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What Really Went Wrong With Katrina? Hurricane FEMA
Posted by Pile
(9699 views)      [E-Mail link]
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[Environment] |
 While everyone points fingers at state, local and federal authorities regarding how things went wrong in the Hurricane disaster planning, including claims by both FEMA and Bush that "nobody anticipated a disaster like this", truth is starting to seep out that this is complete BS. As the ex-FEMA director points fingers at the Louisiana Governor & other locals, insiders who were involved in the government's hurricane plan show who was really at fault. |
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The reality is, FEMA contracted an exercise to help produce a new disaster-recovery plan for the almost exact situation presented by Hurricane Katrina. In their exercise, the a made-up hurricane was the event which triggered deep analysis and logistical planning - a simulated storm which almost exactly took the path of Katrina. A project implemented by the federal government more than a year before Katrina hit involving dozens of agencies working together to figure out detailed, realistic plans on how to quickly rescue and restore the city. What went wrong? An insider posted a very revealing analysis of the project and points to FEMA as the main protagonist in making bold promises (and ultimately not delivering) during the planning stages, and even pulling funding in the final stages of the disaster recovery plans and causing things to potentially unravel after most of the hard work had been done.
So: Louisiana did have a hurricane plan, but was devising a new one, to be based on recommendation from the people who would actually be doing the work. The need to evacuate people from impact areas, including those without transportation or the means to obtain it, was discussed, despite media assertions to the contrary. The possibility of levee overflow was discussed (levee breaching may have been discussed at some point, but I was in the dewatering room, and I never heard it mentioned. A rescue and evacuation plan, including sheltering, was reasonably firm. There were and are officials in Louisiana, including New Orleans Emergency Management, who know the limitations of current planning and who have been trying to come up with a better solution.
The problem is FEMA, and by extension the Department of Homeland Security, which gobbled FEMA up in 2003. FEMA promised more than they could deliver. They cut off deeper, perhaps more meaningful discussion and planning by handing out empty promises. The plans that were made -- which were not given any sort of stamp of authority -- were never distributed or otherwise made available to those who most needed stable guidance; they vanished into the maw of FEMA and LOSHEP (probably when Col. Brown was removed from his command due to financial "irregularities" -- the project was tainted after that). Adoption of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) would have made most of the plans moot anyway -- FEMA's adherence to the untried NIMS is a primary reason for the chaos and ineptitude surrounding their relief efforts. |
Check out the whole story! |
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