We also need to collect every story, anecdotal, emailed, telephoned -- about civilians thwarted by FEMA in their attempts to help...

Red Cross
The boat brigade turned back
The Canadian offers
The Dutch offers

And where folks defied FEMA orders and went on ahead ahead and "dove in" to give aid and assistance... We need to collect these too.

We need a list of how decent Americans and World citizens said, "screw you, people are dying... we cannot stand idly by."

• The Camp Casey folks giving out Emergency Supplies in Covington and NO ONE ELSE IS THERE.

• The Dutch, with their phenomenonal engineering skills at what... you guessed it, plugging holes in sea walls, levees, dikes, saying, in essence, we are coming anyway because your people are dying.

September 1, 2005

CNN's Rick Sanchez is embedded with a swift water rescue crew out of California. They have gone to New Orleans, and they are saving lives. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICH SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is where the nightmare ends for the people of Orleans and Jefferson Parish who have lost everything but their lives. They are brought to shore on boats too small to get enough of them, but large enough to rescue at most a half dozen at a time. Families have to be split up, children carried out in twos.

<snip>
We accompany teams of swift water recovery units from California. Their first job, to clear out the hospitals and a school, said to have more than 100 people trapped inside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you are on operational frequency.

SANCHEZ: They come from Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego. Their task is daunting.

This is what used to be Airline Highway, one of the most important roads leading into New Orleans. Now, it's a waterway, used to ferry out the sick and desperate.

What used to be an exit ramp is now a boat ramp to disembark survivors. What used to be an entrance ramp is where they put in.

We put in with a retired sheriff's deputy on an airboat, because it has no underwater propeller, it is perfectly suited for shallow waters. Once under way, we realized what an advantage that is on a street now turned into a channel which is filled with unseen obstacles below the surface like cars, signs and fences.

<snip>
SANCHEZ: Inside the home next door, we hear the voices of children, screaming through the walls to be rescued. Turns out, there are 15 to 20 people inside, too many to put on our boat or any other. So, we assure them they will be out soon. We contact the swift water units, and several boats are dispatched for rescues.

By night's end, each of the units from California has rescued hundreds of people, but there are still thousands more to rescue. Each of these homes may have someone trapped inside by the rising floodwaters. And then again, it may not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Those swift water recovery units we were talking about in our report are not going to be going in the water any time soon. FEMA is concerned for their safety. They want to make sure they have security for them before they go back out. It's a tough call, because there's a lot of people who could really use their help.

Anderson, back to you

The Forest Service has offered fixed plane aircraft used to fight forest fires to help extinguish blazes in New Orleans, according to two congressional sources. But the sources said the planes, which can pour large amounts of water on fires, remained grounded in Missouri Friday because the Department of Homeland Security hasn't authorized their use.
The department is overseeing federal hurricane relief and rescue operations.

"We've been asking them to request that the planes be used, but nothing has happened," said one of the two congressional sources, both of whom asked to remain anonymous. The planes were offered by the Forest Service because of news reports that firefighters in New Orleans lacked adequate water pressure to fight a number of fires in the city.

There was no immediate comment from the Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department, or the Department of Homeland Security.

Link to diary: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/4/105148/3626

Russert tries to blame BlancoNagin and Broussard is having none of it. He goes down an entire laundry list of the failures of FEMA. He unequivacly blames the feds. He tells us that FEMA turns away water from Wal-Mart what the fuck are these assholes thinking? He said FEMA cut emergency phone lines to his parish, what the fuck were these people thinking? His sheriff had to fix it and post armed guards by it to keep it from happening again!! Astounding. "

Daley 'shocked' at federal snub of offers to help
Advertisement

Tribune staff reports

September 2, 2005, 10:24 PM CDT

Frustration about the federal response to Hurricane Katrina has reached Chicago City Hall, as Mayor Richard Daley today noted a tepid response by federal officials to the city's offers of disaster aid.

The city is willing to send hundreds of personnel, including firefighters and police, and dozens of vehicles to assist on the storm-battered Gulf Coast, but so far the Federal Emergency Management Agency has requested only a single tank truck, Daley said.

Source: Daley 'shocked' at federal snub of offers to help - Chicago Tribune

This one from RobertinWisconsin via Kos source:DoorCountyCompass

Buses ready and available, stood idle for days while waiting for FEMA, so Wisconsin folk coordinated the whole thing themselves and called the LA Governor's office, who said, send them on down:

Early on Friday morning Christie Weber watched the Mayor of New Orleans screaming on CNN, "We need buses to get these people out of here. Get off your ass and get down here."

