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A suggestion, an idea, and a mistake

Posted 06 Sep 2005 in disaster, Iraq, war

soakzone

You can decide for yourself which is which…

President Bush nominates John Roberts as chief justice
You gotta be kidding me. I think he’s a fine nominee for Supreme Court justice, but it sure seems odd to bypass Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas for the top position after the amount of experience each one has had on the bench.

Rebuilding New Orleans
I’m usually not in favor of big government programs, but I think now may be the perfect time for President Bush to create a new public works program. FDR did it during the Great Depression and built many of our nation’s lakes, forests, and dams. Do the same thing now for these areas affected by Hurrican Katrina. That could give many of the jobless citizens of New Orleans, Biloxi, and Mobile something productive to do, give them a decent daily wage, and give them a stake in their own future. Not to mention it could help draw people back to New Orleans (it will be interesting to see the figures in 5 years regarding how many refugees just decided to stay in whatever city they were moved to rather than return to their city of origin). After the job is finished, allow all the workers to buy houses and property at a greately discounted rate. Just make sure to raise the city above sea level this time.

FEMA on standby?
And in our What The Fuck segment, we’ve got 83 members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Urban Search and Rescue team from Orange County, Calif sitting and waiting in the Hyatt Regency Hotel here in Dallas!

Would-be rescuers cool their heels
By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News
They have been trimming one another’s hair, lounging on hotel chairs, chatting on cellphones. They’ve been up at dawn, exercising in front of the hotel, trying to stay busy. What they haven’t been doing is dangling from helicopters over flooded neighborhoods or going into half-collapsed buildings searching for hurricane victims to rescue.

The 83 members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Urban Search and Rescue team from Orange County, Calif., have been told to stay downtown at the Hyatt Regency Dallas at Reunion.

Since Friday, they have been sitting tight at the luxury hotel with members of five other teams of specialists from California, Nevada and Washington state – about 500 people all diverted to Dallas on the way to the Gulf Coast. There they have watched television reports, itching to help the stranded victims of Katrina but ordered by FEMA officials to stay idle.

The reason for the extended holdover? Team members were told that conditions were too chaotic in New Orleans, which has been plagued by violence and reports of gunfire aimed at rescuers, and the National Guard needed more time to restore order. In addition, problems getting supplies to the rescue crews already there, as well as victims, had not been worked out.

FEMA spokeswoman Debbie Wing said teams sometimes take a few days getting to disaster areas because officials need to prepare basic infrastructure to allow them to operate safely.

“There’s a strategic reason for the timing,” she said. “They need incident support teams set up. They can’t just go into nothing.”

Seven teams similar to the crews benched in Dallas were deployed to the area Aug. 28, she said.

FEMA’s fault?
But the highly trained team members – most of whom in their normal lives are firefighters – cannot help but think that their wasteful detour is another example of FEMA failing to adequately plan for Hurricane Katrina’s devastating aftermath.

“This is the largest natural disaster that anyone in this country has ever faced,” Battalion Chief Hawkins said. “FEMA has a lot going on, but draw whatever conclusions you want from all this.”

The federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina has been roundly criticized, with the brunt aimed at FEMA. Once a standalone agency known for its swift and sure response to national catastrophes, it is now buried under mounds of bureaucracy as part of the new Department of Homeland Security, which itself was cobbled together after 9-11.(emphasis added)

I can hardly believe this! We’ve got more of the manpower we need, but we’re just having them sit around and wait rather than getting in there and helping out (this is not their fault, it’s the fault of the planners and those orchestrating the efforts). When we were invading Iraq, the phrase of the day was “shock & awe” – we were supposed to be overwhelming the enemy with superior numbers and firepower. Why can’t we have the same kind of overwhelming force when it comes to helping our own citizens? Especially when we have people who are trained and designated to help out in situations exactly like this one!! Whoever was in charge of the emergency plans for New Orleans needs to be yanked up by the short-and-curlies.

Posted by FullMetalPatriot
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT

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