Posted on 07/12/2010 7:40:37 PM PDT by Richard Kimball
Baldwin County, Ala., fire chiefs fired a letter to BP and federal officials claiming that their departments were rebuffed in their efforts to help protect beaches and waterways from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The chiefs complained that a non-existent unified command stifled the county's 36 volunteer fire departments' ability to stave off shore-based oil slicks, said Gib Hixon, president of the Baldwin County Fire Chiefs Association. Hixon said such oil pollution would critically impact the county's river estuary system, which is a breeding ground for fish, shrimp, crabs, pelicans and ospreys.
"It is a beautiful area," said Hixon, who also is chief of the Fish River-Marlow Volunteer Fire Department.
Hixon said fire chiefs offered BP equipment and knowledge and, in return, asked for the chemical make-up of leaking materials "so we could train our people to safely handle it, but we got no response whatsoever." County chiefs became frustrated at the lack of unified command and the disregard for local resources, including boats and crews who have knowledge of the area's waterways.
"You can't plan on how to boom off an area from an office 50 miles away looking at a map," he said. "It just won't work."
As soon as the spill became public knowledge, Jamie Hinton, volunteer chief of the Magnolia Springs (Ala.) Fire Department, said he contacted unified command based on NIMS — which provides for unified, area and then local command structures — and didn't receive a response, only threats that any action taken without strict permission of unified command would lead to criminal consequences.
"No one was speaking to us," Hinton said. "Without permission, I felt as if I had violated a federal order by going ahead with our plan as we were."
(Excerpt) Read more at firechief.com ...
Rep. Joe Barton of Texas was able to get BP to set up meetings with the local chiefs.
You have got to be kidding me. 0 himself said he was in-charge. Or was the the CG. No wait it as the Admiral. I mean... I'm starting to understand now. Oy.
This is the lamest BS I've seen since The Usurper's last press conference.
Same thing happened in Louisiana with Katrina. The Feds (and the local Dems) were up in Baton Rouge ordering computers and office equipment while everything was happening.
I don't know anything about plugging leaks, but a lot of this oil could have been cleaned up by now. The Feds have gone beyond being paralyzed themselves to ordering everyone else to be paralyzed. They're more concerned with stopping locals from protecting the beaches than they are with the clean up.
Frankly I'm tired of the whining that nobody will give "permission".
Screw permission. Get out there and do it and worry about permission later. The Feds can't do squat against anybody for cleaning up without permission without coming off as complete idiots.
Yep. It's also the reason every county and parish is required to have an Emergency Operations Coordinator. It's the reason the Feds require every local emergency service to adopt NIMS. It's the reason every paid and volunteer firefighter is required to take NIMS courses.
People in the know tell me that FEMA has gone from being a pretty decent agency to a monumental cluster since DHS took over.
Thanks for inside information.
It’s a shame the U.S. doesn’t have some sort of Commander In Chief role that could be employed in a situation such as this.
How is this possible, Obama has been in control since Day One? (/sarkoff)
EPA needs to be kicked to the curb for this one. They're a bunch of lawyers that don't do anyone any good. They ruled one ship that skimmed oil out of water couldn't be used because the discharged water didn't meet EPA standards. No pollutants are added during the process and the water coming out is much cleaner than the water the ship picks up.
There is a lack of unified command. Obama is in charge. But I repeat myself.
Actually, the Bamster is doing better singing Hey Jude with Paul and playing golf. The president should appoint ONE PERSON with the authority to coordinate responses. This hasn’t been done, and every agency from the Coast Guard to the EPA is running around doing their own thing. I also suspect that he let BP call the shots for way too long. That’s one of the reasons for the news blackout.
Our PINO may be an idiot, but he is also a vindictive idiot. I am waiting for the federal charges to hit Bobby Jindal when the dust settles.
Ah geez, I would have figured that the hallowed light given off by the Annointed Idiot sitting on his thrown in the Oval Office of the White House would have been all the “unified command” these collective idiots would have needed to know what and how to do what they incompetently have not done..... =.=
County sherrifs have a tremendous amount of power, they along with the governors and their respective National Guard should be stepping up to the plate, telling the feds to go pound sand and get ‘er done.
I still think Obama, BP and most of the press are doing everything they can to cover it up. This is standard operating procedure for a community organizer. When showing up and giving a couple of speeches didn't work, now he's just pretending it isn't happening.
Austerlitz is considered by some to be Napoleon's greatest victory.
One of the main reasons for the defeat of the combined Russian/Austrian army was - LACK OF A UNIFIED COMMAND!
And the arrogance and over-confidence of the Russian Tsar and his entourage.
The mainstream media - Spinning common sense as if it is nonsense.
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