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AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incompetence

By Last Night in Little Rock, Section Huricanes Katrina and Rita
Posted on Fri Sep 16, 2005 at 09:35:57 PM EST
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by Last Night in Little Rock

Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN tonight was a wealth of information tonight, and the transcript is here. Not to slight all the other stories, including a great shouting match between Kenner city officials on tape accusing each other of incompetence and racism, the main story to me was the FEMA employee union president accusing those in charge of ignoring their own dire warnings and botching the relief efforts while the rank and file felt helpless:

COOPER: Leo, you have said that a lot of FEMA workers were ready to help, eager to help, and felt basically helpless because management really wasn't capable of dealing with this storm. What happened?

LEO BOSNER, FEMA UNION OFFICIAL: We had put out several reports in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina emphasizing what a serious hurricane this was. We published copies of the weather maps from the National Weather service showing this hurricane was going directly at the heart of New Orleans. And from Hurricane Dennis, which had come close to New Orleans in the month previous, everyone was very much aware of the high risk there was going to be of a lot of people, thousands of people would be stranded there in a catastrophic hurricane.

In my view, and I'm speaking personally, by the way, I'm not representing FEMA. I'm a long-time employee there and the union president. We had expected that there would be some major, major preparations being done, buses to move the evacuees out, National Guards from around the surrounding states maybe, something like that. And instead the level of preparedness we saw was about the same as what you're seeing right now in the past few days I think for Tropical Storm Ophelia which as you know just hit the Carolinas. And of course Tropical Storm Ophelia ...

COOPER: But was it just a question, then, of Mike Brown or was it the upper management? In your opinion who is at fault? Does it just reside with one person?

BOSNER: No. In my opinion under the current -- unfortunately, under the current administration the whole top layer of FEMA, and I don't know, as far as I can tell the top layers of Homeland Security really don't have any emergency management experience.

COOPER: As early as December of 2004 you publicly said that Michael Brown wasn't up for the job. So it's not just a question of you now piling on this guy like a lot of other people seem to be doing now. What was it that you knew then? What do you think made him unqualified? What did you see back then in December?

BOSNER: I feel badly--look, I have nothing personal against Mike Brown. I feel badly about the guy. But he took a job he was never trained for. The man was a lawyer.

COOPER: I want to read you something. You said all the way back in 1992, you said, "FEMA's biggest problem is that too few people in the agency are trained to help in emergencies. You have a small number of people doing disaster work while the rest of us go back to our desks. We have good soldiers but crummy generals. No more than 30 percent of nearly 1,000 employees are trained in disaster relief services and those who are trained are underused." That was in 1992 and it sounds like what you're saying it sounds like nothing much has changed.

BOSNER: Actually, it's sort of deja vu all over again. A lot changed. That entire situation did change from 1993 to 1999 or the year 2000 under Mr. Witt's administration there. That situation was addressed. We did establish emergency support teams and emergency response teams. We did get some training for our people. But what's actually happened is since the year 2000 and even since 9/11 of 2001 we have actually at FEMA in my view, personal view, we have actually slid backwards, we've given up and lost a lot of that staff training and expertise we developed in the '90s, and we have actually slid backward to the 1980s again.

COOPER: Do you get in trouble, though for speaking out like this?

BOSNER: Actually, most of my colleagues think it's a great thing that I'm doing, and a number of unnamed FEMA senior executives have very quietly thanked me for it because the executives, the career executives and the career staff at FEMA, want to do a good job. Let us do our job, and we'll do it.

One BIG problem: The Bush Mal-administration did not want FEMA to do its job.

Now, it is the duty of somebody within the Mal-administration to trash this guy. See Number 8, here. It is the duty of the rest of us to rise to his defense.

< NY Times: FEMA Still Can't Get it Right | The Lights Came on in NOLA, but Only for a Bush Photo Op >

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    AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incompetence | 16 comments (16 topical)
    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#1)
    by Aaron on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:57 PM EST
    Thanks , Last Night in Little Rock, every day we are going to see more and more of the truth come out. Some excerpts from September 11 New York Times article, Breakdowns Marked Path from Hurricane to Anarchy [As early as Friday, August 26, as hurricane Katrina moved across the Gulf of Mexico, officials in the watch Center in FEMA headquarters in Washington discussed the need for buses. Some said, "We should be getting buses and getting people out of there," recalled Leo V. Bosner, an emergency management specialist with 26 years at FEMA and president of employees Union. Others nodded in an agreement, he said.] [The American Federation of Government employees which represents FEMA employees, wrote to Congress in June 2004 complaining, "seasoned staff members are being pushed aside to make room for inexperienced novices and contractors."] [FEMA appears to have underestimated the storm, despite an extraordinary warning from the national hurricane Center that it could cause "human suffering incredible by modern standards." The agency dispatched only 7 of its 28 urban search and rescue teams to the area before the storm hit and sent no workers at all into New Orleans until after the hurricane passed on Monday, August 29.]

