Monday, September 26, 2005
Perhaps He's The Shadow Director
"Brownie" is still doing a good job...even after quitting. (AFP photo via Yahoo! News)
CBS News is reporting that recently-resigned FEMA Director Michael Brown, known more affectionately to President Bush as "Brownie," is still on FEMA's payroll. According to a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, "Brownie" will advise FEMA on Hurricane Katrina. This comes one week after "Brownie" resigned following criticism for his mismanagement of the Katrina response.
To all those conservatives who are still trying to pin the blame on Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, please remind yourself of the following FEMA failures, courtesy of the Katrina Timeline at The Washington Monthly:
"The agency [FEMA] dispatched only 7 of its 28 urban search and rescue teams to the area before the storm hit and sent no workers at all into New Orleans until after the hurricane passed on Monday, Aug. 29." - New York Times
"FEMA had already stockpiled for immediate distribution 2.7 million liters of water, 1.3 million meals ready to eat and 17 million pounds of ice, a Department of Homeland Security official said. But Louisiana received a relatively small portion of the supplies; for example, Alabama got more than five times as much water for distribution. - Washington Post
"Hundreds of firefighters, who responded to a nationwide call for help in the disaster, were held by the federal agency in Atlanta for days of training on community relations and sexual harassment before being sent on to the devastated area." - New York Times
"On the day the levees failed, the FEMA chief issued a news release urging fire and emergency services departments outside the area 'not to respond' to calls for help from counties and states affected by the hurricane 'without being requested and lawfully dispatched by state and local authorities under mutual aid agreements.'" - Los Angeles Times
"Around midnight, at the last of the day's many conference calls, local officials ticked off their final requests for FEMA and the state. Maestri specifically asked for medical units, mortuary units, ice, water, power and National Guard troops. 'We laid it all out,' he recalled. 'And then we sat here for five days waiting. Nothing!'" - Washington Post
The list of FEMA failures goes on. I thought Republicans were supposed to be better stewards of our tax dollars than that. What was I thinking?
