Here we are, six days after the superstorm Sandy hit the east coast, and the federal government’s response is about what you’d expect after a big disaster — unless your name is President Bush and the disaster was Hurricane Katrina. If that were the case, it would have been expected that the entire city of New Orleans would have been rebuilt — or something.
In truth, it is difficult to compare the two storms and the FEMA response. Katrina was much worse. About 80% of New Orleans was literally underwater, there were 25,000 stranded residents at the Superdome (moved to Houston 6 days after the storm made landfall), and looting was a huge problem.
For failing to address the crisis in a timely manner, President Bush and FEMA were criticized heavily — and demonized in the media. This despite the impassable roads, the downed bridges, and the wretched cooperation between state, local, and federal authorities.
The similarities between FEMA’s response to Katrina and Sandy are obvious; a disaster is called a “disaster” because infrastructure vital to the smooth running of civilization has been destroyed. Normal conduits to government aren’t working. Power is off. Streets are flooded or impassable due to downed trees. There are shortages of food, fuel, and water. Most of the things we take for granted that make life bearable were either impossible to get or broken and needed fixing.
We knew all of this in 2005 and yet, the narrative was quickly established (almost before the hurricane winds died down) that the federal response was inadequate and it was Bush’s fault. By the sixth day after Katrina, Bush’s presidency had been emasculated. I’m not surprising anyone reading this when I say the criticism was not really about FEMA’s response to an impossible situation, but rather a cutesy shorthand was created to tar President Bush and his administration as incompetent.
How’s FEMA working out for Staten Island residents:
FEMA’s vaunted “lean forward” strategy that called for advanced staging of supplies for emergency distribution failed to live up to its billing in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
In fact, the agency appears to have been completely unprepared to distribute bottled water to Hurricane Sandy victims when the storm hit this Monday. In contrast to its stated policy, FEMA failed to have any meaningful supplies of bottled water — or any other supplies, for that matter — stored in nearby facilities as it had proclaimed it would on its website. This was the case despite several days advance warning of the impending storm.
FEMA only began to solicit bids for vendors to provide bottled water for distribution to Hurricane Sandy victims on Friday, sending out a solicitation request for 2.3 million gallons of bottled water at the FedBizOpps.gov website. Bidding closed at 4:30 pm eastern.
Yep. Sounds like they’re on the ball, alright.
But the narrative for Sandy has been set already; Obama did a great job, it might even win him the election. Is this true?
Facing questions about his campaigning for re-election while millions of Americans still await government relief efforts from Superstorm Sandy, President Obama said Saturday that one of the disaster’s positive results was “leaders of different political parties working together to fix what’s broken.”
“It’s a spirit that says, ‘We’re all in this together,’ ” Mr. Obama told about 4,000 supporters in a high-school gym in northeast Ohio. “We rise and fall as one nation and one people.”
Really? I don’t recall any Democrats saying anything positive at all about bi-partisan efforts to deal with the crisis — despite the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana being Democrats. I guess we’re only “all in this together” on some disasters.
Besides, everyone knows this has been a smooth running relief effort from the start, right?
Perhaps nowhere was the scene more confused than at a refueling station in Brooklyn, where the National Guard gave out free gas – an effort to alleviate the situation. There, a mass of honking cars, desperate drivers and people on foot, carrying containers from empty bleach bottles to five-gallon Poland Spring water jugs, was just the latest testament to the misery unleashed by Sandy.
“It’s chaos; it’s pandemonium out here,” said Chris Damon, who had been waiting for 3 1/2 hours at the site and had circled the block five times. “It seems like nobody has any answers.”
Added Damon: “I feel like a victim of Hurricane Katrina. I never thought it could happen here in New York, but it’s happened.”
Uh-oh. He used the dreaded “K” word. Does President Obama know? One thing is certain, there won’t be a peep from the media comparing Katrina and Sandy FEMA responses. This can’t happen 2 days before the election. It might cause people to think that Obama’s response to Sandy isn’t any better than Bush’s response to Katrina.
And they’d be right.
“It’s a spirit that says, ‘We’re all in this together,’ ” Mr. Obama told about 4,000 supporters in a high-school gym in northeast Ohio. “We rise and fall as one nation and one people.”
