The good news is that FEMA Director Michael Brown is being relieved of his role in overseeing the recovery efforts for Hurricane Katrina:
Amid harsh criticism of federal relief efforts, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff announced Friday that Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is handing over Hurricane Katrina relief duties to a Coast Guard official and returning to Washington to oversee the national office.
“Other challenges and threats remain around the world,” and Brown is needed to prepare for those, Chertoff said at a news conference in Baton Rouge.
I know it’s not the partisan thing to say, but I hope this means the criticism can take a huge back seat to the recovery now…we’ll see.
The better news is that initial sweeps of New Orleans revealed far fewer dead bodies than was previously estimated:
Authorities said Friday that their first systematic sweep of the city found far fewer bodies than expected, suggesting that Hurricane Katrina’s death toll may not be the catastrophic 10,000 feared.
"I think there’s some encouragement in what we’ve found in the initial sweeps that some of the catastrophic deaths that some people predicted may not have occurred," said Terry Ebbert, New Orleans’ homeland security chief.
Ebbert declined to give a new estimate of the dead.
Authorities shifted their attention to counting and removing the dead in a grid-by-grid search after spending days persuading and cajoling the living into leaving the shattered city because of the danger of fires and disease from the filthy, corpse-laden floodwaters.
Clearly the folks long the Gulf Coast can use all the good news they can get right now. Let’s hope much more is on its way soon.
Do you think we will ever know the real total?
I imagine we’ll have a really good sense, yes. It may take awhile, but unless the dead were unaccounted for in any of the zillions of ways our information is stored, they’ll be missed eventually, even if their bodies don’t turn up.
i wonder how many people are just going to put down roots wherever they end up interned without telling anyone back in NO. do they keep track of everyone who gets on the buses?
How Many Deaths is Brown Responsible For …Steve Clemons
Clemons talks about a woman trapped in a nursing home, slowly drowning. Blames Brown, I disagree.
Let me make my position clear. NOLA was a mess and many of the rescue operations would have required a very large force in place for several days. IIRC, the hospitals were not evacuated til Saturday or Sunday. I do not think 30-50k workers and troops could have gotten into place until the end of the week in order to blanket the city with operations. I could be wrong about this, feel free to disagree.
I do think 5-10k could have secured two specific places, the Superdome and Convention Center by Wednesday. I think that was very doable, and do not understand why it wasn’t done. Even if Brown, as he says, did not know there were people at the CC, surely someone in the WH was watching TV.
I do not blame Brown for this. I do not think he had the authority to move the NG needed without higher approval. I suspect Rumsfeld, DOD, and Bush not wanting a partial deployment into an uncontrolled environment, and not being clear as to the lines of responsibility and authority with the national guard.
The what 50k? we now have mopping up an essentially empty city shows an aversion to risk that cost lives.
I think the blame game is an integral part of preventing a recurrence. After you’ve donated to the Red Cross and encouraged friends and family to do the same, what else is there to do for those of us who aren’t in a position to take in refugees or otherwise assist in non-financial ways? We could spend the remaining time praying, or do the patriotic thing and go shopping, but for most of us the events of the past weeks are a little much to just set aside and hope that somebody gets their ass in gear next time.
The Chertoff quote is priceless – “Other challenges and threats remain around the world.” That’s right: Brown royally screwed the pooch in preparing for a disaster his agency had predicted as a likely emergency scenario, and despite the fact that the disaster was not as bad as it could have been hundreds died needlessly. This maestro of cutting edge crisis management will now turn his attention to dealing with “other challenges and threats.” I for one feel a hell of a lot safer.
Blame serves a purpose if the same people are going to be in charge next time. If the Keystone Kops at FEMA and DHS had been fired, blame would be inappropriate – we all get out of our depth sometimes. They are still in position and planning for future crises, which they will no doubt do with the same level of competence they brought to Katrina. I’m not demanding accountability out of some sense of misplaced partisan outrage in which the victims of Katrina are mere props – I’m demanding accountability because I do not want to die needlessly because the leadership at the agency entrusted with emergency management doesn’t know its ass from a hole in the ground.
Admiral Coordinating New Orleans Recovery
Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen talks about his appointment to direct recovery efforts in and ar
I’m sad to say that what with the hostility to the media and the request not to photograph the dead, I wonder if this is spin (i.e., lies). Unless the men with guns in NOLA start showing a little more respect for the free press, I’m inclined to think the news coming out of the disaster area is public relations, not facts.
Other challenges and threats remain around the world,” and Brown is needed to prepare for those, Chertoff said at a news conference in Baton Rouge.
Dear God, let’s hope for the sake of the US that Michael Brown is not currently dealing with any of the US’s “Other challenges and threats around the world”. Unless they involve Arabian horses, of course.
Brown’s removal is the lead story on all three network news programs.
NBC says that Brown is in charge of the response to the oncoming Hurricane Ophelia. Isn’t that nice?
Of course, I figure that by now, he’s probably only authorized to order lunch. But I hope I’m not confusing my hopes with reality. And he’s just a fall guy, anyway.
Brown will not be fired. They’re already setting up the story that he had planned to leave in November anyway. Also, when he leaves it won’t be to slink off in disgrace — it will be to do fabulously lucrative work with his old college buddy Joe Allbaugh (the former FEMA head) skimming off his share of the $60 billion (so far) in reconstruction funds. And that’s in addition to the Medal of Freedom.
I need a frigging book. What exactly did Brown do or not do, that we are so specifically angered at him? Did he ask for helicopters on Monday, and was refused? Did he wait til Thursday. On the next thread up, CaseyL says says that fully stocked staging areas were in place on the outskirts of NOLA by Sunday afternoon. Was it Brown’s specific decision to hold the NOLA survivors in place, and not move materials to them? Do we really know what went on last week?
Looks like a fall guy to me.
“They’re already setting up the story that he had planned to leave in November anyway.”
Well, who is going to believe that? Beyond those who agree he’s done a “great job,” and that he’s badly needed back in Washington, that is?
“Do we really know what went on last week?”
A little. I’m too bleh to do the link thing at the moment, but there are documented gaps, such as five hours in which he should have made certain requests, and so on. And that’s just what we know that’s come out in the past week, let alone what we might learn.
But, as I already said, obviously he’s not a significant power in the admin.
Who’s going to believe that, Gary? The same people who believe all the other ridiculous statements put out by the Bush administration, and they’re the people who matter. And I’m not convinced that the media have abandoned their practice of pretending to believe the stuff as well.
Do I see a Presidential Medal of Freedom and more time spent with his family in Michael Browns future?
Call me cynical, but the only reasons that come to mind for finding less than 10,000 corpses are:
1) The gators ate them.
2) They got pumped out with the flood water.
3) Who cares. They were just a bunch of dumb [word edited by poster], anyway.
My money’s on 3) if anyone’s interested.
Your wife was in the hospital to have a baby but there began to be complications. Her doctor was nowhere to be found despite repeated calls for him.
Your baby was born with various known and unknown health complications that resulted from the delayed medical attention.
You have a new baby at home. Now is not the time for pointing fingers or looking for accountability because you have a baby to raise.