Paper: Internal docs show feds 'bungled' Katrina response

[rawstory]

Paper: Internal docs show feds 'bungled' Katrina response

RAW STORY

As the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency stepped down yesterday, government documents surfaced showing that vital resources, such as buses and environmental health specialists, weren't deployed to the Gulf region for several days, even after federal officials seized control of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, the (paid-restricted) WALL STREET JOURNAL reports Tuesday. Excerpts follow.

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Separately, internal documents and emails from FEMA and other government agencies dating back to Aug. 31 and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show the extent to which the federal government bungled its response to the hurricane. The documents highlight serious deficiencies in the Department of Homeland Security's National Response Plan, a post-Sept. 11 playbook on how to deal with catastrophic events. Mr. Chertoff activated the National Response Plan last Tuesday by declaring the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina an "Incident of National Significance."

In one instance, federal environmental health specialists, who were charged with protecting both rescue workers and evacuees, weren't called in by the Department of Homeland Security until Sunday -- 12 days after the Occupational Safety & Health Administration announced it had teams from various agencies standing by ready to assist. Even now, with mounting evidence of environmental problems, the deployment is being held up by continuing interagency wrangling, according to officials at the National Institutes of Health, which also is involved in the effort.

In addition, FEMA's official requests, known as tasking assignments and used by the agency to demand help from other government agencies, show that it first asked the Department of Transportation to look for buses to help evacuate the more than 20,000 people who had taken refuge at the Superdome in New Orleans at 1:45 a.m. on Aug. 31. At the time, it only asked for 455 buses and 300 ambulances for the enormous task. Almost 18 hours later, it canceled the request for the ambulances because it turned out, as one FEMA employee put it, "the DOT doesn't do ambulances."

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Paper_Internal_documents_show_government_bungled_Katrina_re_0913.html

Or, if you have WSJ access:http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112658472240639074,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us

[LiberalEsto]

1. Bush = Bungler

I want to see Bush = Bungler bumper stickers everywhere.

[KoKo]

2. How did WSJ get these documents? The Bushies always claim Executive

Privilege? Who leaked them? Anyone know or have any insight?

[KoKo]

3. The other puzzling thing about this is Why didn't they used the Phone when

E-Mails Failed, FGS! What kind of excuse is it to say "Our server was down." Sheesh makes me wonder what kind of employees they have that they could say their "E-Mails" bounced back in the middle of a National Emergency! :argh: