FEMA leaders lack disaster experience

[JC]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9261552/

FEMA leaders lack disaster experience
Agency has suffered ?brain drain? since 2001
By Spencer S. Hsu

Updated: 11:23 p.m. ET Sept. 8, 2005
Five of eight top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters and now lead an agency whose ranks of seasoned crisis managers have thinned dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

FEMA's top three leaders -- Director Michael D. Brown, Chief of Staff Patrick J. Rhode and Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks D. Altshuler -- arrived with ties to President Bush's 2000 campaign or to the White House advance operation, according to the agency. Two other senior operational jobs are filled by a former Republican lieutenant governor of Nebraska and a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official who was once a political operative.

Meanwhile, veterans such as U.S. hurricane specialist Eric Tolbert and World Trade Center disaster managers Laurence W. Zensinger and Bruce P. Baughman -- who led FEMA's offices of response, recovery and preparedness, respectively -- have left since 2003, taking jobs as consultants or state emergency managers, according to current and former officials.

Click on above link for balance of story.

 

[xpanda]

Jay, are you suggesting that running an Arabian horse club isn't a suitable qualification for charging up Katrina relief?

Horses fall down and go boom, you know. Plenty of opportunity for disaster, there.

Hell, if George Tenet deserved a Presidential Medal of Freedom, then this guy deserves two of them.

 

[Glaken]

No one was prepared for this ... there is no disaster 101 ... time to pull together guys.

 

[JC]

As a good conservative, I believe in something called accountability. I don't think there's anything wrong with pointing this stuff out. Better these incompetents be let go today instead of letting them work through it and looking at it later.

 

[Glaken]

Jay...Did you catch Hannity and Colmes today? .... First time ever I have seen Alan Colmes agree with everything Anne Coulter said...LOL

I also think Sharpton needs to lay off the race card here .... N.O. was 80% African American and is only stirring the nest...IMO

G

 

[BCTTWR]

Experience

Experience

Since disasters of this magnitude rarely happen, don't you think that now they are the only people qualified to confront something of this nature in the future? They are now the only people with experience. It made good sense to hire persons of their experience initially, as only loosely related experience is what can be asked for.

They were the ones most suited for the job at the time of hiring.

We all want to point a finger at someone for a lack of "perfection" after the disaster. From all of the complaining after the fact, I would like to hear how someone else would do it.
Celene Dion made me sick crying about the situation and her simple minded approach to how things should be done. What a dunce! It's a good thing these left wingers can sing or act because when it comes to logistics and numbers they are idiots. As if she could: Find a flight to an airport remotely nearby in less than a day. Find a marine vehicle to navigate into the city from the outskirts of it in less than a day. Pack more than a couple of people into each vehicle. Then turn around and do it over and over again for 10s of thousands of people quicker than the experts did during this effort.
This is the simplistic attitude of the complainers.
I believe this country is doing better than expected given the circumstances and lack of disasters of this magnatude to practice with.

 

[JC]

I'm not talking about perfection. But how about bringing in Helicopters with water on Monday instead of Thursday. On Thursday we saw blackhawk helicopters dropping massive amounts of water, there is NO excuse for that not happening sooner. That's what I was saying from day one, at least get them water.

 

[MLM]

I'm not talking about perfection. But how about bringing in Helicopters with water on Monday instead of Thursday. On Thursday we saw blackhawk helicopters dropping massive amounts of water, there is NO excuse for that not happening sooner. That's what I was saying from day one, at least get them water.

The Red Cross had all that stuff ready even before the hurricane hit. The Louisiana Dept of Homeland Security refused to let them pass it out because they thought it would encourage people to stay instead of evacuating.

Incompetence and petty power politics is what turned the aftermath into a disaster.

 

[xpanda]

... there is no disaster 101 ...

Sure there is. It's called experience. Plenty of people out there who could do a far better job than Brown. Thad Allen's been on the job now for all of thirty minutes, and he already sounds like he has full command of the situation. Brown never seemed to even know where to start.