FEMA Closes Early When People Pass Out — Geez..talk about useless fools…
Saying they were caught off-guard by the number of people in need, FEMA officials closed a relief center early on Wednesday after some of the hundreds of hurricane victims in line began fainting in triple-digit heat.
The midday closing of the Houston disaster relief center came as officials in areas hit hardest by Hurricane Rita criticized FEMA’s response to the storm, with one calling for a commission to examine the emergency response.
Across southeastern Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency delivered ice, water and packaged meals to residents who rode out last week’s hurricane, which blew ashore at Sabine Pass in East Texas early Saturday.
But the agency was not ready for the roughly 1,500 people displaced by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina who sought help at the Houston center when it reopened Wednesday.
found by Ima FIsh
I would like to think that all the money we give these guys gets allocated for huge situations such as Katrina, but ofcourse Government doesn’t seem to be able to do anything right the first time or pre emp a disaster with planning and such things.
A freaken arabian horseshow manager. Sheesh.
Not knowing all the facts but, isn’t this the 2nd hurricane that they have to respond toin a couple weeks time? They are still dealing the 1st one. How would they be ready to respond to this one too.
The sad part is that with FEMA in command, they could be stopping actual aid from reaching people who need it. I haven’t seen the Red Cross on the news in days or weeks. Maybe the Red Cross is being kept out of the areas that need help. If I was in need I would call the Red Cross, a local church or the Salvation Army. The last thing I would want, would be anything from FEMA. You need water, food and shelter and FEMA has you filling out forms, standing in line and then puts you on a list. Then they lose the paperwork and there is a form to handle lost forms and another list of people who lost their paperwork which requires more forms. It’s the nature of government, it’s not that people don’t want to help people. The government is great if your house is on fire and you need firefighters. After the fire is out there isn’t much they can do for you unless you want to spend the rest of your life in a Bushville waiting for a federal welfare check.
FEMA has a fundamental misunderstanding at how disaster rescue is supposed to work. When you’re dealing with a disaster, and it’s your JOB to help, you don’t go home when it gets tough. You roll up your sleeves and you work HARDER. You keep working until everyone is helped. And it’s only then you get to go home.
And yes Dermitt, at least in the case of New Orleans the Red Cross was denied access. So were others who wanted to cross the border and help, e.g., water donated from Wal-Mart was turned back.
I read that FEMA was spending $300 Million/day. That’s what FEMA can do. It’s just amazing. It’s as if nothing was insured. That seems to be the real agenda. The more the government gives away, the less the insurance companies will have to shell out. It’s a shell game. If your insurance company can get the federal government to cough up money, you don’t care where it comes from if you are getting a multimillion dollar check. The average person is left hunting down a little water and a few gallons of gas for survival. This could be the finest hour for corporate welfare in history. You don’t see any news stories about insurance because of the PR spinners. FEMA will pay for everything.
I’m glad to see that the talking points have made it around and you’re now focusing on the real problem, the failure of big government.
Yes. It can help hatch a plan to steal poor people’s land for developers by taking advantage of a devestating tragedy. A new form of emminent domain. Btw, I’m waiting for the inevitable attack from Bush-backers also not of earthly reality. Go back to sleep suckers.
Actually, we’ll send you to Iraq Martin. Another armchair general. I love these people who talk tough – go enlist then. But, I forgot, it’s ok to send the mostly poor or others to die in wars as cannon fodder so some people can talk tough thousands of miles away.
The problem, to me, seems to be that the Feds likes to overlook that we are the UNITED states. A series of small areas, banding together to act as one large union, and contracting with the large union to provide and protect national military, roads, commerce between states, oversight of shipping ports, protection of states/peoples rights, and to handle natural disasters.
This was a failure of the Feds with FEMA. It was also impacted with the movement of key equipment and Nation Guard personnel OUT of the state and overseas. It was a failure by lacking any long-term planning (which was in place previously…just not with THIS administration) and the poor decisions of budget and execution of major projects (federal upkeep and maintence of the levee system in NO). It was ignoring audit reports, and having computer glitches. It was the failure by appointing people with “who they know” not “what they know”. This was compounded by this administration’s bonehead approach to everything….sort of a “god will save us/god watches over us” mentality.
The question is..who really controls the states response?
“The federal government may secretly control state-to-state assistance requests through a little-known entity called, the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC).”
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_lynn_lan_050928_do_feds_secretly_con.htm
Meanwhile, FEMA is a disaster. It was even POINTED OUT to FEMA by a FEMA internal audit (prior to the hurricane) that it was a disaster.
” An internal review of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s information-sharing system shows it was overwhelmed during the 2004 hurricane season. The audit was released a day after Brown vehemently defended FEMA for the government’s dismal response to Katrina, instead blaming state and local officials for poor planning and chaos during the Aug. 29 storm and subsequent flooding. ” To which the reply was “In an Aug. 3 response, Brown and one of his deputies rejected the audit, calling it unacceptable, erroneous and negative.”
