Re: FEMA's wonderful job

On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 17:34:21 -0400, "doyle"
<doylecrudcatcher5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>"Josh Hill" <usereplyto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>news:md98i19mdreus7b7j1hnqhaet84avcrb2t@xxxxxxxxxx
>> On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 11:39:17 GMT, Wendy Chatley Green
>> <invalid@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> >For some inexplicable reasons, Josh Hill <usereplyto@xxxxxxxxx>
>wrote:
>> >
>> >:
>> >:Clearwater, Florida was not under water.
>> >
>> >60% of Pinellas County would flood in a Cat 5 storm. However, all
>the
>> >water would drain away within a day or so thanks to the natural
>> >topography.
>>
>> What does this have to do with anything? The bottom line is still that
>> they weren't overwhelmed, as New Orleans was.
>>
>> >Also:
>> >
>> >>" Mr. Thomas said in an
>> >>:interview. "But you mean to tell me that in the richest nation in
>the
>> >>:world, people really expected a little town with less than 500,000
>> >>:people to handle a disaster like this? That's ludicrous to even
>think
>> >>:that."
>> >
>> > Yes, we expect "little towns" that actually are big cities to
>> >plan for realistic disasters. Hurricanes on the Gulf Coast happen.
>>
>> Wendy, have you read the news reports? Because you don't seem to have
>> even the vaguest notion of the magnitude of this disaster, or why it
>> quite literally swamped the local forces. You're sounding like the
>> people at FEMA.
>>
>> This was /not/ your mom and pop hurricane or flood. There is /no way/
>> that New Orleans, with its police force of 1500 and its depleted
>> National Guard unit, could deal on its own with a disaster of this
>> magnitude. No city could, not even a New York or an LA.
>
>That's why municipalities and states not only develop but *implement*
>disaster plans, Josh. The plans depend on mutual support between
>communities within a state, but between states, too.

Which is why we have a Federal government, Donna.

>I'm sure it only slipped your mind that Florida was hit by four
>hurricanes within a six-week period last year, including one Cat 4 that
>went across the state diagonally. So we're talking about quite a bit of
>destruction that affected not only small towns but large cities like
>Orlando. Don't you think the local first responders (law enforcement
>and fire / rescue personnel) weren't overwhelmed, too? Others,
>elsewhere in the state, pitched in each and every time. FEMA came later
>because they are NOT first responders.

Those hurricanes had about the same relationship to what happened in
New Orleans and Mississippi that a dust devil does to a monsoon. Also,
your statement that FEMA is not a first responder isn't accurate. One
of the endless series of mistakes FEMA made in this case was its
failure to preposition enough supplies for a relief effort. But
supplies /were/ prepositioned.

>It might have slipped also slipped your notice that Katrina entered the
>Gulf by way of a little Florida town you might have heard of: Miami. A
>few other areas were affected, too. Eleven dead. Still, while dealing
>with what had happened downstate, Florida offered assistance and its
>expertise to other Gulf Coast states now in Katrina's path.
>
><excerpt>
>
>Florida emergency planners criticized and even rebuked their
>counterparts -- or what passes for emergency planners -- in those states
>for their handling of Hurricane Katrina. Gov. Jeb Bush, the head of
>Florida AHCA and the head of Florida wildlife (which is responsible for
>all search and rescue) all said they made offers of aid to Mississippi
>and Louisiana the day before Katrina hit but were rebuffed. After the
>storm, they said they've had to not only help provide people to those
>states but also have had to develop search and rescue plans for them.
>"They were completely unprepared -- as bad off as we were before
>Andrew," one Florida official said.

Right. State officials lacked the knowledge and experience to deal
with a hurricane that no locality could have dealt with anyway. These
are precisely the reasons why it has long been recognized by everyone
not in the Bush Administration that the Federal Government has to take
the lead role in disasters of this magnitude.

BTW, you are talking about quite possibly the greatest natural
disaster ever to have hit the United States, certainly the greatest in
the last century. And it seems that some here don't understand that,
don't understand the magnitude of the destruction. No one has denied
that Louisiana could have done a better job -- in particular, the
absence of a plan to evacuate the poor from New Orleans was
inexcusable. But such discussions are academic. This was /not/ an
event that could have been handled at the state level. They didn't
have the resources. State and local officials and employees were quite
simply overwhelmed.

></excerpt>
>
>So, Josh, don't get all high and mighty with Wendy when it comes to her
>awareness of the hurricane conditions local to her. How many have you
>been through?

At least four. Too young to remember the biggest one, though --
massive flood, vast destruction.

>"One thing Florida knows is hurricanes."
>
>http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/content/state/epaper/2005/09/10/m1a_response_0910.html
>
>http://tinyurl.com/b7767

--
Josh

"This is a devastating storm. This is a storm that's
going to require immediate action now." -George W. Bush,
four days after Hurricane Katrina
.

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