New Orleans Paper Rips FEMA

New Orleans Times-Picayune prints letter to Bush, cites 'bald-faced' lies

September 4, 2005
CNN

Photo: FEMA Director Michael Brown

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Louisiana's largest newspaper printed a blistering editorial in Sunday's edition under the headline "An Open Letter to the President," criticizing the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina.

The Times-Picayune -- which abandoned its New Orleans headquarters and temporarily ceased its print publication last week -- called on every Federal Emergency Management Agency official to be fired, "Director Michael Brown especially."

"Our people deserved to be rescued," the editorial said. "No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn't be reached." (Read the editorial.)

The editorial joined other voices criticizing the governmental response to the disaster. Criticism has come from people affected on the ground as well as from politicians of both parties, including New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

Aaron Broussard, the president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, broke down in tears Sunday as he recounted how a colleague's mother drowned awaiting rescue from a nursing home.

"Everyday, she called and she said, 'Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?' " Broussard told NBC's "Meet the Press."

"And he said, 'Yeah, mama, somebody's going to get you.

" 'Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday.

" 'Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday.

" 'Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday.

" 'Somebody's coming to get you on Friday,' and she drowned Friday night."

"Nobody's coming to get her. The secretary's promised, everybody's promised; they've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences.

"For God's sake, shut up and send us somebody."

The secretary to whom Broussard referred, Michael Chertoff of the Department of Homeland Security, on Sunday rejected criticism of his agency's work.

"This was not just a hurricane; it was a hurricane that was followed by a flood," Chertoff told CNN's "Late Edition."

"It was unprecedented and, I think, that created a challenge that, frankly, overwhelmed a lot of people -- state and local folks. We had people on the ground who were pre-positioned," he said, citing 50 Coast Guard helicopters as an example.

Chertoff said federal authorities "moved as rapidly as we could," and added that he, too, was frustrated that the pace of the response was not quicker.

"The fact of the matter is: It's never enough when there are still people suffering," he said.

"But there's also a tremendous amount of credit to be given: to the folks in the Coast Guard and the FEMA people and the state and local rescue people and, ultimately, the National Guard and the military, in rising to the challenge of this really unprecedented catastrophe."

Democrat to submit FEMA bill

Also Sunday, the top Democrat on the House Department of Homeland Security Committee blasted the federal government for its response.

"It was too little, too late," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat. "We missed the mark."

Thompson said the blame can be traced to the merger of the Federal Emergency Management Agency with the Homeland Security Department, when domestic preparedness "took a back seat" to preparing for terrorist attacks.

More recovery assets should have been stationed in a region where they could have been moved in to the affected area as soon as the storm had passed, he said.

"At the end of the day, somebody has to be held accountable," Thompson said.

Rep. John D. Dingell said he will introduce legislation Tuesday that would remove FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and make it, instead, an independent agency headed by a Cabinet-level executive reporting directly to the president.

"While listening to the wounded, broken souls who have emerged from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, I can clearly see that FEMA has lost its way," the Democrat from Michigan said in a written statement.

The mayor of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, said major problems still existed there.

Though 50 trucks carrying water and ice are stationed in Mississippi's Camp Shelby, FEMA has refused to release them, Mayor Johnny DuPree said.

"They're sitting down there right now because one person from FEMA won't make the call to say, 'Release those trucks,' " he said.

Two-thirds of residents of the southern Mississippi city have no power, and that figure was 100 percent for three-and-a-half days, he added.

He said FEMA representatives did not arrive in Hattiesburg -- 95 miles from New Orleans -- until Saturday.

"People from all over America have come in to help us," he said. "But the people who get paid to do this haven't done what I think they should have done."

"It could have been done a lot better," said Rep. William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat.

He said firefighters who had traveled to New Orleans to help relieve over-stretched counterparts had not been put to use. Authorities still "can't find ways to integrate firefighters offering help from other states," he said.

Rep. Bobby Jindal, a Louisiana Republican, added, "I think there's plenty of blame to go around at the state and federal levels."

But, he told CNN, "It's not the time to blame; it's time to make sure somebody's in charge."

Commander: 'This hurts to the heart'

The military commander in charge of the relief efforts, Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, defended the response time of authorities, saying they moved as quickly as possible, although he wished they could have moved faster.

"This hurts to the heart. And I can tell you that myself from walking the streets of New Orleans and seeing the people," he told CNN. "If we could have done it faster ... it would have been done. This is America. This is why we have one of the best militaries in the world, but it took time to get there."

Chertoff came to the defense of Brown, the FEMA director.

"On Saturday, he was on TV telling people in New Orleans they have to take it seriously, they've got to start to move to protect themselves," said Chertoff, who is Brown's boss.

Chertoff noted that Brown led FEMA's response to four hurricanes in Florida last year.

"I think anybody who lived through 2004 went through a crucible of training that is really remarkable," he said.

The secretary said disaster planners have long had a problem getting people to evacuate. He did not address the fact that lack of money, lack of transportation and physical problems prevented many from following the order to flee.

"I am concerned people, perhaps, didn't take it seriously enough up front."

But the time for self-criticism is not now, when life-saving work remains to be done, he said.

"We're going to go back and look at all of this after-action, when we have time, but I've got to emphasize something: We are still in the middle of an emergency," Chertoff said.

Asked about President Bush's comment Thursday to ABC News that, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees," Chertoff defended his boss.

"I think that did catch people by surprise," the secretary said. "I don't think anybody has seen that kind of massive breach -- in fact, multiple, massive breaches."

Scientists, federal officials and others had predicted for decades the potential for a Katrina-like disaster, with levees breaking and water swamping New Orleans, most of which sits below sea level.

Chertoff said FEMA is not equipped to send large numbers of people to help during a disaster.

Instead, he said, "FEMA basically plugs in to the existing state and local infrastructure. What happened here was, essentially, the demolishment of that state and local infrastructure and, I think, that really caused a cascading series of breakdowns."

The lessons from Katrina may result in a change in the way FEMA responds to such emergencies, moving from playing a supportive role to playing a more central role, he said.

Asked whether the government could have done a better job, he responded, "I think, when we go back and look at this, we're going to see a lot of things we put in place worked well; there are some things which did not work well."

OUR OPINIONS: An Open Letter to the President

September 4, 2005
Times-Picayune

Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we’re going to make it right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You’re doing a heck of a job."

That’s unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

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