Leaked Katrina memo increases pressure on FEMA chief

Times Online ^ | 9/7/05 | Jenny Booth

[George Smiley]

I think the problem is FEMA was slow to understand the ramifications of the levee breach. They thought they'd dodged it with the hurricane. getting its information from the Governor.

[Not A Snowbird]

A "memo" formally requests assistance and provides the written record for the request. I'd be willing to bet the phone lines were burning up between FEMA and DHS well before the ink was dry on that "memo", and that help was already being arranged.

[Not A Snowbird]

They should have been trained years ago. They should be so well trained that they can go into automatic without thinking. After a crisis is no time to start training.

These people are volunteers. They're CBP officers, CIS, border patrol, office workers, etc.

[Echo Talon]

With all those buses and all the time they had before the storm, i think they could have gotten MOST of the people out before the levee broke. If they really tried.

[Bostton1]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1478886/posts#comment?q=1 Comment #166
From FEMA's website
Date: August 29, 2005 Release Number: HQ-05-175
In addition to holding regular briefings with emergency management officials in the affected states, FEMA reported the following activities, as of 10 a.m. today, as part of the ongoing federal response.

FEMA's emergency teams and resources are being deployed and configured for coordinated response to Hurricane Katrina. This includes pre-staging critical commodities such as ice, water, meals, and tarps in various strategic locations to be made available to residents of affected areas.
FEMA's Hurricane Liaison Team is onsite and working closely with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla.
FEMA's National Response Coordination Center and Regional Response Coordination Centers in Atlanta, Ga., and Denton, Texas, are operating around the clock, coordinating the prepositioning of assets and responding to state requests for assistance.
FEMA has deployed a National Emergency Response Team to Louisiana with a coordination cell positioned at the State Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge to facilitate state requests for assistance. In addition, four Advance Emergency Response Teams have been deployed to locations in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The teams include federal liaisons who work directly within county emergency operations centers to respond to critical needs as they are identified by local officials and prioritized by the state.
Rapid Needs Assessment teams have been prestaged in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Nine Urban Search and Rescue task forces and incident support teams have been deployed. The task forces are from Florida, Virginia, Maryland, Texas, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri.
Thirty-one teams from the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) have been deployed to staging areas in Anniston, Ala., Memphis, Tenn., Houston, Dallas, and New Orleans, including 23 Disaster Medical Assistance Teams. The teams bring truckloads of medical equipment and supplies with them and are trained to handle trauma, pediatrics, surgery and mental health problems. Two Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams are also included as part of NDMS assets deployed, which are able to support and rescue pets, and provide any needed veterinary medical care for rescue dogs.
Voluntary agencies, important partners in disasters, are prepared to augment local government services with shelters, mobile feeding units, water and clean-up supplies.
FEMA has 500 trucks of ice, 500 trucks of water and 350 trucks of meals ready to eat (MREs) available for distribution over the next 10 days.

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18471

[Recovering_Democrat]

In a memo to his boss Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Secretary, he proposed that the initial wave of 1,000 emergency workers would not be in place for two days, and that a further 1,000 would take a week to arrive. The delay was while staff were trained. In his letter he describes Katrina - thought to have killed more than three times as many people as the 9/11 terror attacks - merely as a "near catastrophic event". The memo has now been leaked on the internet.

The release of this memo is an attempt by the left to smear the administration. This will fail as well. The public will not buy the proposition that Michael Brown, George Bush, Michael Chertoff, or any other person in D.C. was supposed to know the extent of Katrina's damage.

The public will understand, however, the failure of Louisiana officials to follow their own written policies regarding hurricane evacuations.

[BonnieJ]

I have some relatives already parroting the media's mantra that it is all Bush's fault, too slow, feds don't care because they're poor and black, etc. But it's what I expect from them, they're part of the looney left...always. And beyond reasonable thought. MOST will see the reality of this enormous storm and the massive and organized federal efforts to help.

[floriduh voter]

on the job training and catastrophes don't mix.

[thomaswest]

There is a lot of political finger pointing about who is to blame for which parts of the New Orleans disaster, but there has been very little thinking. In my view, FEMA, local officials (the Mayor and Governor), the Army Corps of Engineers, the emergency planning groups are all at fault.