    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:57 PM EST
    The Bushies planned (and still plan) on dismantling FEMA, like they are dismantling every Democratic accomplishment. They conspired to turn the agency into a pork distribution insurance scam. The evidence that only something like 12% of Nine-eleven funds have gone to actual victims is equivalent to the failure to spend the money allocated for rebuilding of Iraq (while splurging on military and embassy construction -- to the tune of tens of billions to Bechtel). The evidence is equivalent to the news that the Bushies have only spent twenty percent of the money allocated by Congress for port security. Add in the now documented Florida hurricane pork FEMA scandal that was SUPPRESSED from public knowledge in order not to alert voters. Failing to invest funds allocated by Congress is a basic impeachment offense. It is failure to execute. Meanwhile they execute happily, when it comes to innocent people dying. Hell, now watch this swing.

    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:57 PM EST
    One more thing: WHERE IS THE SATELLITE INTEL AN AT-WORK PRESIDENT WOULD HAVE HAD ACCESS TO?. Cloud cover means nothing when it comes to some of the milsat technology, so any President who wanted to would have been able to 'view' the destruction in great detail, over his secure modem; and a very detailed view as soon as the storm-clouds passed. Thus the absurdity of the idea that a President is dependent on the PRESS for news of disaster -- when he probably has real-time streaming video of it any time he wants. But no. Based on Nine-eleven response, this preznit has to crank the phone like hell, and hope there is an operator awake.

    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#4)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:57 PM EST
    DuluthNewsTribune.com Posted on Thu, Sep. 01, 2005 Commentary by ERIC HOLDEMAN Now is not the time to dismantle FEMA -- but it's happening
    The advent of the Bush administration in January 2001 signaled the beginning of the end for FEMA. The newly appointed leadership of the agency showed little interest in its work or in the missions pursued by the departed Witt. Then came the Sept. 11 attacks and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Soon FEMA was being absorbed into the "homeland security borg." This year it was announced that FEMA is to "officially" lose the disaster preparedness function that it has had since its creation. The move is a death blow to an agency that was already on life support. In fact, FEMA employees have been directed not to become involved in disaster preparedness functions, since a new directorate (yet to be established) will have that mission...


    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#5)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:57 PM EST
    Washington Post Tuesday, August 30, 2005; Page A17 The writer is director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management. Destroying FEMA - By Eric Holdeman
    Those of us in the business of dealing with emergencies find ourselves with no national leadership and no mentors. We are being forced to fend for ourselves, making do with the "homeland security" mission. Our "all-hazards" approaches have been decimated by the administration's preoccupation with terrorism.


    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#6)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:57 PM EST
    Aaron - You must have been asleep for the past two weeks. First, it is up to the Mayor to issue evacuation orders, not FEMA, although their is little doubt FEMA wanted to so. Simply put, they can't. Secondly, there were more than 600 busses available in NO's that Sunday morning (8/28) ordered when he finally issued the order. They could have been used to take about 36,000 people to safety. Instead, the Mayor sent them to the Superdome, and followed up that mistake with totally inadequate police protection, no food and no water. Duhhhh. PIL - You might want to look at all those weather shots on your local news and/or NOAA. They come from, are you ready? A s a t e l l i t e. Is there other sources? Yes, but they are effected by cloud cover, although infrared technology and other technologies help. Did he use them? I'm sure he did. But there's nothing like seeing it with the eye. And, as we know from this blog, a President would be roundly criticized if he didn't do a fly over, visit, etc. BTW - No snappy Google'd one liners? et al - Just from FNC. FEMA says NOLA emermancy officals have lost/misued/ over $60,000,000 in funds target for levee repair during past years. Two officals were waiting trial when the storm hit.

    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#7)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:57 PM EST
    Duh myself for lousy typing... that was around 600 busses "available"

    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#8)
    by Kitt on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:57 PM EST
    COOPER: But was it just a question, then, of Mike Brown or was it the upper management? In your opinion who is at fault? Does it just reside with one person? BOSNER: No. In my opinion under the current -- unfortunately, under the current administration the whole top layer of FEMA, and I don't know, as far as I can tell the top layers of Homeland Security really don't have any emergency management experience.
    That is the issue - absolutely no job experience.

    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#9)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:57 PM EST
    Kitt: That is the issue - absolutely no job experience. Makes sense, in a kind of machiavellian way, if it's being "dismantled" as Eric Holdeman descibes in his two articles, to not bother giving FEMA anyone with emergency management experience. Just get your pawns in there, and suck it dry.