She picked up the phone and started calling local charter bus companies. By 6 AM she discovered that there was an abundance of vehicles ready and waiting to be deployed - if and when they were called upon. But, until now no one had called. All of the charter bus companies that Weber rang up had already signed on with FEMA several days earlier, and they were just waiting for a call back regarding financial reimbursement, a destination and an approved route. Each bus costs $8,000 to make the round trip and requires 6 drivers to run non-stop.

"I called four bus lines," says Weber. "Kobussen Buses was the only line that said he would ask his drivers if they could deal with all that - after they got back. They all said 'Lets go' if we can get a route." Weber explains, "Even the owner's Dad and uncle volunteered to return to service to help drive the buses."

Next she decided to call the Governor's office in Louisiana instead of FEMA. They responded immediately with, "Please, God Bless You, YES!" and provided her with a route and a letter to Wisconsin Emergency Management requesting their assistance in staffing the buses with law enforcement officers. The State of Wisconsin responded requiring that each bus have bathroom facilities, 2 law officers and one medical assistant on board before they would approve of the mission.

Weber put a call out to local Door County law enforcement with no luck due to the demands of a busy Labor Day weekend. She started contacting other nearby communities and the results were amazing. Within an hour she had enough volunteers to staff 4 buses from the Fox Valley - each with two law officers and a medic on the finest coaches Kobussen had. All of this was accomplished in less than 24 hours, from the first phone call to the buses loading and leaving on Saturday morning, carrying a flat of drinking water donated by the local Wal-Mart and a collection of medical supplies and other contributions.

At 8:30 AM today the four charter buses that left Green Bay on Saturday morning were passing through Hammond, Louisiana - about 50 miles away from New Orleans.

"We had to make a choice of whether to go to Houston, to the Astrodome or to send the buses directly to New Orleans," says Weber. "There was no way to contact anyone at the Astrodome and when we finally reached the Governor's office in Louisiana they said 'Send them here,' so we did."

and thank you, it'll be fun databasing this stuff ;-)

by luaptifer on Sun Sep 04, 2005 at 10:10:34 PM EST

FEMA Denies AID

Here's the link to the full story at the Raleigh News.

Raleigh News and Observer

By SARAH AVERY, Staff Writer

RALEIGH -- Rumors, false starts and near misses continued Sunday as city and county officials worked to prepare for the anticipated arrival of as many as 1,500 hurricane victims displaced from their homes.
But five days of effort and expectation have passed with no evacuees being sent to the area, and the need for medical services has diminished as many of the hospitals in the stricken areas have been cleared.
Tuesday.

-- snip ---

By Sunday afternoon, however, no one had arrived. That scenario has unfolded daily since Wednesday, when city and county officials were told to prepare for an influx of hurricane victims. Initially, they were told to expect hospital patients who were either hurricane victims or patients who could be moved to make room for storm victims.

Military C-130 transport planes were supposed to airlift hospital patients to the area; ambulance crews and hospital staffs stood at the ready for days. Finally on Sunday, after numerous false starts, county officials learned that the hospital transport flights were on hold for at least 24 hours and might no longer be necessary.

They still hoped for the other evacuees.

 Here's the source:
Firefighting gear stockpile unused

Precise:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nine stockpiles of fire-and-rescue equipment strategically placed around the country to be used in the event of a catastrophe still have not been pressed into service in New Orleans, five days after Hurricane Katrina, CNN has learned.

On Monday night, his group assembled their rescue equipment and tools, and packed them into their boats along with all the emergency supplies they could carry. By Tuesday morning, they were almost to New Orleans. "We were stopped at gunpoint by FEMA and told to turn back," he told me. When I asked, he clarified that they did not point the guns at them, but they were carrying and displaying their weapons.

FEMA told him that no one was allowed to enter the city to help "until it was secured by the National Guard." The Houston team asked if they could wait. The FEMA staff told them yes, but that they shouldn't expect anything to change.

So they set up camp in the parking area where they had been stopped, and they waited. By Thursday night, when they were still waiting in the same place, some of the team returned to Houston. The rest decided to wait longer. And still nothing changed, so the remaining team members returned to Houston on Saturday night.

Needless to say, Bill is livid about this. I asked him why they had not been sent to some of the other communities in the hurricane-stricken area where security was not as much of an issue.

