Return to Article: Weathering the Storm
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13336
This past September, I received an assignment to provide weather support for Hurricane Rita at the FEMA Joint Field Operations in Baton Rouge. While on this assignment, I had the privilege to work the long days sitting next to Coast Guard personnel. Some were reservists and others on active duty.
Every one of these folks had a great attitude and work ethic. Like Brian stated in the article, very professional and dedicated to their jobs.
I was impressed.
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13335
Three cheers for SSA! Three more!
Rain or shine
All the time,
They lead the way,
SSA! -
13102
Why doesn't anyone give the Social Security Administration a pat on the back. Within two days of the storm people all over the Hurricane area were able to pick up their Social Security and SSI checks that came due about the same time the storm hit. USPS wasn't delivering checks, but Social Security (SSA) was on the ground and issuing checks! How about saying something nice about us?
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13094
I agree that both the Coast Guard (CS) and the National Weather Service (NWS) performed admirably during Katrina, and that much of this was due to what the article termed their "learning organization" ethos. The implied, but unstated, thought that could have begun this article was "Unlike FEMA,..."
One theme of the article is the value of realistic performance assessment against organizational expectations. I think it should be noted that CS and NWS carried out the missions they were trained and prepared to perform, although in the case of CS it was the same mission, ten-fold. (By the way, it took a number of days for CS to pluck thousands of people off roof-tops. I didn't hear anyone suggesting poor planning on the part of CS for not having enough choppers and personnel on hand to get this job done quicker.)
Due to the incompetence of local and state first responders, FEMA was thrust into the fray as what might be termed a "first responder of last resort," a role different from FEMA's stated mission and authority. This created a double-whammy: a poorly-run agency asked to operate beyond the parameters of its mission. In fairness, these two only-somewhat-overlapping problems need to be addressed separately.
EJC in ATL
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