bodies, these employees would
focus 
on helping victims find the help they needed, he said. Pelosi says there 
were two disasters -- first the hurricane, then the sub-par response.

Sounds From the Scene Sept. 6: Longtime New Orleans resident and AP
writer 
Adam Nossiter finds a truth revealed with the flood. (7:57)

Sept. 2: Evacuee Brian Blatcher and AP Correspondent Allen Breed at New 
Orleans Convention Center (4:36)

Sept. 1: AP Correspondents Brett Mortel and Allen Breed and Hurricane 
Victims Helen Cheek and Mark Clark at New Orleans Convention Center
(4:29) 
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"There will be plenty of time to assess what worked and what didn't
work," 
Knocke said. "Clearly there will be time for blame to be assigned and to 
learn from some of the successful efforts."

Brown's memo told employees that among their duties, they would be
expected 
to "convey a positive image of disaster operations to government
officials, 
community organizations and the general public."

"FEMA response and recovery operations are a top priority of the
department 
and as we know, one of yours," Brown wrote Chertoff. He proposed sending 
1,000 Homeland Security Department employees within 48 hours and 2,000 
within seven days.

Knocke said the 48-hour period indicated for the Homeland employees was
to 
ensure they had adequate training. "They were training to help the 
lifesavers," Knocke said.

Employees required a supervisor's approval and at least 24 hours of
disaster 
training in Maryland, Florida or Georgia. "You must be physically able
to 
work in a disaster area without refrigeration for medications and have
the 
ability to work in the outdoors all day," Brown wrote.

The same day Brown wrote Chertoff, Brown also urged local fire and
rescue 
departments outside Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi not to send
trucks or 
emergency workers into disaster areas without an explicit request for
help 
from state or local governments. Brown said it was vital to coordinate
fire 
and rescue efforts.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said Tuesday that Brown should resign.

After a senators-only briefing by Chertoff and other Cabinet members,
Sen. 
Charles Schumer said lawmakers weren't getting their questions answered.

"What people up there want to know, Democrats and Republicans, is what
is 
the challenge ahead, how are you handling that and what did you do wrong
in 
the past," said Schumer, D-N.Y.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, appearing Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning 
America," renewed her call for an independent commission to investigate
the 
federal response, saying neither Congress nor the administration should
do 
it.

At the same time, she accused the administration of ignoring needs at home.

"The priority of this administration, at least domestically, has been
tax 
cuts," she said. "We need to put the American people first. We need to
be 
taking care of the needs that we have to fix the infrastructure. We need
to 
be having spending priorities that will protect our country."

She, too, called for Brown's resignation, telling CBS's "The Early Show" 
that she "would have never appointed such a person" and saying that Bush 
should have picked someone with more experience.

Meanwhile, the airline industry said the government's request for help 
evacuating storm victims didn't come until late Thursday afternoon. The 
president of the Air Transport Association, James May, said the Homeland 
Security Department called then to ask whether the group could
participate 
in an airlift for refugees.

---

On the Net:

Federal Emergency Management Agency: http://www.fema.gov

Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov

The memo from FEMA Director Mike Brown to Homeland Security Secretary 
Michael Chertoff is available at:
http://wid.ap.org/documents/dhskatrina.pdf 

-- 


Donald Rumsfeld: "If you're asking if there's a direct 
link between 9/11 and Iraq, the answer is no."
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4865948/ 

On May 01, 2003, President Bush declared that, 
"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended."

"I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- 
I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the 
interesting thing about being the president. 
Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they 
say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody 
an explanation. " 
- George "Dubya" Bush