Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA

The Salt Lake Tribune | 9/6/2005 | Lisa Rosetta

[Macaw]

ATLANTA - Not long after some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight hours of training, the whispering began: "What are we doing here?"
   As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta.
    Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.
Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.
On Monday, some firefighters stuck in the staging area at the Sheraton peeled off their FEMA-issued shirts and stuffed them in backpacks, saying they refuse to represent the federal agency.
Federal officials are unapologetic.

Firefighters endure a day of FEMA training, which included a course on sexual harassment. Some firefighters say their skills are being wasted. (Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune)

[Jeff Head]

In my experience, the Salt Lake Tribune is pretty liberal for a newspaper in SLC.

I bet there is more to this story than meets the eye. UG, any info out of Utah on this?

If true, it certainly represents a failing in the FEMA response that must be addressed...and may be part of what Bush himself termed as unacceptable.

[kingu]

I am not sure that is what we need, perhaps just competent local governments and some sort of "covering plan" such that Houston goes to New Orleans or visa versa.

Regional planning would be a good start. Evacuation routes marked all along the coast has long been advocated as being a needed program. Directions to evacuation centers is also something that most people don't know.

As for FEMA's plans for their responders - every time I curse a lawyer on TV, another one passes the bar. I spend a lot of time cursing. They spend a lot of time filing lawsuits for everything. It is inexcusable what is happening at this conference, but the problem needed to be solved last decade, not now.

[newzjunkey]

What will the Cross do with all the money they collected?

I heard on the news (FoxNews Radio) the Red Cross will *ONLY* use money specifically marked "hurricane katrina" otherwise it's fair game to be storehoused for other purposes. So if you decided to send them a check *BE SURE* to put those words on the "memo" line. I'll be *most* of folks donating don't realize they must be so specific.

[BurbankKarl]

There is no one left to rescue....all the houses in NO have been checked.

[Macaw]

I'd argue the tone of this article was far from liberal. Pointing out a badly inefficient government agency that has firefighters doing sexual harassment training rather than out in the field helping out is conservative!

[Sally Golightly]

And, I've read, Allbaugh's college roommate and head of the International Arab Horse Association.

I'm losing track of all that I've read, but I'll go see if I can find a source for that.

[vbmoneyspender]

stopping the Red Cross from entering NO

How could FEMA have possibly been responsible for stopping the Red Cross. FEMA doesn't have its own police force and I find it hard to believe that the NOPD or the Louisiana State Police were saluting smartly when being given alleged orders like that from FEMA.

[newzjunkey]

You do realize that FEMA has already split the country into at least nine regions, right? CA, for example, is lumped with Guam and Hawaii. I heard our regional director interviewed on KFI on Friday. Her incompetence and bureaucratic dissembling was truly something to behold. The lesson being: take care of your own! If you depend on FEMA you'll be S.O.L.

[Jeff Head]

I'd just like to hear the entire story. I know the federal government requested federal employees be available for TDY who had specific experience. Two of the areas were fire fighting/first responders and also social counseling.

I just want to hear the entire story.

If in fact (as I stated in my earlier response) this error was made and the two got mixed up...it is something that must be addressed and is without excuse.

[msnimje]

You miss the point - using firefighters to pass out leaflets and stopping the Red Cross from entering NO and Chertoff saying he did not know there was a problem till Thurs means Bush needs to clean house

Your first two points are addressed by the fact that the volunteers safety could not be assured while there were roving gangs of armed thugs in a city with no electricity and no phone service as well as a total dysfunctional police force.
The last is absolutely true. The people in the Convention Center just took it over, they were not sent there by anyone.
The local paper, The Times Picayune made no mention of the people in the Convention Center until Wednesday at 11:00PM on there website. The Feds were not told there were people in the Convention Center until Thursday morning and by Thursday afternoon they were all given food and water.
They were moved out Saturday. Given the state of the Infrastructure and the fact no one was in charge (Mayor Nagin was in BATON ROUGE), that is the best anybody could have done.

http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2005/09/04/katrina-response-timeline/

[Lion Den Dan]

Regional planning would be a good start. Evacuation routes marked all along the coast has long been advocated as being a needed program. Directions to evacuation centers is also something that most people don't know.

Kibnd of like the good old Civil Defense.

[newzjunkey]

That's not surprising. This means the body bags will start piling up in short order and disturbing numbers.

There are still folks left except they're unwilling to leave, be evaculated or otherwise be helped. At this point, those folks need to be ignored.

Thanks for the update.

[RGSpincich]

The emergency is over, the early panic was unjustified and the truth is some folks just wanted to be stroked. So FEMA is going to stroke them to shut them up. How many times have you heard,"I haven't seen anybody from the government ....blah,blah,blah..." Okay so here are the guys from the government and skilled guys just in case their skills are needed.

[NetValue]

Firefighters endured a day of FEMA training, which included a course on sexual harassment.

Why am I ROFLMAO?

[RobbyS]

Many peo[le have seen too many movies. In real life, magic doesn't happen.

[VeniVidiVici]

Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.

I call BS on this one.

I'm sure these firefighters thought they were signing up for a free trip on Uncle Sugar's dime some time ago, and after Katrina hit expected to be pulled from the conference and sent to volunteer.

I'm sure they found out otherwise that as long as the Feds were paying their way, they (the Feds) had other plans.

[Darnright]

>Be careful: some of the media think Joe M. Allbaugh is still director and attacking his as he spent some years involved with Arabian horses and apparently has a horse lobbying firm with his wife.<

That has been reported on at least one Free Republic thread, as Brown's bio.

[UB355]

The original FEMA request spelled this out, no surprise. Here is a link.

http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?sectionId=55&id=44440

[oceanview]

how is that possible? they have checked all of the attics in every house - perhaps for the living, but what about the body recoveries?