In general– then we are hosed because some can’t and won’t carry their own weight, and heaven forbid you mention it. You’re expected to carry them, regardless of your own issues, dreams, or desires, while you cede to them the moral high ground–in all things– at the same time.
In particular–reinforces my belief that we in general we need to build “relief ships”, similar to maritime pre-po ships. Containing supplies and generators and desalinization plants. Because travel is often easier over water, if slower, and you can bring in some heavy pieces of gear and supply the shore from anchor/pier.
Squadrons of said relief ships (two or three each) in Tidewater/James River, Tampa, San Diego (all for CONUS), somewhere in the Med, Diego Garcia, somewhere in the Western Pacific. Goal to be on scene in two days (would be an issue in the Indian Ocean andPacific, where it might be twice that.)
Ships wouldn’t have to be manned fully, just have access to crew sources that could be called up in a few hours.
Probably also need something on the Mississippi/Ohio and Missouri, barge-ready.
Yeah, I’ve sailed them. Everything that a Marine Corps Expeditionary Brigade needs for 30 days of combat.
Or you could turn to the Oil Patch, within a few dyas they can be up and drilling in the damnedest places.
I live on Staten Island. I don’t know about the other boroughs, but instead of waiting for FEMA, our churches, synagogues and other social organizations have organized and are now overloaded with supplies like food (including pet food), clothing and other necessities. They are now asking for supplies to aid the cleanup, being done by volunteers from all over Staten Island – garbage bags, work gloves, dust masks, cleaning supplies, etc.
Of course, Staten Island is the conservative borough. The forgotten borough. The one every politician ignores until election time. The only one who ever paid attention to us was Giuliani, who made and kept some mighty promises to us.
And in Staten Island, it HAS been a bipartisan effort. Our democratic folks are very accountable to us. Hell hath no fury like a pissed off Staten Islander.
Yesterday’s gas distribution at the Manor Road armory was orderly and organized. We drove by it, and there were barricades directing traffic to the end of the line, police directing people, etc. We saw no confusion, no rioting, no fighting. Some impatience, yes. it was a huge line.
In contrast to the federal government, Andrew Cuomo actually mobilized the National Guard to go door to door in certain neighborhoods. My mother answered her door and was greeted by a polite, lovely Air Guardsman who made sure she had everything she needed (this in spite of the fact that she lives with us and we take care of her).
So yeah, screw FEMA, the federal government and Obama’s photo op. We’re taking care of our own.
I wish you and everyone on Staten Island Godspeed in recovering from this disaster. I’m glad to hear that the local effort is doing what the City, the State and the Feds can’t or won’t do.
That’s great news. As I commented on Roger Kimball’s post, I was afraid Staten Island was going to be New Orleans. Population trapped by government control of access and then victimized by the restrictions on personal initiative. I’m glad to see I was wrong.
Your description of the of the local groups filling the breach is what I saw in Katrina. Church groups showed up in waves to lend a hand. FEMA will eventually make it with a stream of faulty trailers, herding people into camps that make ghettos look attractive, watch for the cyclone fencing being trucked in.
Conservatives. Churches. Community. Civilization. This is what works. God bless you.
Ah, but the difference is, Katrina came just before the federal bureaucrat’s Labor Day holiday. By this time that weekend, all the feddies were on the Jersey shore or Eastern Shore. They hit the ground running on Tuesday with the fire of accountability under their backsides.
The Navy already has at least 3 ships, with personnel off the disaster area. They are manned, supplied and have helos. Plus, such resources need to be deployed with guns to protect the personnel and supplies. As Bloomberg has turned away NY National Guard due to their being armed, I doubt he’d welcome disaster ships with armed guards.
Quote of the day :
Americans don’t settle
Until Clinton and Witt, practically nobody had ever heard of FEMA. Since Clinton loathed the military and law enforcement, unless the LEO was procuring for him, he made FEMA the face of the federal government in “disasters.” Since FEMA had been a blacker than black agency tasked with the response to a nuclear attack, with the demise of the USSR, Clinton found all that lovely money. There was a “disaster” in practically every contested Congressional District in the Country during Clinton’s tenure. My wife worked for my state’s FEMA analog and it was truly a joke because we had a Democrat governor during most of Clinton and the fraud, waste, and abuse in the so-called disasters was simply amazing.
