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Wednesday, September 14, 2005
How high a fall, I could not tell
Knight Ridder's report raises far more questions than it answers:
But Chertoff - not Brown - was in charge of managing the national response to a catastrophic disaster, according to the National Response Plan, the federal government's blueprint for how agencies will handle major natural disasters or terrorist incidents. An order issued by President Bush in 2003 also assigned that responsibility to the homeland security director.
But according to a memo obtained by Knight Ridder, Chertoff didn't shift that power to Brown until late afternoon or evening on Aug. 30, about 36 hours after Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi. That same memo suggests that Chertoff may have been confused about his lead role in disaster response and that of his department.
Failure to act? Confusion? And this is DHS chief Chertoff, Heckuvajob Brownie's boss. Is that where the buck stops? Maybe, but maybe not:
When asked whether the delay in issuing the Incident of National Significance was to allow Bush time to return to Washington, [White House spokeswoman Dana] Perino replied: "Not that I'm aware of."
"Not that I'm aware of"? That's awfully different from "No". But wait, there's more:
The Chertoff memo indicates that the response to Katrina wasn't left to disaster professionals, but was run out of the White House, said George Haddow, a former deputy chief of staff at FEMA during the Clinton administration and the co-author of an emergency management textbook.
"It shows that the president is running the disaster, the White House is running it as opposed to Brown or Chertoff," Haddow said. Brown "is a convenient fall guy. He's not the problem really. The problem is a system that was marginalized."
I don't know if Haddow is right. In fact, very few people know very little about anything that has happened so far. We need to take the time for an exhaustive, independent review of what went right and what went wrong. With evidence pointing to failures within DHS, the White House, Congress, local officials, and elsewhere, we need an independent investigation to review all the relevant information and help our country prepare for the next disaster.
3 Comments:
Wow, Brownie gets bailed out by the guy who canned him. I saw this story in the PiPress. I suspect we'll hear more and more about it in the future. Go over to www.thinkprogress.org
They have a good claim/fact rundown on some of the crazier claims about the hurricane. The Boston Globe reported yesterday that Mayor Nagin did indeed request 700 buses to get people out and FEMA replied by saying that the Dept. of Transportation "doesn't do buses". The federal response looks worse and worse by the day.
cp
By 
, at
8:42 AM
The bus question is tought. Nagin is on record as saying he had buses, but no drivers. Something like 500 buses were available. Normally, you could squeeze 40 or more people on a bus, but if you're moving nursing home patients, then the number is probably closer to 10, considering all the equipment necessary.
The second question would be where the buses would go. It still seems to me that any reasonable planning would've found lots of beds available at colleges, military bases, local arenas, fallout shelters, and so on. Anything would be better than the Superdome/Convention Center.
Here's more on the bus question:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200509120005
http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2005/09/11/chronology_of_errors_how_a_disaster_spread/
It is a tough question. I was incorrect about Nagin requesting the buses...the LA National Guard made the request.
cp
By , at
10:25 AM