"We asked," he told me, "but they said that our expertise was more needed in the New Orleans area." The fucking catch-22 -- they were needed in New Orleans, so they weren't allowed to go elsewhere, but they weren't allowed to go into New Orleans, so the upshot was that they did nothing except sit and wait, and then go home in frustration.

ps ... BriVT from Kos here ... waves at Cho

by BrianPublius on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 11:54:03 AM EST

National Response Plan (none / 1)

Counter all the bullshit and read this diary:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/5/63720/67555

I include links to the full text of the National Response Plan.

http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/NRP_FullText.pdf

Memorize Page 43-44 like your life depends on it.

Basic gist:

In times of catastrophe when local and state resources are overwhelmed - the feds are to step in immediately.

First order of business: save lives and protect infrastructure.

The protocol of coordinating with state and local governments should not delay the deployment of federal resources.

This the Katrina August 6th PDB.  Learn this, memorize this and spread it around PRONTO!

MFL http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/9/5/104830/2384/1#1

by luaptifer on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 12:36:40 PM EST

Posted by Flaxbee on DU on Saturday, September 3rd:

"My husband used to work in disaster preparedness/relief .....he also worked in Russia for years, both before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and organized relief in the immediate aftermath of Chernobyl.

He doesn't post here, but he wrote this - he's been on the phone day and night for the past five days trying to get someone to OK the offered assistance. Everyone knows this is a first-class fuck up, but here's another perspective.

----
Over the years I have worked in and out of government to solve communications and technical problems, save lives and help where possible. I was managing director of a Russian-American telephone company providing rapid communications in the former Soviet Union and have helped with disaster communications projects around the world.

This is the first time I have ever encountered this unbelievable kind of absolutely uncaring, Washington/political two-step. When the storm approached the Gulf coast I called offering simple suggestions to government types (since this was obviously from all reports going to be a terrible storm) of how to bring communications systems up as soon as the storm passed. I recommended bringing in Blimps with portable cell transceivers and VHF, UHF and other types of broadcast equipment and also equipment to aid in the search and rescue effort. No one was interested.

When the storm hit and everyone knew the worst had happened, I contacted the Red Cross, (someone there hung up on me) and then FEMA where someone told me it was all up to the DOD -- and I wondered why the Pentagon was in charge of FEMA? I was also told that FEMA was being privatized and a number of the experienced staff trained in hurricane relief had been told they had to resign from FEMA and then be rehired by the private company.

I called senators and governors, I even tried to get through to my contacts and no one would listen or respond (though a member of Senator Dole's staff did commiserate with me over the level of incompetence that was growing ever more apparent). Then Putin offered helicopters, search and rescue personnel, water purification equipment, and doctors and so much more. Had the State Department allowed the Russian humanitarian mission to proceed, Russian help would have been on the ground a good 24-48 hours before FEMA was in many of the poorer and worst-affected areas.

Everyone here now knows that all international help was tuned down (Ms. Rice was shopping and taking in a play while these offers were coming in, so she may not be totally lying when she said no offers of help were turned down b/c she wasn't there to turn them down. But she's been caught lying again with a statement that can be proven to be an untruth empirically by simply making one phone call to Putin's offices or the many other nation offering help, or by reading LBN here).

The screw-ups continue even now. I can name many ways that the Bush administration not only did not help, but also caused people to die and are still causing so many to die needlessly. It is if the government was actively trying to hinder the relief operations.

I fear there will be the biggest cover-up in the history of America after this is all over (mass graves so reminiscent of Bush 41's Panama disaster). Don't let anyone tell you everything possible was done to prepare or respond when in fact FEMA may have done more harm than good.

Write, yell, do something, but this has to be fixed before the next disaster. I feel that maybe the only hope for America is to impeach the entire Bush Administration.

edited for clarification and remove some identifying details

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4610127

DU DRM604's caveate "This was on the episode of BBC World News which played on a local (Philadelphia area) PBS station at 6:00 am this morning [September 03, 2005]. I can't find a stream or transcript online. It's sitting on my TIVO right now marked do not delete but I have no way to put it onto my hard drive and no place to serve it from anyway. If you do have a recording of it, it starts about 9 minutes in."

K: NorthCom started planning before the storm even hit. We were ready for the storm when it hit Florida because, as you remember, it crossed the bottom part of Florida, and then we were plaining, you know, once it was pointed towards the Gulf Coast. So what we did was we activated what we call defense coordinating officers to work with the state to say okay, what do you think you'll need, and we set up staging bases that could be started. We had the USS Baton sailing almost behind the hurricane so that after the hurricane made landfall it's search and rescue helicopters would be available almost immediately. So we had things ready. The only caveat is, we have to wait until the President authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can't just act in this fashion, we have to wait for the President to give us permission.