First of all, we observe that as of Monday evening, the city was hurt, but not flooded. All the catastrophe and suffering occurred after the levees broke, apparently about 10 PM that evening, which resulted in flooding the city. Before that moment, the remaining residents were not in severe danger. All the horrors occurred because of the flooding. All the future expenses are due to the flooding.

And this is where relatively simple and inexpensive measures could have been implemented in the months before. The levees did not fail because the water was so high that it overran them; it wasn't the direct effects of a category 5 hurricane that destroyed New Orleans. In fact, 99% of the miles of levees held perfectly well--there were two breaches, one about 50 ft wide on the 17th Street Canal and the other about 200 ft long on the Lake Pontchartrain levee.

What should have been done:
1. All the major levees should have been outfitted with electronic sensors to monitor them. There are a host of simple means from simple water sensors on the dry side (shielded from rain), to breakable wires to monitor continuity, to tiltmeters--dozens of technologies geologists use to monitor volcanoes and earthquake zones. These could all have been connected to redundant monitoring centers provided with multiple battery and diesel generator backup. In the event of an incipient failure, alarms would be sent pinpointing the area.

2. The important levees could have been constantly patrolled on the parallel roads so any signs of trouble would be seen quickly. Trucks filled with sandbags and crews ready to work would be stationed at intervals. Mobile cranes, too.

3. How did the levees fail? The most probable scenario is this. Levees, and dams, are at risk of water infiltrating under the barrier, percolating through and undermining the footing. This is well known, so engineers prevent this by carefully sealing the water side with mixtures of clay and grout to prevent any water infiltration. However, the dry side is usually not so protected.

Probably, water started to slosh over from waves. As it did, it ran down the dry-side walls and began to undermine the easily-penetrated dry-side foundations, possibly somewhat weakened by the heavy rains. Eventually, one section began to tilt slightly, allowing more water over, more erosion, and from then the result was foregone. The first breach probably was over only one or two 8-foot sections. But as everyone knows, as soon as water starts flowing fast through a breach, sections on either side go quickly. So a small breach became 200 feet wide.

4. Had the sensor monitoring system been in place and had the patrols been in place, this could have been prevented. Sensors and patrols would have noticed the water coming over--even at night--and immediately two-feet of sandbags placed on top of the levee, preventing further undermining. The levees would have been saved, and there would have been no massive flooding.

5. In a worst case scenario, the levees would have failed despite these early warning and corrective activities. In that case, the monitoring and patrols would have been able to raise the alarm. In a well-organized emergency management system, immediately loudspeaker trucks and buses would fan out throughout the city. "The levees have broken, The levees have broken. You must leave now. A flood is coming. You must leave now."

At the time the levees broke, there was a 12-18 hour window to get into the city and evacuate people. In New Orleans, the levees broke about 10 PM, there was no early warning, and there was no effort whatever to repair a small break before it became unstoppable. There was no effort to evacuate the residents with warnings of the NEW danger, after the hurricane had passed.

This was incompetence and stupidity at its highest.

[maryz]

I couldn't find that much either. I did check the FEMA site (for a lot longer than it takes to tell about -- bureaucracy!) and found some bureaucratese. If you have the patience, you may be able to find a way to translate it

Following is the status of preparations as of August 28:

Preparedness Activities
State Actions:

Alabama EOC is at full activation.
Florida EOC is at Level 1 (full activation).
Georgia EOC is at Level 1 operations.
Mississippi EOC activated, State of Emergency has been declared.
Louisiana EOC is fully activated, with mandatory evacuation orders issued.

Federal Actions:

FEMA Headquarters: The FEMA National Response Coordination Center (NRCC) Red Team is activated at Level I (Full Activation).

FEMA headquarters is conducting daily video-teleconferences at noon EDT with FEMA Region IV, the National Hurricane Center and the potentially affected States.

The Logistics Readiness Center is operational 24/7.

MERS Teams have been deployed to Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, and Texas to support Hurricane Katrina response operations.