FEMA doesn’t have first responders other than a few “Type One Management Teams” whose job it is to get to the disaster site immediately and appraise the situation. Disaster response is a state and local obligation and FEMA’s only role is to be the federal ATM if the need is greater than state and local resources can meet. The mayors and governors can write a purchase order for gas, food, water, blankets, or whatever much more quickly and responsively than some FEMA bureaucrat and once the federal disaster declaration is made, the state just sends the bill, or most of it, to FEMA. I don’t know why it should be the federal government’s job to have warehouses of water and such or even all the “emergency” housing and such. Only something on the order of a massive nuclear attack or an asteroid strike would have more than a regional impact and supplies are at most a few days away anywhere in the Country.
And finally, if the last few years have taught us anything about natural disasters it is that YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN for at least the first three to five days. You should have in your house everything you need for everyone in your home to live safely for a week and you should have the means to protect your family and your “stuff.” You should also have “bug out bags” for every member of your family that can keep them supplied for two or three days in case your home is destroyed and you have to seek shelter. You should have waterproof storage for your most important papers and identification as well as a list of contact numbers and addresses. Sam’s Club, Costco, and most “outdoor” stores have pre-packaged emergency food kits that store easily and many of which will last for thirty years. There are also survival water supplies readily available as well as filters and treatment kits that would allow you to safely drink storm water. Don’t forget pet food and water. Gasoline can be stored for long periods of time if it is treated with StaBil or a similar product and you should have at least enough to fill your vehicle’s tank from empty. $1000 will buy you a high quality small generator that will give you light and allow you to run your refrigerator and freezer if you have one enough to keep them from thawing; keep the tank filled and treated with StaBil and have enough gas in reserve to run the generator for a week in addition to your vehicle gas. Anyway, there are some good books available that will teach you how to set yourself up to take care of you and yours for a week if you home is intact and to prepare to safely evacuate if you’re ordered to or if your home is destroyed. You can buy everything you need for the average family for under $1000 except the generator, which is another $1000. It is money well spent!
FEMA has 9,106 disaster assistance employees. Only 770 get federal health insurance.
That’s the title of a Nov 3, 2012 post on Ezra Klein’s WP blog by Sarah Kilff. The bulk of their employees are on call but not full time employee so not allowed to participate in the Federal employees health plan.
I don’t believe that. Just a quick look at Wiki says they have 7000 and change employees and a budget of about $6 Billion, which would make sense. FEMA has some number of what are called Incident Command Teams, I think organized by federal region. These are the only “first responders” FEMA has and they don’t go pull people off roofs, they laison with State and local emergency management functions to coordinate resources from other states and from the federal government. FEMA has lots of Subject Matter Experts and trainers who provide expertise and training to state and local emergency management functions. They also have lots of procurement and contract specialists and budget and accounting types. When my wife was with the State, she was on the State’s incident command team as a first responder as THE LEAD ACCOUNTANT. She works for a federal agency now as a grant administrator and is on call for emergency response in that capacity. In fact, she was called for something last month but couldn’t take the assignment because I was scheduled for surgery at the time. FEMA manages an elaborate network of SMEs under various mutual aid agreements with the states and under interstate compacts between the states. Once a federal disaster is declared, they have pretty much unlimited funds and the authority to call on other federal agencies and the states for practically any resources, but FEMA doesn’t itself have many manly men with tools and stuff; they have accountants.
Governors Christie and Cuomo were far more decisively engaged than Governor Blanco had been. Let us recall that it’s the governor’s job to ask for federal assistance. After all, it is the Federal Emergency MANAGEMENT Agency, not the Federal Agency of First Responders. The governor is also the person who controls the National Guard.
What has always irked me about the media narrative of Katrina is that Mississippi was actually harder hit. It never descended into the chaos of New Orleans and recovered faster because the state and local politicians there were by and large competent and cooperated with each other and with the feds. In New Orleans the mayor was overwhelmed, the governor dithered and Bush got all the blame from the press for their incompetence and political game playing.
– had a minor quake in September 2010, Clinton-Gore regime had FEMA go around and write checks.
” This can’t happen 2 days before the election. It might cause people to think that Obama’s response to Sandy isn’t any better than Bush’s response to Katrina.
