the contrast between Bush's FEMA and Obama's FEMA is striking

[scheming daemons]

compare and contrast the responses to the tornado outbreak and Mississippi flooding to the Katrina response.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Unfair comparison. Had Katrina hit Fairfax, Marin, or Kennebunkport....

Well, you know...

:thumbsup:

[leveymg]

2. Bush and Brownie would've found a way to f-ck it up, even if it was Crawford.

They're nothing, if not consistent.

[Retrograde]

16. Not Marin - too Democratic

That's Lynn Woolsey's district - went 70% for Kerry in 2004.

ETA: it was also Barbara Boxer's district when she was in the House.

[OHdem10]

3. When you believe Government is the problem, and Government

is incapable of doing anything well, you cannot run a government
effectively. It is that simple.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

8. THE REPUBS ARE BULLIES..... ALL OF THEM. AND WANT THE FEDERAL GOV'T TO FAIL

:evilgrin: :party: :toast: :bounce: :eyes: :argh: :wtf: :silly: :hangover: :dunce: :freak: :wow: :spank: :beer: :headbang: :fistbump: :pals: :grouphug: :hide: :weekly: :daily:

[madokie]

15. That pretty much 'splains it

[av8rdave]

4. Remember when Reagan said "government is the problem?"

It became a self fulfilling prophecy whenever the right had control over it.

[wiggs]

5. FEMA was also decimated under Bush I, ressurected and nursed back to

health under Clinton, then screwed up again under W.

Maybe people are getting the picture that the gop fills up the bathtub and drowns as much of the govt as it can (norquist reference) in the 4 or 8 years it has and when dems get in office they have to not only deal with issues that crop up but also empty the bathtub and deal with any govt repair done by the administration that threw a monkey wrench into the system.

[izquierdista]

6. But not enough people, fast enough

The elites have been fucking over the working class for going on 5000 years. Pharoah gets laid to rest in a big fancy pyramid with all the bling he needs in the afterlife, while Horus the stonecutter gets fed to the crocodiles.

[MadMaddie]

13. Yep, I said the same thing below.

[IndyPragmatist]

7. FEMA screwed up with Katrina, but they are designed to be supplemental

Alabama had a great state response to the tornadoes, whereas Louisiana's state response to Katrina was almost non-existent. Remember the hundreds of school buses that were just sitting in parking lots instead of assisting in evacuations?

I was involved in the recent national level exercise. The point of these exercises is so that states don't make the mistake the Louisiana made and expect the federal government to handle things. That isn't what FEMA is designed to do. The states respond to disasters because they have a better ability to do so.

For example, in the national level exercise last week they simulated a major earthquake. FEMA provided their resources to the state, and it was up to each state to figure out where to send them. FEMA doesn't have control over the national guard until a presidential order is declared (but that can't legally happen until 2 or 3 days after the event). So each state has to control national guardsmen, emergency response, and all of that.

What has changed in FEMA since Katrina, is that they are now more able to take over when state's aren't able to cut it. If the rules that were put in place back in 07 were there for Katrina, then FEMA would have looked a heck of a lot better. But they were offering resources and Louisiana wasn't using them. Now, if those resources weren't being used, but were needed, FEMA would be able to send them to the areas that are neede.d

[jberryhill]

9. ah, the famous "2,000 buses"

Yes... remember that it was only 364 buses, with no way to order licensed drivers to drive them, insufficient capacity in any place to go in advance of the storm, and insufficient provisions in those places for people on the non-existent 2,000 buses?

http://mediamatters.org/research/200509120005

http://www.snopes.com/katrina/photos/buses.asp

[IndyPragmatist]

10. Yes, I said "hundreds of busses"

And the point of having state EMA departments is to get plans for these types of things. I can assure you that Indiana has plans for these sort of things (I saw them implemented in the exercise). To not have the forethought to be have backup drivers for those buses in a hurricane prone area shows a total lack of planning.

Everything listed on that snoopes article describes a lack of planning.

[jberryhill]

11. I agree about the lack of state level planning

I perhaps was reacting to something you did not say, which was how the lack of planning at the state level was laid at the feet of Ray Nagin, as if he was supposed to find a bunch of drivers and order everyone out of town on some 300 buses to nowhere.

[MadMaddie]

14. Your last paragraph is key.

The most important thing is FEMA under Bush was run by a non-professional Brownie that in itself was a disaster.

FEMA is run by a profesional Disaster Recovery Manager that makes the difference.

[MadMaddie]

12. There is another reason why Obama's FEMA is successful

just as Clinton's was.

1. Clinton actually made FEMA a cabinet organization and the org reported directly to the President. FEMA received money and a real Disaster Manager was in charge.
2. President Obama has contact with FEMA, he is giving FEMA resources to react to disasters etc...


Bush on the other hand demoted FEMA to a low level organization, he put Brownie in charge a man with no Emergency Management Training. The Republicans wanted the organization to fail....there is no way around that fact.

[Forkboy]

17. Like night and day.

K&R