32 Disaster Medical Assistance Teams have been sent to staging areas in Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee in preparation for responding to Hurricane Katrina.

Seven Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Task Forces have been deployed to Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi in preparation for responding to Hurricane Katrina.

The ERT-N Blue is deployed to the Louisiana State Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rogue.

FEMA Region IV RRCC in Atlanta activated at Level I (full activation).

Four ERT-As are operational in Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi.

FEMA Region VI RRCC in Denton, TX activated at Level I (full activation). (FEMA HQ)

[maryz]

Sorry -- that's August 29.

[maryz]

How did the levees fail?

WSJ and Rush both mentioned as accepted fact today that the big breach was indeed caused by the barge that had become unmoored.

[t2buckeye]

In the meantime, Major Garrett has told how the Louisiana Homeland Security...NOT the feds...REFUSED to allow the Red Cross access to the Superdome or the Convention Center, though the Red Cross had trucks of water and food. WHY? Because they wanted the people to LEAVE and felt that taking supplies there would encourage them to stay there and others to continue going there.
Of course....HOW these poor people were supposed to get out wasn't discussed.
The more this info gets out...and I HOPE there are going to be hearings now...the more the Times is going to look more ridiculous than it does already.

[Donna in Decatur]

well,well,well... It seems all the harping about how bad Brown was it turns out that the famous Mr. Witt did not perform up to par either during the 1999 Hurricane Floyd, with less taxing conditions, when floods that followed Floyd left tens of thousands stranded up and down the Eastern seaboard, wondering what happened to the federal rescuers. New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida were hit hard when Floyd slammed the coast on Sept.16,1999. It was the worst storm to hit the US in 25 yrs-yet it killed only 61 people. The death toll expected to swarf Katrina. Clinton Fema director James Witt won high marks for hurricane preparation, but the flook tha followed swamped his agency. A full 3 weeks after the storn had passed, Rev. Jesse Jackson interviewed Witt on his CNN show "Both Sides Now"- and complained that flood victims weere still sufferingf from a "misery index". "It seemed there was preparation for Floyd, but then came Flood Floyd" Jackson began. Witt explained the storms's devastation was unparalleled, prompting Jackson to ask what was being done for the thousands of families left homeless by Floyd. Though nearly a month had passed since the storm first hit, Witt said his agency was just beginning to address the problem. We're starting to move the camper trailers in." he explained. It's been so wet it's been difficult to get things in there, but now it's going to be moving quickly. And I think you're going to see a--I think the people there will see a big difference over within this next weekend." The Clinton Fema director came in for more criticism during another CNN interview- this time for failing to do a better job with Hurrican Floyd evacuation efforts. "I hate to do this to you so early in the morning," host Carol Lin began apologetically. "But I want to show some video of Hurricane Floyd. This was the evacuation scene out of Florida last year. And you can recall, some three-million people in three different states were hitting the highways, jammed back-to-back trying to get away from the danger. And much of the local as well as the federal government was criticized for this backup. What is being done this year to prevent somethig like this form happening again, keeping people in harms way?' Witt explained that evacuation problems were to be expected under such dire conditions."It was very unusual when you had multiple states all evacuating at the same time," he told CNN. "it was the first time that that has happened that way and it did clog the highways." While Witt's reputation remained largely intact after the Floyd fiasco, more than a few of the storm's thousands of flood victims complained the agency had failed them. "I had heard FEMA was going to be sowntown, so I got up early to get down there and get in line," one North Carolina woman told the AP, recounting her ordeal months after Floyd had passed. "The time came and nobody was there, just all these people waiting in line." "I had been let down so many times, I just lost it," the flood victim said. "A friend of mine came walking up and I just started toward her. She said, 'Robin,what in the world is wrong?' I was just standing there in the middle of the street crying, totally disoriented, practically hysterical." Weeks after Floyd's folldwaaters subsided, the suffering for many ha yet to be addressed. "We passed families sitting outside their now-uninhabitable homes, with their water-soaked possessions spread out on thier lawns,," the Raleigh's News & Observer noted on Oct 3, 1999. "Desperately picking through the mess for anything to salvage, most people- particularly the elderly- weemed to be in a state of shock." And where was FEMA? "The larger town had a visible FEMA and Red Cross presence," the paper said. "But in smaller towns it looked like utter confusion and despair-no one in charge, no one knowing what to do or where to go for help." Does this sound so ironic in this situation?

