After receiving complains from upset parents, FEMA took the PDF coloring book "A Scary Thing Happened" offline, and now the story is spinning around the internet. Created by the Freeborn County Crisis Response Team in 2003 as a tool for children to use with a responsible parent or adult to help cope with the disaster, the book has been used with children who have experienced disasters related to Hurricane Katrina, California wildfires, floods and even the Interstate 35 bridge collapse, to name a few instances. There have even been international requests from the Australian Red Cross to use the coloring book as a model to aid Australian children. Looking for more than the offending page? The Smoking Gun has made the original PDF available, and FEMA still has three other coloring books online. (More coloring book fun inside) [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Apr 30, 2009 - 43 comments

Hurricane Gustav is headed for landfall in Louisiana in the next 48 hours, with currently around an equal chance of being a category 3 storm or a category 4 storm. Gustav has 150 mph winds at the moment as it begins to enter the gulf of Mexico and a million people evacuate. After failing in their response to Hurricane Katrina three years ago, Fema is trying to be more proactive. Of course, some people are staying in harm's way, live blogging, and once again, there's the cry "bring it on". [more inside]
posted by cashman on Aug 30, 2008 - 235 comments

FEMA Press conference regarding the California fires has everything but reporters.
posted by landis on Oct 26, 2007 - 46 comments

Bored on your summer vacation? Well, the US government has lots of fun stuff for kids to do on line. Learn fascinating facts about cows (and agricultural marketing!) from the Department of Agriculture. Take a ride to Money Central Station with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. If you live in a federally-funded housing project, HUD wants you to learn more about being a good citizen. Want something more action-packed? Help FBI Special Agent Bobby Bureau go undercover, or become one of America's Crypto-Kids at the NSA. Play thrilling puzzle games or visit the world's most secret museum at the CIA. Play more games or become a Disaster Action Kid at FEMA! And no list of government kids' pages would be complete without revisiting the children's art contest from the ATF, which I've linked to before...
posted by dersins on Jul 25, 2007 - 5 comments

Millions of tax dollars melting away... guess Katrina victims didn't need ice after all.
posted by miss lynnster on Jul 14, 2007 - 40 comments

The Best Laid Plans: The Story of How the Government Ignored Its Own Gulf Coast Hurricane Plans. A new report from CREW describes FEMA's plan to respond to a hurricane of Katrina’s magnitude and its subsequent failure to implement that plan. [Via C&L.]
posted by homunculus on Jun 28, 2007 - 33 comments

The Katrina Cottage is economical, rather charming, and can serve as a "grow" house. At $35,000 for 308 sq ft, it compares favorably to the $75k FEMA trailer. Not a totally new idea - some of the 1906 earthquake refuge shacks are still in existence in San Francisco. Might tiny houses be the future for disaster relief? (via The Blues and Then Some)
posted by madamjujujive on May 2, 2006 - 39 comments

"Turn it off man, I don't want no problems." Democracy Now attempts to interview Katrina evacuees at a FEMA trailer park. FEMA's private security guards claim that the residents don't have 'the privilege' of being able to speak freely on FEMA property without a FEMA 'minder' present.
posted by empath on Apr 25, 2006 - 64 comments

"You drowned 1,200 people! I rebuke you." Politics as usual? Yes, if you're from Louisiana. Is it hot where you are? Well, at least your federal government didn't trick you into living in your car in 100 degree weather because they won't give you the keys to your trailer. Oh, but try not to get sick, because even though New Orleans is almost back to its Pre-Katrina size (1 million out of 1.3 million), half of the hospital space is gone. Only six weeks until hurricane season! Woot!
posted by ColdChef on Apr 19, 2006 - 37 comments

The FEMA Rap for Kidz! (RealPlayer audio)
posted by fandango_matt on Apr 1, 2006 - 6 comments

"In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage."
posted by muckster on Mar 2, 2006 - 162 comments

Newsfilter:Former FEMA Director Michael Brown engages in a heated exchange during a Senate hearing Friday. Here is the C-SPAN coverage.
posted by nola on Feb 10, 2006 - 20 comments