And they’d be right.”
No, they’d be wrong. Obama’s FEMA response to Sandy is far WORSE than Bush’s FEMA response to Katrina.
Let’s review some facts…Sandy was a Tropical Storm when it crossed the Southern New Jersey coastline, Katrina was a full-blown Category 3 when it marched through the New Orleans Metro area.
New York City is in the very epicenter of this nations transportation infrastructure…EVERYTHING from rail, sea, air and road converges upon the New York Metro area. New Orleans was effectively marooned by bayous to her north, west and south, and the navigable waterways through the city were unnavigable, the MRGO and the Industrial Canal being what flooded the lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish.
Midtown and Uptown Manhattan have power and light and all the engineering necessary to modern civilization, but New Yorkers are reduced to eating “The Bloomberg Special”,(garbage) out of the “FEMA Buffet”,(dumspters).
There are MARAD ships stationed in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Norfolk with generators, which, with a sufficient size of cable and some on-the-fly power engineering from Con-Ed, could restore SOME power to the affected areas of Long Island and Staten Island.
Many of these vessels are also fitted with helidecks, the utility of which, for evacuating medical emergencies and inserting disaster teams, I shouldn’t need to enlarge upon.
Rail and road lines all converge upon Port Elizabeth NJ container port, as well as the chemical refineries of the Jersey Shore along the Arthur Kill,(“behind” Staten Island).
Here’s a tip for FEMA, even though these roads usually bring cargo OUT from these places, they can also be used to bring cargo IN.
From the north, Boston and Providence were largely untouched by Sandy, and their metro areas can be also be used as staging grounds to transport supplies and work crews and into Long Island…f’Chrissakes, we can sealift military goods around the globe, but we can’t get a six-pack of diesel generators across Long Island Sound?
REALLY?
This nation’s emergency response is a joke.
At least now we know why the Department of Homeland Security found it necessary to recently purchase 450 million rounds of ammunition…to make sure that none of their stockpile left their various warehouses and storage yards.
To recap for our friends at FEMA, to have civilization, you need:
1) Water
2) Food
3) Heat
4) Wastewater treatment
5) Power
6) Above all, to accomplish any of the above, you need ORDER.
If Bloomberg or Cuomo or any of the locals haven’t got their minds on re-establishing any of the above, then declare martial law, Federalize the National Guard, and lock the local “Warlords” safely out of the way.
“It’s a spirit that says, ‘We’re all in this together,’ ” Mr. Obama told about 4,000 supporters in a high-school gym in northeast Ohio. “We rise and fall as one nation and one people.”
(looks around) Um no, not really…we had some rain and power lines out but we are fine actually. Much worse there, wish them well but we are not flooding our basements in solidarity or anything. I dont see you standing in line 3 hours for water either Mr. President so who is this “we” who are rising and falling together.
That stuff doesnt work well in middle America. The BS is too obvious and over the top. People are more pragmatic in flyover country. It isn’t like the fancy pants New Yorkers all rushed in to help when the river was burning and all the steel mills and tire factories shut down.
I saw an article that Iran offered to send in help. Surprised Barak didnt take them up on it.
Yep, spindok, “The BS is too obvious and over the top. People are more pragmatic in flyover country.”
Add in the fact that experienced Ohio-based response teams (Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc.) arrived in NY within 24-36 hours and were told (paraphrased): Go somewhere else, we have nothing for you to do, no where for you to stay, everything’s under control, etc.
For many reasons, people in FOC (flyover country) are asking the classic Obama administration question: WTF?!
FEMA doesn’t provide manpower. They don’t have it. They provide coordination, resources, dollars. Someone mentioned the Governor calling up the National Guard. That’s his job (the President doesn’t have that authority), and that’s the National Guards job (not the active services). As to someone mentioning power, and ships. The problem isn’t the power source. It’s the distribution system, and that’s local. It’s damaged substations in a neighborhood and downed power lines. You have to get in and fix those, before you get power. We see it every year with ice and snow storms, where people are with out power for days to weeks. And I’ve no doubt you have a lot of downed lines. The question is can you get in and out? Can you get somewhere for food and water or are you stranded on a rooftop or in your attic? If you can get in and out, be thankful and happy. Now comes the long hard road.