Adam's Apple
Senior Member
- Apr 25, 2004
- 4,092
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Incredible bureaucracy - unbelieveable in a disaster of Katrina's calibre.
FEMA as DMV
By Rich Lowry, National Review
September 9, 2005
Among all the perils facing survivors in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina drowning, starvation, toxic waters, poisonous snakes sexual harassment had to be far down the list. But days after the disaster, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had 1,400 firefighters from around the country who had volunteered to help in New Orleans sitting in a conference room in Atlanta undergoing eight hours of training that included a sexual-harassment class. All this before they were allowed even to go to the Gulf Coast area to give out fliers and FEMAs phone number.
Hurricane Katrina has laid bare the peculiar perversities of the bureaucratic mind: its utter commitment to niggling rules, its inability to take risks, its failure to the think on the fly. Leadership matters, and in the disasters initial days, it was hard to tell when FEMA head Michael Brown was doing more harm when he tried to do his job, or when he tried to explain on TV how he was doing his job. But at the end of the day, FEMA is a close cousin to your local DMV, which you would never want to trust with your life.
In so much of the Katrina response, senselessness ruled the day. Post-9/11 regulations meant that FEMA couldnt put evacuees on flights at the New Orleans airport without security screening and federal air marshals on the flights. Apparently, the fear was that terrorists had positioned themselves in New Orleans prior to Katrina so they could pose as bedraggled evacuees, on the off chance an opportunity would arise for them to hijack a rescue plane. Since the power was down, the X-ray machines and metal detectors didnt work, and it was decided that manual searches would have to suffice. Dont forget to pat down the children!
for full article: http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry.asp
FEMA as DMV
By Rich Lowry, National Review
September 9, 2005
Among all the perils facing survivors in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina drowning, starvation, toxic waters, poisonous snakes sexual harassment had to be far down the list. But days after the disaster, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had 1,400 firefighters from around the country who had volunteered to help in New Orleans sitting in a conference room in Atlanta undergoing eight hours of training that included a sexual-harassment class. All this before they were allowed even to go to the Gulf Coast area to give out fliers and FEMAs phone number.
Hurricane Katrina has laid bare the peculiar perversities of the bureaucratic mind: its utter commitment to niggling rules, its inability to take risks, its failure to the think on the fly. Leadership matters, and in the disasters initial days, it was hard to tell when FEMA head Michael Brown was doing more harm when he tried to do his job, or when he tried to explain on TV how he was doing his job. But at the end of the day, FEMA is a close cousin to your local DMV, which you would never want to trust with your life.
In so much of the Katrina response, senselessness ruled the day. Post-9/11 regulations meant that FEMA couldnt put evacuees on flights at the New Orleans airport without security screening and federal air marshals on the flights. Apparently, the fear was that terrorists had positioned themselves in New Orleans prior to Katrina so they could pose as bedraggled evacuees, on the off chance an opportunity would arise for them to hijack a rescue plane. Since the power was down, the X-ray machines and metal detectors didnt work, and it was decided that manual searches would have to suffice. Dont forget to pat down the children!
for full article: http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry.asp