Loans over $10,000 require collateral ... (NYT link gen) The SBA (loan officers wanted ), which runs the federal government's main disaster recovery loan program for homeowners, has rejected 82 percent of applications. (17,463 home loans approved, 77,000 rejected - though some must get rejected in order to receive smaller FEMA grants...)
posted by R. Mutt on Dec 15, 2005 - 49 comments

Bodies still being found in NOLA You know, it's hard to imagine anything worse than coming back to your home in New Orleans and finding it completely destroyed. But, tonight, as you're about to hear, there is something worse, much worse. Dozens of families have returned to what is left of their homes and found, lying amidst the mold and the wreckage, a body, forgotten, abandoned. Maybe it's their mother or their grandmother, sometimes even their missing child. More Here
posted by srboisvert on Nov 16, 2005 - 31 comments

FEMA to reimburse churches. Washington Post story: "After weeks of prodding by Republican lawmakers and the American Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said yesterday that it will use taxpayer money to reimburse churches and other religious organizations that have opened their doors to provide shelter, food and supplies to survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita."
posted by kokogiak on Sep 27, 2005 - 77 comments

Thank goodness he landed on his feet!
Former FEMA director Michael Brown is being retained by the agency as a "consultant."
posted by jpburns on Sep 26, 2005 - 60 comments

Hurricane Katrina survivors who want to apply online for Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance need Microsoft's Windows operating system and Internet Explorer Version 6.
posted by basilwhite on Sep 26, 2005 - 117 comments

Wasting away in Ritaville
Might as well start the deluge of Rita posts with this one. Rita is the most intense storm to threaten the US since Gilbert in 1988 and it threatens Galveston Bay directly. In direct path of the storm are oil refineries processing over two million barrels of oil a day which is 26 percent of the US refining capacity. In addition the area expected to be hit (pdf) by a potential twenty-two foot storm surge has a higher population than New Orleans.

This storm has caused an unprecedented evacuation of the southern parts of Houston. Interstate 45 has been opened in both directions to north-bound traffic for the first time ever. Tales of twelve to sixteen hour drives to outlying cities are common.

One of the blogs I read daily posted this morning that it is likely he will lose his house in twelve-plus feet of water. I left Houston last night and am staying with friends in Austin now, well out of the way of the storm. Other tales are sure to come.

Will the lessons of Katrina help Houston to recover from the storm? Will the response from FEMA be better because of the heat from Katrina or will the Republican voting area and Tom DeLay's district factor into the relief effort?
posted by DragonBoy on Sep 22, 2005 - 135 comments

Michael Brown resigns from FEMA
posted by me3dia on Sep 12, 2005 - 95 comments

Michael Brown, head of FEMA is relieved of duties. After a rocky week and increasing doubts about his background and experience (like a padded resume), Brown gets pulled from FEMA duty. Pretty surprising to see, given that the "CEO President" proclaimed "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" just a few days ago.
posted by mathowie on Sep 9, 2005 - 216 comments

House and Senate GOP leaders announce the (Republican dominated) "Hurricane Katrina Joint Review Committee" which should ensure that no-one near the top of the (Republican Dominated) chain of command is in any danger of repercussions over the death of a great American city. In fact, it seems likely that incompetence will be richly rewarded: representative Waxman thinks that a Provision in Katrina Emergency Bill Leaves Government Open to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse. But that's nothing! Despite near-universal opprobrium as a dysfunctional bureaucracy led by an unqualified political appointee, FEMA will receive nearly all of the funds approved on Thursday -- $50 billion... (all links via TPM)
posted by dinsdale on Sep 8, 2005 - 44 comments

Beyond Incompetence Reading the news after the Katrina Hurricane and the lack-of-response disaster, a pattern began to emerge. Mainstream media compilation - Collective Bellaciao via xymphora, which has several other uniquely critical posts on Katrina
posted by ism on Sep 7, 2005 - 29 comments