[DallasMike]

Fellow Freepers:

At the suggestion of writer Michelle Malkin last Friday, I have cobbled together a blogsite called Texas Clearinghouse for Katrina Aid to serve as a clearinghouse for refugee efforts in Texas.

Texas is getting more refugees than any other state -- that's fine, we'll take them all -- but we need help providing them with food, clothing, and shelter.

If you are a refugee, you can information that will help you find relief. If you want to donate or volunteer, you can find someone who needs you.

Right now the site mostly covers Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas but I will add various churches, schools, and other charities in Lubbock and Austin tonight. My wife was down at Reunion Arena in Dallas yesterday handing out care packages and spiritually ministering to the refugees as a representative of her employer. She says that the situation is tragic and that there's a lot of work to be done. There are so many children who don't know where their parents are or even if their parents are still alive.

There are a lot of churches and other organizations in Texas that need help in dealing with the problem and I would appreciate it if you would get the word out.

Many thanks,

Michael McCullough

Stingray blogsite

[diogenes ghost]

"on the job training and catastrophes don't mix" On another thread is a story about 1,000 firefighters from around the country gathered at a hotel in Atlanta awaiting transfer to Gulf Coast. They were getting sexual harassment classes, and were going to be deployed, not to do the jobs they are trained for, but to hand out FEMA booklets. To hell with FEMA.

[sphinx]

In a memo to his boss Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Secretary, he proposed that the initial wave of 1,000 emergency workers would not be in place for two days, and that a further 1,000 would take a week to arrive. The delay was while staff were trained. In his letter he describes Katrina - thought to have killed more than three times as many people as the 9/11 terror attacks - merely as a "near catastrophic event". The memo has now been leaked on the internet.

Before the storm, Fema had positioned front-line rescue and communications teams across the Gulf Coast. But officials acknowledged the first department-wide appeal for help came only as the storm raged. On August 29, the day that the hurricane hit land, Mr Brown also warned fire and rescue services outside Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama not to send in emergency workers unless specifically asked for help from local authorities.

One wonders if the author of this article was merely incompetent or deliberately dishonest. (Ok, ok, it's a rhetorical question.) To begin: Michael Brown wrote this memo characterizing Katrina as a "near catastrophic event"before the levees broke. That was a fair enough characterization at that moment; after all, I seem to recall waking up to "New Orleans dodged a bullet" headlines Tuesday morning, so Brown had a lot of company. The reporter ignores the timeline and inserts the word "merely" before "near catastrophic event" just to heighten the effect. Pretty cheap.

Secondly, Brown had already prepositioned his first responder types, as he should have. This article refers to a secondary call for volunteers to assist in refugee management, damage assessment, and claims processing. There's a lot of manning of phone banks and shuffling of papers involved. (I personally know several non-FEMA volunteers who have gone down to the region since Friday for this purpose, and if I didn't have two little kids, I might be with them.) It is simply false to characterize these follow-on folks as the "initial wave" of emergency workers. If Brown's memo used that terminology, it was inartful but presumably understandable in context. At a minimum, this article strips the context. More likely, it's a deliberate distortion.

[Donna in Decatur]

Major Garrett on Fox with Brit exlained the memo this way: He said this was written to Chertoff 5 hrs after Katrina made landfall from Brown's office in Baton Roughe where he had just landed to take charge of the operation. He had been enroute and sent itas soon as he landed. There Pelosi and Boxer!

[floriduh voter]

and drinkin' beer and playing cards. Something's really wrong if they are going through an orientation that wasted valuable hours when they already know what to do to save lives. You can't drink or eat booklets.

FEMA was clueless. Cat 4 or 5; it doesn't getting any worse than that. Fire the metrosexual appointees, the mayor and the La Governor.

[floriduh voter]

they were playing cards and drinking beer in Atlanta. Not by choice but they were FEMAnized.