🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 15:10:00 GMT, slim
<pickin's@nyc.rr.com> wrote:

It's clear... The CherKoff must GO!!!


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>Sep 7, 9:42 AM EDT
>
>FEMA Chief Sent Help Only After Storm Hit
>
>By TED BRIDIS Associated Press Writer
>
>
>See Expanded Coverage More Stories, Multimedia
>
>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) 
>Photo Galleries Haunting Images
>
>"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 

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  Liars share with those they deceive 
  the desire not to be deceived.
                        --Sissela Bok
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