I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we haven't asked for it," (Bush) said. "I do expect a lot of sympathy, and perhaps some will send cash dollars. For a while there foreign countries were unsure whether to send aid and the US was sending mixed signals. Now of course, even Qatar is coughing up "cash dollars" and other countries are lending a hand. But the question remains: why do we even need it? This guy blames privatization, and I can't say I blame him. (NYT link).
posted by Smedleyman on Sep 6, 2005 - 54 comments

"As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta. Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers. Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA."
posted by mr_crash_davis on Sep 6, 2005 - 148 comments

FEMA fudging dates? (scroll down a bit). That's their screenshot, and then the current google cache, and the current page.
posted by 31d1 on Sep 4, 2005 - 9 comments

"The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night." Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans damns FEMA on Tim Russett this morning. (WMV clip)
posted by madamjujujive on Sep 4, 2005 - 202 comments

Innovative Emergency Management So this private company got the contract to develop the plan last year. The original release: the Baton Rouge-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Now all press releases regarding it have been pulled from their website post-Katrina.
posted by amberglow on Sep 3, 2005 - 21 comments

The creator of SNL's "Mr. Bill" tried to get the potential problems of New Orleans noticed for several years. He made a 45 minute documentary shown on PBS (very interesting, watch it (windows media file) here), and even did a public service spot (another wmv). His home page (yes, www.mrbill.com) also has a recent radio interview (MP3) with the Mayor of New Orleans blasting the non-response from the feds to date.
posted by centerpunch on Sep 2, 2005 - 7 comments

FEMA Director Mike Brown fired from prior job at Arabian Horse Association. Why is NOLA relief so unbelievably slow in arriving? Could the leadership of FEMA have anything to do with it? The current head of FEMA (Fedral Emergency Management Agency) "resigned" from his former post as head of an Arabian horse owners association under a cloud of litigation. He then moved on to FEMA as legal counsel for former FEMA head Joe Allbaugh, an old college buddy. When Allbaugh left, Brown took over. Nice how buddies can help each other, isn't it? Can anyone guess who Bush & Co will force to take the rap for the crisis of New Orleans? (via Daily Kos)
posted by mooncrow on Sep 2, 2005 - 107 comments

While FEMA is slow to reach those in New Orleans, they were quick to promote Operation Blessing, Pat Robertson's controversial faith-based "charity", linking their website second only to the Red Cross. Hours after the federal agency was exposed by the blog Sploid today, they quickly tried to hide their support for the pastor's organization by changing their web pages.
posted by tsarfan on Sep 1, 2005 - 30 comments

U.S. Concentration Camps: FEMA and the REX 84 Program. There over 800 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general's signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached.
posted by monju_bosatsu on Apr 21, 2005 - 76 comments

FEMA For Kids: The Tsunami Game! "A tsunami has just hit FEMA Beach and has rearranged a few things. Please put the 9 objects back where they belong to see the cyber-prize!"
posted by fandango_matt on Jan 20, 2005 - 33 comments

FEMA for kids! Let Herman the spokescrab guide you through the catalog of potentially civilization ending disasters. Education is great. Entertaining your kids on cabin fevered summer days is better. I have friends that when they bring their young buck over send him to my computer to play the kiddie offerings at nick.com (sorry dead link this time o' night it seems). But I can just hear the sunburned Minnesota five year old who's been overly femafied asking mommy after her bedtime story, "August is hurricane season. Is it windy now because we're going to have a hurricane?" Mom strokes child's hair, "No, here we're only prone to devastating thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods, kidcicle causing cold and blizzards. Now you have sweet dreams and quit worrying about ridiculous things like that. 'Night." Like of course, a kid that age would really find the FEMA website riveting to begin with. . .
posted by crasspastor on Jul 1, 2001 - 9 comments

What's the right answer? FEMA's plans to use the Army to quell serious civil disturbances that might crop up during the Republican Convention almost certainly violates Posse Comitatus... but can the Army National Guard cope with the stuff? And can it chop to FEMA in the first place?
posted by baylink on Aug 1, 2000 - 3 comments