( Essentially, Brownie put his fingers in his ears and responed with “lalalalalala” as loudly as he was able.)
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050929/REPOSITORY/509290365/1013/NEWS03
And, when one starts making fast decisions, amid chaos, panic and disorganization…bad decisions will be made. You cannot think out a crisis while you are IN IT. The failures are many. I am terrified now, because when the pandemic influenza hits…..we’re all doomed. Our goverment is dysfunctional.
Just listen to the opening comments from the chair and Brown of the FEMA hearings (on C-SPAN website) — unfortunately, people’s views of FEMA are guided largely by what they’ve seen on the movies — it is and has never been intended to be a first responder, and as I have heard someone say, it should more appropriately have been named the FAEMDOA (Federal After Emergency Money Doling Out Agency), which is really what they’re about. To expect more is ignorance (though they do have a role in helping locals put together building codes and the like, too.
The thing that galls me the most is how people (including Congress) are criticizing FEMA for not even watching TV for their intelligence. We should know now in teh wake of Katrina and Rita (I live in Houston) that the press has gotten almost every aspect of their reporting dead wrong and perpetrated myth after myth. I would not want emergency relief to be based on such mal-information. In fact, some of the failures of the relief effort were, it turns out, due to the bad reporting in some cases. Even verifiable reports that FEMA turned away Red Cross were mis-reported when, in fact, it was the LA state emergency management agency that turned them away — all told — a disgrace for an already disgraced mainstream media.
when, exactly did the term “first responder” show up in our vocabulary?
I don’t remember it prior to August….and the newest talking points by our administration.
And Darin, where are you getting this information? Cite yourself.
Darin
“Even verifiable reports that FEMA turned away Red Cross were mis-reported …”
If the reports were verified then I guess that gives them some validity. Face it, FEMA dropped the ball and screwed up releif operations big time.
On another note, what is FEMA’s Mission Statement? Their website suggests other agencies all have one.
In an earlier post I wrote that,
“The more the government gives away, the less the insurance companies will have to shell out. It’s a shell game. If your insurance company can get the federal government to cough up money, you don’t care where it comes from if you are getting a multimillion dollar check.”
I just saw on the news that there was $100 billion in uninsured property lost from storm damage, which is a whole bunch of property. It goes to show that people will take huge risks. Imagine living in a costal area, famous for hurricanes and flooding and not having insurance. It’s a big problem, because getting somebody else to pay off debt or replace uninsured property is not easy. If somebody lost a half a million dollar investment and was taking the risk of not insuring, it seems like the only thing to do is declare bankruptcy and start all over again. This is not easy and may soon get more difficult. The new bankruptcy law takes effect in mid-October. The tougher law may hit evacuees especially hard. The government that helps you, may be the government that hurts you.
uhhh, Martin….are you sure you weren’t in WWII, you are sounding like a really old fart there….. geez, shouting at kids to get off your lawn, too, gramps?
Chill out and lighten up!
NFIP was started after Hurricane Betsy in 1965 caused major damage in the Florida Keys and Louisiana. The program can borrow, but must pay back the money with interest. That is always how money works, unless you want to give it away.
About National Flood Insurance
In 1968, Congress created the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in response to the rising cost of taxpayer funded disaster relief for flood victims and the increasing amount of damage caused by floods. The Mitigation Division a component of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) manages the NFIP, and oversees the floodplain management and mapping components of the Program.
Nearly 20,000 communities across the United States and its territories participate in the NFIP by adopting and enforcing floodplain management ordinances to reduce future flood damage. In exchange, the NFIP makes Federally backed flood insurance available to homeowners, renters, and business owners in these communities.
Flood damage is reduced by nearly $1 billion a year through partnerships with communities, the insurance industry, and the lending industry. Further, buildings constructed in compliance with NFIP building standards suffer approximately 80 percent less damage annually than those not built in compliance. And, every $3 paid in flood insurance claims saves $1 in disaster assistance payments.
The NFIP is self-supporting for the average historical loss year, which means that operating expenses and flood insurance claims are not paid for by the taxpayer, but through premiums collected for flood insurance policies. The Program has borrowing authority from the U.S. Treasury for times when losses are heavy, however, these loans are paid back with interest.
END
Know your stuff. An inventory makes getting help easier. You can say that I lost this or that, but agencies or companies still want facts. Not that they won’t believe you, but they will believe the people with the inventory more. The more prepared get more help.
You can download the I.I.I.’s new home inventory software for free! This software makes creating a home inventory fun and easy. Once you have completed your inventory, this software is designed to make it easy to keep this information up to date.
http://www.knowyourstuff.org/download.htm
Minimum requirements: Windows XP, NT, 98 or MAC OS 10.3 or higher.
If you live in an area that may have floods or earthquakes, like California, having an inventory can save time later when the big one hits. Take pictures and videos of your stuff just in case.
Buried in what might eventually total $200 billion in federal spending for Hurricane Katrina is $488 million for what would be the nation’s largest school voucher program.
http://tinyurl.com/bpvwb