MetaFilter posts tagged with katrina and fema

FEMA Gets its Groove Back

Slap*Happy — Fri, 27 May 2011 07:23:59 -0800

FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate has what he describes as a "Waffle House" theory of emergency management to assess how bad a situation is after a disaster. "If the Waffle House is open and serving food and has got a full menu, then it's green," he said during an interview inside a FEMA mobile home parked outside a fire station in Joplin. "If the Waffle House is open but has a limited menu, it's yellow, and if the Waffle House isn't open, that's red." - FEMA Gets its Groove Back

Let's hope it doesn't start a flood.

miss lynnster — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 19:57:43 -0800

Millions of tax dollars melting away... guess Katrina victims didn't need ice after all.

The Best Laid Plans

homunculus — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:52:48 -0800

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.]

Small solutions for big problems

madamjujujive — Tue, 02 May 2006 18:54:22 -0800

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)

"That's not his privilege."

empath — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 08:38:30 -0800

"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.

Louisiana Limping Along

ColdChef — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 21:16:42 -0800

"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!

The AP Katrina Video

muckster — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 11:26:52 -0800

"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."

We will do what it takes ..."

R. Mutt — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 06:08:25 -0800

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...)

Unbelievable NOLA news

srboisvert — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 16:01:41 -0800

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

Uncle Sam filling the collection plate

kokogiak — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 07:22:42 -0800

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."

I hear he has experience...

jpburns — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 16:12:52 -0800

Thank goodness he landed on his feet!
Former FEMA director Michael Brown is being retained by the agency as a "consultant."

To Apply For FEMA Aid Online, Katrina Survivors Will Need IE 6

basilwhite — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 06:11:00 -0800

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.

Hurricane Rita is now the third most powerful in recorded history

DragonBoy — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 07:40:19 -0800

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?

Heck of a Job, Brownie

me3dia — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 12:14:36 -0800

Michael Brown resigns from FEMA

Back to the horsing circuit with you

mathowie — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 10:31:59 -0800

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.

You blinked! The "accountability moment" for Katrina has come and gone

dinsdale — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 22:29:04 -0800

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)

Pattern Emerges in Katrina Lack of Response Stories

ism — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 18:04:44 -0800

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

Tea, cash dollars & sympathy

Smedleyman — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 15:13:56 -0800

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).

Firefighters to dispense fliers, not fight fires

mr_crash_davis — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 10:19:52 -0800

"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."

Ministry of Truth

31d1 — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 13:34:29 -0800

FEMA fudging dates? (scroll down a bit). That's their screenshot, and then the current google cache, and the current page.

the cavalry is coming, the cavalry is coming

madamjujujive — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 09:50:16 -0800

"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)

Privatizing FEMA for New Orleans?

amberglow — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 00:02:59 -0800

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.

Who will Bush blame this time?

mooncrow — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 06:55:38 -0800

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)

number two with a bullet

tsarfan — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 22:02:45 -0800

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.