Katrina Blame placed directly on Brown

[Balta1701]

Despite all the efforts of many on the right to blame only local officials in New Orleans and Louisiana for the pathetic response to Hurricane Katrina by the government, in the past 2 days, testimony by Congress seems to have completely undercut those explanations. First, yesterday we had Micheal Chertoff, head of the DHS (and Brownie's boss), seemingly stepping partially outside of the spin controlled line and saying things like this:

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff acknowledged yesterday that Hurricane Katrina "overwhelmed" the Federal Emergency Management Agency and exposed major flaws in the nation's preparations for terrorism and natural disasters, but contradicted accounts by former FEMA Director Michael Brown about his department's handling of the Aug. 29 storm.

Of course, since he's still a government official, he still tried to cover his own arse and that of the President, but it seems that there's a new willingness to place blame on Brownie for failing to do a heck of a job.

Chertoff rebutted lawmakers' questions about why he worked from home Aug. 27, two days before the Category 4 storm hit, why he made a previously scheduled trip to Atlanta on Aug. 30, and why President Bush stayed at his Texas ranch until Aug. 31. "I don't think there was a sense of a lack of urgency," Chertoff said.

 

Instead, the secretary expressed growing frustration at days of conflicting reports from the scene, as well as the government's failure to speed relief to thousands of victims at the Superdome in New Orleans or to rescue residents by air or boat.

On top of Chertoff's words, today we have something even more damning...testimony by a person further down the line, the FEMA Regional Director for the area hit by Katrina, basically saying that FEMA wouldn't give hiim an answer and he basically ended up on his own.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials did not respond to repeated warnings about deteriorating conditions in New Orleans and the dire need for help as Hurricane Katrina struck, the first FEMA official to arrive conceded Thursday.

 

Marty Bahamonde, a FEMA regional director, told a Senate panel investigating the government's response to the disaster that he gave regular updates to people in contact with then-FEMA Director Michael Brown as early as Aug. 28, one day before Katrina made landfall.

 

In most cases, he was met with silence. In an Aug. 29 phone call to Brown informing him that the first levee had broke, Bahamonde said he received a polite thank you from Brown, who said he would check with the White House.

 

"I think there was a systematic failure at all levels of government to understand the magnitude of the situation," Bahamonde said...

 

In e-mails to various FEMA officials, including one to Brown, Bahamonde described a chaotic situation at the Superdome, where many of the evacuees were sheltered. Bahamonde e-mailed FEMA officials and noted also that local officials were asking for toilet paper, a sign that supplies were lacking at the shelter.

 

"Issues developing at the Superdome. The medical staff at the dome says they will run out of oxygen in about two hours and are looking for alternative oxygen," Bahamonde wrote in an e-mail to regional director David Passey in a call at 4:46 p.m. CDT on Aug. 28.

 

Less than an hour later, Bahamonde wrote: "Everyone is soaked. This is going to get ugly real fast."

 

Bahamonde said he was stunned that FEMA officials responded by continuing to send truckloads of evacuees to the Superdome for two more days even though they knew supplies were in short supply.

 

"I thought it amazing," he said. "I believed at the time and still do today, that I was confirming the worst-case scenario that everyone had always talked about regarding New Orleans."

 

Later, on Aug. 31, Bahamonde frantically e-mailed Brown to tell him that thousands are evacuees were gathering in the streets with no food or water and that "estimates are many will die within hours."

 

"Sir, I know that you know the situation is past critical," Bahamonde wrote.

 

Less than three hours later, however, Brown's press secretary wrote colleagues to complain that the FEMA director needed more time to eat dinner at a Baton Rouge restaurant that evening. "He needs much more that (sic) 20 or 30 minutes," wrote Brown aide Sharon Worthy.

 

"We now have traffic to encounter to go to and from a location of his choise (sic), followed by wait service from the restaurant staff, eating, etc. Thank you."

[Kyyle23]

Wow. If this is all true, then Brown is as big of a piece of s*** that he came off as being.

 

You can tell he was really inconvenienced because he had to cut his lunch down to 20 minutes.

Edited October 20, 2005 by kyyle23