A group in Florida wanted to volunteer to bring in 500 air boats

Edited on Sat Sep-03-05 02:42 PM by Pirate Smile

to help in the rescue efforts.

FEMA "emphatically" refused. They said they had to CONTRACT OUT for that and couldn't use volunteers.

Republican Rep. Mark Foley just said that on MSNBC.

UN.F#$KING.BELIEVABLE!

edit to add - After this segment, they had on one of their military experts that MSNBC has on all the time.

He said (paraphrasing)- This is a question of leadership. If the regulations in the beaurocracy required things that were untenable in the crisis, then a leader sees it and does what you need to to make it possible. Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus during the Civil War, if there was a question about posse comitatus or something like that, a leader would be able to determine when the rules or laws are more harmful to the people, the reasons why the law is in place doesn't fit and a leader will suspend it or do what they have to do. This was a failure of leadership.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4608106

as tinyurl http://tinyurl.com/9he7b

perhaps the same story, gotta dig up the transcripts to get the 'contract' spin:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/orl-caneboats0205sep02,0,4766048.story?coll=sfla-news -florida

by luaptifer on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 02:31:04 PM EST

report, dated 9/4/05, from its official website:

GULF OF MEXICO, 25 MILES SOUTH OF GULFPORT, MISSISSIPPI -- A 24-member medical team from the Navy's Casualty Receiving and Treatment Ship Team (CRTS) 8, based at Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Fla. left the multipurpose amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2005, to provide medical support to Hurricane Katrina survivors at the New Orleans Convention Center.

"We have everything we need,  " said Lt. Timothy Rousselow, a nurse with CRTS 8. "We have every specialty we need to run a small hospital. From general practitioners, surgeons, pediatricians, obstetrics/gynecology specialists, anesthesiologists and general Hospital Corpsmen."

The team also embarked Bataan with medical supplies, including a portable blood pressure, heart rate and pulse oximetry monitor, 25 folding pole stretchers for transporting patients and five portable medical lockers.

"The PMLs contain basic first aid items, a large quantity of intravenous solutions, some airway management items and Pedialyte solution," said Lt. Jori Brajer, Bataan 's medical administration officer. "We based the supplies on the reports we were receiving from the beach. The team is well equipped to treat dehydration."

"Everyone here is very excited," Rousselow added "We're ready to be utilized. We have the specialties, we have the personnel to help, and we're a very effective team."

Rousselow went on to say that many members of the team have experience providing medical treatment in other countries, but being able to help their fellow countrymen is a great opportunity. "I've been thinking since this storm hit `get us in there, let us help these people'," he said. "Being able to help other Americans is the basic reason most of us wear the uniform."

Bataan and CRTS 8's involvement in the humanitarian assistance operations is part of the Department of Defense's support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) hurricane Katrina disaster response. Bataan is on station in the Gulf of Mexico , and has been tasked to be the Maritime Disaster Relief Coordinator for the Navy's role in the relief efforts.

http://www.bataan.navy.mil/

by Cho on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 03:38:05 PM EST

My husband has connections with our city's local "DMAT" team.  They were mobilized and sent last Monday night, I believe.  Problem was, that when they got down there, they were not given anything to do.  They were sent back and forth for several days by FEMA between different areas but never allowed to act.  Don't know what they are doing now, but this was as of Friday night, I believe.

Dr. Orledge is an emergency room physician and an assistant professor at the Medical College of Georgia. His team includes two nurses and two paramedics.

The team was told on Saturday, Aug. 27, that it would be deployed. The next day, it flew to Atlanta, rented a Chevrolet Suburban and drove to a Federal Emergency Management Agency facility in Anniston, Ala., where it sat out the storm.

At midnight on Monday, federal officials told the team to go to Kenner, La., a small town near the airport, where it would help operate a triage center.

"We arrive. Utter chaos. And the triage center that we were supposed to support didn't exist," Dr. Orledge said.

The team's local contact was Kenner's mayor, Dr. Orledge said. The mayor thought that Dr. Orledge was there to coordinate the money, supplies and other assistance that the mayor assumed federal officials would soon be sending, Dr. Orledge said.

Dr. Orledge told the mayor that his team knew nothing of such things. Eventually, the mayor led the team to a school gymnasium where nearly 100 people had gathered.

