Return to Article: FEMA to take over mass care role formerly held by Red Cross
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71775
Tom: Nagin is on a chain that needs a choke collar. I do know of what you speak of as I worked for both FEMA and ARC. I too have great frustrations at times being unable to resolve issues. Would not trade my experiences for anything.
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71766
There is no silver bullet to fix all; common denominators are the community itself, its infrastructure of supporting organizations and functionality prior to an event. These will be the determining factors in jurisdictional action during and after an event regardless of any supported efforts by FEMA or ARC.
Tom's comments are appreciated; public safety is the greatest asset of the community but may fall short in understanding the disciplines of disaster. Each disaster organization has a mission statement of what and how they operate. It is the responsibility of local jurisdiction to understand and incorporate them into their procedures.
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50307
As a Law Enforcement Officer I have has over 3 years experience working with FEMA and the ARC. Both are hampered with burcratic BS, from doing at times what really is necessary in performing their missions to the public. True, the cities,counties and states are responsible for immediate aid. How come no one brought charges against Mayor Nagin, for his impeding of aid as it poured in after Katrina? Unfortunately compassion, empathy and other Human Emotions are not written into Law, by crafty self serving attorney's. Therefore no official can do or go beyond, "what the law states, in B&W"; which ties their hands in many cases after a disaster. Remove the cloak of immunity from all levels of government, let all accept the responsibility of care for the needy. Get the Patriot Act requirements outta the picture, so all the unnecessary required background checks, which impede immediate movement of aid and personnel, to a disaster site. Terrorists don't help others during a crisis...American Citizens Do, in the past, present and Future!
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46526
Neither FEMA or ARC could have anticipated the true scope nor be able to deliver care during Katrina. Unfortunately what most people don't seem to get it is NOT FEMA's responsibility to deliver the care it is the individual states - Remember disaster's begin and end locally - FEMA coordinates and assists. Obviously some painful lessons were learned - I hope - the least of which is if we all don't talk to each other nothing will be accomplished and it doesn't matter who gets the work done or takes the credit as long as it does get done. Who has the most experience running a shelter or mass care operation (outside of the military - hey, there's an idea - it would be the Red Cross hands done. But, they have neither the authority nor funding to do it. What the NRP gave the ARC was all the responsibility but none of the authority nto accomplish the mission. Of course it would fail. If the ARC were granted the authority it would still need help from congress to pull it off. First, it's primarily volunteer based therefore it has to be able to draw from that base to staff its shelters. Congress needs to provide legislation granting volunteers belonging to recognized organizations who respond to disasters at the request of FEMA/State disaster declaration time off from work in the same light as members of the national guard. The individual job is protected. secondly, congress through FEMA, must adequately fund the standby operations of these organizations - ie. the infrastructure granting them the ability to respond, training, etc. Thirdly, their must be a stockpile of shelter materials available to all organizations that can be mobilized and dispatched to an incident in a timely fashion. The US government has the ability to requisition aircraft from the airlines in time of national emergency it should have that same ability with UPS, Fed Ex, the common carriers and all military assets should the need arise in a disaster. What should be remembered is we can either work together to overcome a situation or we will certainly perish alone.
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46463
regarding the FEMA "trailers"...they were manufactured for sale to any person wanting to buy them, not just for FEMA. So the manufacturers are the ones violating the construction requirements, not FEMA. Why hasn't someone checked out the construction end of the process instead of blaming FEMA???????
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46220
Setting aside for the moment that Katrina, like a massive quake or tsunami, will overwhelm any relief organization or agency, FEMA should still be doing better with its tax dollars and paid staff than an all-volunteer organization relying on donations as does the Red Cross. Yet it is ARC people expect to respond faster and more comprehensively than the feds. Perhaps we should give our tax dollars to ARC instead...
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46181
WHOA! While the initiative has merit, it is unrealistic to believe FEMA has the organization and ability to handle this mission. My words would be considerably stronger if I were from Louisiana. Alot of preplanning and smarter management needs to be in place before FEMA embarks on this undertaking. Should this go forward at this time it will be yet another embarrassment for the Feds.
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46109
Put away the rocks. FEMA should have this responsibility, if for no other reason than the repeated poor performance of the American Cross. Having responded with both organizations, there are great people and great outcomes from both. Neither is or was scaled to adequately handle a Katrina event. However, FEMA has a better chance to be expanded and supported to accomplish the mission (a governmental mission) than a non-profit.
As the above lines indicate, there are a lot of folks who bought in to the contrived coverage of Katrina. The truth? Everyone - the states, the military, FEMA and the Red Cross - were absolutely overwhelmed. The truth on the ground was that the Red Cross couldn't deliver on its responsibilities any more than FEMA. The Red Cross recently muffed in the California Wildfires and they have a track record of not delivering.
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46048
This is absolutely ludicrous and should not be put into effect. While TDY at RRAD, I saw a vast number of trailers from the Katrina debacle as far as the eye could see. Is this our intent for people? Line them up? Unfortunately, people cannot be provided adequate care by an agency overwhelmed by their own shortcomings. Measures should be placed in effect to clean this organization out starting at the top due to the inability of being able to legally perform their function and not having the necessary ability, qualification, or character to perform with acquired capacity and talent. People are not inanimate objects (e.g., trailers)...what will the Government's response be during the next disaster and how will Congress respond to constituents for their mishandling the ineptitude of this agency (after the fact) during a disaster resulting in multiple deaths as a result of FEMA's not possessing qualities that render the agency a valuable or useful enterprise.
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46001
No. This should never happen. It should never even be considered to ever be allowed to happen. FEMA isn't necessarily a bad organization, however,its just disorganized and lacks communication, structure and leadership, etc. Fix the organization, and focus on mission and try and not worry about or bother with anything else.
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45915
Wonder if we can get Ray "school bus" Nagin to be responsible for reporting. He did such a great job in NO, I'm hoping he'll be on the democratic ticket as VP
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45872
Isn't FEMA still trying to resolve their trailer problems? They may know how to move supplies but probably know nothing about taking care of people. What a joke.
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45863
All citizens should be asking their city, county and state officials how they will handle an emergency BEFORE the need occurs. If they can't handle the situation that is when FEMA is required to be contacted. Congress wrote the legislation, get them to fix it before attacking the people who work for FEMA and try to help victims of disasters. People have responsibility for themselves to a great extent and should be prepared.
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45843
What a joke Fema cannot take care of it's own disaster. I pray there is not a need for Fema in my hometown ever!
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45837
hahahaha...you are serious?! this is a joke? right?
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45833
You have got to be kidding me. FEMA is a joke, maybe if they get rid of the Political Appointees that have breifings to boost their egos and own political agenda and replace them ALL with Red Cross staff then it may be done.
But wait, I think we really need to Contract this out to some third world country to take care of us in time of a crisis.
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