Project Katrina

Because of the Katrina debacle (FEMA’s response, not the actual hurricane itself), FEMA has been under close scrutiny this week as the agency scrambles to respond to numerous wildfires torching Southern California. One way to show you’re doing something, other then actually doing something, is to launch a PR campaign. And of course that is exactly what the White House and FEMA is doing,

But FEMA can’t even seem to get their PR campaign right. According to the Washington Post:

Johnson stood behind a lectern and began with an overview before saying he would take a few questions. The first questions were about the "commodities" being shipped to Southern California and how officials are dealing with people who refuse to evacuate. He responded eloquently.

He was apparently quite familiar with the reporters—in one case, he appears to say "Mike" and points to a reporter—and was asked an oddly in-house question about "what it means to have an emergency declaration as opposed to a major disaster declaration" signed by the president. He once again explained smoothly.

There were no tough questions, no skepticism, no follow-ups, and nothing that seemed to strayed from FEMA’s carefully constructed talking points. Just softball after softball. Have the reporters from our major media outlets lost the backbone to even question FEMA? 

Well not this time cause the people in the audience asking questions weren’t reporters. They were FEMA staffers pretending to be reporters. According to the Post FEMA only gave reporters 15 minutes notice, so FEMA employees stood in. I wonder if anybody in FEMA has heard of the concept of full-disclosure. Some of those that asked questions were Cindy Taylor, FEMA’s deputy director of external affairs, "Mike" Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs, and John "Pat" Philbin,  Director of External Affairs. Nothing like having the people that prepped you on the press conference ask the questions.

Update: FEMA just issued statement saying it is "reviewing" its "press procedures" to make sure that future communications are "straightforward and transparent." They go on to stress, "The real story—how well the response and recovery elements are working in this disaster—should not be lost because of how we tried to meet the needs of the media in distributing facts. We can and must do better, and apologize for this error in judgment."

Note to FEMA. That is all fine and dandy, but how can we be expected to believe "the real story" when you can’t met the most basic journalist standards.

Yesterday President Bush made a “pit stop” in California for a photo-op and to showcase his administration’s ability to respond better to natural disasters than it did after Hurricane Katrina pounded Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. On Tuesday he pronounced the federal government’s actions “well-coordinated” after a Cabinet meeting to discuss the crisis. This would be the Cabinet meeting where Vice President Cheney fell asleep.

Bush and the Republicans are using this natural disaster to score political points by stressing to us they’ve improved on how they handled the last natural. The only problem is according to the Washington Post the comparison don’t make much sense.

Federal and state emergency managers say, however, that the two disasters can hardly be compared. Katrina’s floods and winds wreaked havoc on a far larger scale. California’s local responders lead the nation in training and coordination, while Louisiana’s rank near the bottom. And the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s responsibilities for battling wildfires are far more limited than its role in dealing with hurricane damage. “FEMA is not getting a real test in putting direct federal assets on the ground,” said George W. Foresman, undersecretary of preparedness for the Department of Homeland Security in 2005 and 2006.

[...]

While Katrina’s vast floods and winds covered an area the size of Britain at 90,000 square miles, fires in seven California counties blackened about 700 square miles as of yesterday —a footprint one-third smaller than wildfires burned there four years ago. The number of homes destroyed was about 1 percent of the 300,000 made uninhabitable by Katrina, and financial losses were less than 2 percent, based on initial estimates, comparable to the damage caused by wildfires in Oakland in 1991 and in Southern California in 2003.

It should be interesting to see how things progress over the coming weeks and months when we see if the promises made by the White House and FEMA are fulfilled. Or if this was just another in a long line of political grandstanding.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has requested and received presidential designation of a state of emergency for California, invoking the Stafford Act and therefore a response from FEMA to the wildfires that are still engulfing the great state of California. This means:

The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, and lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.

Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.

R. David Paulison, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named Michael J. Hall as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected area.

Lets take a quick look at how the Stafford Act is supposed to work, thanks for an “info” graphic from the Federal government.

You’ll note in the Stafford Act chart that it’s the Governor, who asks FEMA, who asks the President to declare a Federal disaster or emergency so as to free up funds and relief that through the National Response Framework can be delivered to the states. Past that, the chart and in fact, the entire process hurts my head. I sure hope Gov. Schwarzenegger has a “Chart Reading Expert” in place to ensure the people of CA get the help they so richly deserve.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has requested and received presidential designation of a state of emergency for California, invoking the Stafford Act and therefore a response from FEMA to the wildfires that are still engulfing the great state of California. This means:

The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, and lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.

Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.

R. David Paulison, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named Michael J. Hall as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected area.

Lets take a quick look at how the Stafford Act is supposed to work, thanks for an “info” graphic from the Federal government.

You’ll note in the Stafford Act chart that it’s the Governor, who asks FEMA, who asks the President to declare a Federal disaster or emergency so as to free up funds and relief that through the National Response Framework can be delivered to the states. Past that, the chart and in fact, the entire process hurts my head. I sure hope Gov. Schwarzenegger has a “Chart Reading Expert” in place to ensure the people of CA get the help they so richly deserve.

I guess this story from Reuters would fall under the "no shit" category of stating the obvious:

Haunted by the legacy of Hurricane Katrina, the White House is scrambling to make sure the Southern California wildfires don’t become another public relations nightmare for President George W. Bush.

His administration, faced with the worst U.S. natural disaster since Katrina, has shifted into high gear to show it learned its lesson from the federal government’s botched handling of the storm that devastated New Orleans in 2005.

Mindful of the severe damage the Katrina response caused to Bush’s image and popularity, the White House has taken pains to depict him as deeply engaged in tracking the latest crisis.

He was quick to declare a state of emergency in California, even going as far as anticipating Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s request by leaving behind a pre-approved order before leaving the Oval Office on Monday evening.

He has ordered top officials to the scene, a far cry from the sluggish Katrina response symbolized by his oft-ridiculed remark to then-disaster chief Michael Brown: "Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job." Brown was later relieved of his job.

I just can’t make shit like this up. Former FEMA director Michael Brown, who completely mismanaged the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, has released a press release yesterday stating he is "available for interviews" on the wildfires and the government’s response. And heck, he can even draw parallels with Katrina and the Super Dome.

Mr. Brown can speak to the turmoil being caused by the California wildfires as well as to some of the new processes in disaster relief efforts that will help to restore California communities. He can offer advice to residents and businesses on proper relief and recovery efforts and provide suggestions for future disaster preparedness.

[...]

Currently, the brush fires are affecting hundreds of local businesses and have forced more than 500,000 people out of their homes. Of these 500,000 people, an estimated 10,000 of them have taken shelter at the local NFL stadium, Qualcomm, vaguely reminiscent of circumstances of Hurricane Katrina evacuees two years ago.

It is just amazing this guy is the director of corporate strategy for a disaster recovery firm. I mean what does the guy do? Is he presented with a plan and asked for his thoughts, then does the firm just say "Thanks Brownie" and does the exact opposite of what he suggested.

Yesterday on Hardball California State Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi (Democrat) told the truth, the painful truth about what most American think. I really like this guy. Lets go to the video.

It is too early to gauge how FEMA’s response has been, but it is clear California even with many of their National Guard units and equipment in the Middle East, rose to the occasion. Gov. Schwarzenegger should get a lot of credit. He and his staff had their shit together.

"I’m gonna die in this bitch!" screams Denise, a sixth-generation New Orleanian who clings to the bed she has wedged into her hallway to ride out Hurricane Katrina. This isn’t a CNN special report to honor the two-year anniversary of the storm. It’s the fifth chapter of a 12-part non-fictional Web comic called A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, written and drawn by American Splendor illustrator Josh Neufeld. It is simply amazing. From an overview on the site:

When the levees broke, nothing was the same for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge is about escaping and surviving Hurricane Katrina–and what happens next in the lives of a cross-section of Crescent City residents. Told in webcomic form, A.D. is free and presented by SMITH Magazine.

A.D. tells the story of Katrina and its aftermath from the perspective of real people still dealing with the storm each and every day. A two-part prologue sets the scene and shows the storm, almost like a silent movie. In chapter one, we meet the people whose lives we’ll be following over the course of one year, with audio and video augmenting the comic itself on our active blog. A.D. is a nonfiction graphic novel, a new approach to storytelling, and a multifaceted peek into the personal tales emerging from the storm of the century.

This comic is well worth your time.  A more detailed analysis and/or overview with additional background is located here.