"As soon as I started asking medical questions, we were surrounded," Dr. Orledge said.

There was no security. Dr. Orledge felt that his team was not safe, and he insisted that they leave. They were escorted to a nearby hotel "where we were immediately surrounded by about 100 drunk people," Dr. Orledge said.

"So I say, 'All right, we're not staying here,'" Dr. Orledge said. They got back into their cars and drove to city hall, where they spent the night.

The next day, town officials directed the team to Kenner Regional Medical Center.

"The hospital's got no air conditioning, no water or sewer and very few medical supplies, and they've got 200 patients," Dr. Orledge said.

Dr. Orledge said that his team could provide little assistance in such a case, so town officials directed them to a nearby nursing home.

"This time there were 250 patients, no air conditioning, no water, no sewer and a generator that was going to die in four hours," Dr. Orledge said. "We couldn't do anything there either."

The team's satellite and cellphones had not been working. Finally, though, they were able to reach federal emergency officials, who told them to go to Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg, Miss.

The trip to Hattiesburg took nearly five hours over roads made nearly impassable by downed trees and power lines.

"Just as soon as we get there our phone rings and they tell us to turn around and go to Baton Rouge," Dr. Orledge said.

Their vehicles were nearly out of gas. They flagged down a local police officer, who found them a supply. They drove back the way they came, passed Kenner and arrived in Baton Rouge, La., late Wednesday night.

Federal emergency officials told the team that they were urgently needed to help support an urban search and rescue team, or USAR. They were given 30 minutes to prepare for departure. Their destination? City Hall in Kenner, La.

"We told them that we'd just been there and that there's nothing there, but they insist that there's a mission," Dr. Orledge said.

The team got back into its vehicles and drove to Kenner's City Hall.

"I ask the mayor where the USAR team is, and he says, 'What's that?'" Dr. Orledge said.

By then, people were openly looting in Kenner, Dr. Orledge said.

Because of logistical difficulties, Kenner's mayor could not be reached on Sunday.

On Wednesday, the team heard a rumor that some military units had occupied the New Orleans airport. They decided to drive to the airport and, when they arrived, slept in their vehicles.

The next morning was Thursday. The Georgia team joined a triage operation to assess the health status of thousands.

by DavidNYC
Mon Sep 5th, 2005 at 16:04:55 EDT

Just take a look at this list of stories:

FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks

FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel

FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid

We know FEMA's budget and operations have been gutted. We know FEMA's currently run by a washed-up hack attorney who couldn't even get a job at Jacoby & Myers. But this is beyond outrageous. I am sure there are plenty more stories like this; I collected these in just ten minutes on Google News and DKos. Looking at this list, it would be hard to blame you if you thought FEMA actively wanted rescue and relief operations to fail.

Of course, that's not the case - but these ranks failures transcend even the corrupt indifference we've grown sadly accustomed to over the past five years. If there's any hope for the recovery efforts, it'll come from guys like Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré and Clinton-era FEMA director James Lee Witt, not criminal incompetents like Michael D. "Brownie" Brown.

P.S. If you know of any more stories like the above, list them in the comments - along with links - and I'll add them to the list.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/5/16455/30830

by luaptifer on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 04:36:09 PM EST

constructiveinterference

by Cho on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 07:20:42 PM EST

"We have tried so hard to do the right thing. It took us 30 hours to get here," said one of the frustrated surgeons, Dr. Preston "Chip" Rich of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That government officials can't straighten out the mess and get them assigned to a relief effort now that they're just a few miles away "is just mind-boggling," he said in a phone interview.

Next door in Mississippi, the North Carolina mobile hospital waiting to help also offered impressive state-of-the-art medical care.

It was developed with millions of tax dollars through the Office of Homeland Security after 9-11. With capacity for 113 beds, it is designed to handle disasters and mass casualties.

....

It travels in a convoy that includes two 53-foot trailers, which on Sunday afternoon was parked on a gravel lot 70 miles north of New Orleans because Louisiana officials for several days would not let them deploy to the flooded city, Rich said.

Mobile hospital: http://www.carolinasmed-1.org/index.cfm

by standingup on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 08:31:47 PM EST

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/6/8730/16584

Seven teams similar to the crews benched in Dallas were deployed to the area Aug. 28, she said.

unfortunately, i don't have a sub to Dallas Morning News, anyone?

by luaptifer on Tue Sep 06, 2005 at 10:31:03 AM EST

cell phones delayed by US approval process

by Cho on Sat Oct 01, 2005 at 02:33:09 PM EST