    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#10)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:57 PM EST
    Sad commentary:: Thanks, George... The brand that didn't deliver Heather Mallick September 11, 2005
    The grand illusion is gone now. That sheen the United States once had for people around the world who were vulnerable to sheen has gone off. If Brand America were a soft drink and not a country, it would be funny, but it's not. It's the painful result of the monstrous egotism and stupidity of George W. Bush and his advisers combined with days of watching the news on-line or on TV with utter disbelief...
    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#11)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:57 PM EST
    Secondly, there were more than 600 busses available in NO's that Sunday morning
    I thought there were 2,000 busses avaialable?
    Moreover, The New York Times noted that a number of New Orleans buses were in use as the hurricane approached: "But Chester Wilmot, an L.S.U. [Louisiana State University] civil engineering professor who studies evacuation plans, said the city successfully improvised. He said witnesses described seeing city buses shuttle residents to the Superdome before Hurricane Katrina struck."
    Stay on your talking points, PPJ...and don't let the facts interfere (since you never have before).

    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:57 PM EST
    There's no place to even begin discussion with you, Jim -- you're too much of a tool. But, "PIL - You might want to look at all those weather shots on your local news and/or NOAA. They come from, are you ready? A s a t e l l i t e." Wow, Jim -- are you really such an IDIOT? I personally watched with great horror TWC. What was Bush's major malfunction? "Is there other sources? Yes, but they are effected by cloud cover, although infrared technology and other technologies help." If you weren't blinded by your nose up Bush's crack, you would see that I said exactly that IN WHAT YOU ARE REPLYING TO. Really, is it senility? "Did he use them? I'm sure he did. But there's nothing like seeing it with the eye." That milsat technology is EXACTLY like 'seeing with the eye.' Bush blames the press, when his FIVE WEEK VACATION MODE is clearly to blame. He had the intel; he could have known what happened. Just as on Nine-eleven, when he had a limousine bristling with every antenna and electronic device known to science, he sat and read a children's book AND FAILED TO ACT. And here we are again. Out yucking it up in San Diego, when the truth was already known. And then pretending that he didn't know because of NEWS REPORTS? Hell, Jim, that's BECAUSE HE HAS TO CRANK THE PHONE LIKE HELL AND HOPE THERE IS AN OPERATOR AWAKE. There are satellites buzzing around the eyes of the people who died on Bush's watch. Since you don't read things, but simply pontificate , any communication is impossible.

    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#13)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:57 PM EST
    Of course, federalizing (militarizing) disaster responses is a logical extension of the mission of Homeland Security. The first step in dismantling an agency like FEMA is to place unqualified and spineless people in charge, guaranteeing failure. Once the public was "convinced" that FEMA doesn't work, it will be dismantled without much resistance, especially from the current incarnation of the Dem party. Homeland security is really just a front to cover for the systematic militarization of the USA.

    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#14)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:58 PM EST
    Ernie - I have heard various numbers, 600, 1000, 2000. What we do know is that with the lowest number available, 600, the Mayor sent people to the Superdome, which was soon to be seen as a hell hole . So if some where used, great. But the people left behind when transport was available is a fact that cannot be denied. Why do you think he did that, starting Sunday morning? PIL - You understand that technology about as well as you understand the meaning of some words. You've heard of'em, so you mouth'em without any awarness except using them for what you want them to mean.

    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:58 PM EST
    Jim, MY understanding of the technology IS NOT THE ISSUE. But you know that. You just revert to ad hominem whenever there are cogent points that would require an argued response from an honest person. And, btw, calling you a racist is NOT ad hominem, since the evidence is plain. Ad hominem fallacy is a refusal to answer a question or advance an argument on an issue, in preference to an attack on a person. THE WEATHER CHANNEL. 362 on Directtv, which I've had for over ten years. Bush has all the channels, and then some. So how come he didn't see the awesome cyclone TWC was FREAKING OUT ABOUT? Must not have been in the bottom of his beer bottle. Meanwhile, NO ANSWER FROM YOU to the fact that Bush has all the milsat tech that science can give him, and yet he blames his advisors who have to read the newspapers for him, because he doesn't do anything but golf on his vacations, and everyone knows it. FDR read five newspapers before breakfast. And understood all the pretty little words, too.

    Re: AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incomp (none / 0) (#16)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:58 PM EST
    PPJ...the fact that Senate Republicans squashed any chance of an independent investigation (hmmm...now why would they do that?) leads me to believe that we will never find an honest answer to your question.

    AC 360: FEMA Employee Accuses Agency of Incompetence | 16 comments (16 topical)