AP IMPLIES CRITICISM OF FEMA FOR TAKING TWO DAYS TO BRING PAPER SHUFFLERS TO LA
In what has to be one of the most egregious examples of ignorance (or deliberate bias) ever demonstrated by a major media source, the Associated Press has released an article that takes FEMA Director Brown to task for failing to bring the agency’s victim relief and community outreach paper shufflers to New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of the storm.
The government’s disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security workers to support rescuers in the region - and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.
Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Mike Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29. Brown said that among duties of these employees was to “convey a positive image” about the government’s response for victims.
“Among other duties”…HMMM. But what would be their main duties? Unfortunately, we don’t find this out until several paragraphs later:
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said Brown had positioned front-line rescue teams and Coast Guard helicopters before the storm. Brown’s memo on Aug. 29 aimed to assemble the necessary federal work force to support the rescues, establish communications and coordinate with victims and community groups, Knocke said.
Instead of rescuing people or recovering bodies, these employees would focus on helping victims find the help they needed, he said.
THESE EMPLOYEES HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH RESCUING VICTIMS TRAPPED ON ROOFTOPS OR BRINGING FOOD TO THE HUNGRY OR WATER TO THE THIRSTY!
Instead, these 1,000 FEMA paper shufflers were responsible for helping the shocked and reeling citizens in filling out the massive number of federal forms necessary to get disaster relief.
It’s like this: Once upon a time, there was a little, tiny bureaucracy in the United States Government called the Federal Emergency Management Agency that would move into a disaster area after the clean-up was underway and open temporary offices where people could come and get help in trying to get their lives back together. In their benign munificence, the federal government would supply you with food, water, shelter, and loans to rebuild your smashed homes through a series of disaster relief programs. The kindly paper shufflers at FEMA were on hand to guide you through the labyrinth of federal forms you needed to fill out in order to receive this aid.
Later, the tiny agency grew, and grew, and then grew some more until it was all grown up and became the gargantuan disaster nanny that it is today. But a legacy of their early days still exists; they still set up temporary offices to help residents rebuild there lives.
This is what those 1,000 FEMA employees were being dispatched to do. They had nothing to do with hanging out of helicopters to pluck people from rooftops stranded by the flood. They had nothing to do with driving trucks into the city full of food and water to feed the people who desperately needed it. They had nothing to do with even coordinating any of these activities. All these people were already there, on the ground, in New Orleans working tirelessly to save lives.
For the Associated Press to release an article like this is flabbergasting. It reveals a breathtaking bias in reporting that should be pointed out and condemned by not only bloggers but anyone in the MSM who is concerned about the credibility of their industry. What should have been a one paragraph “filler” in any newspaper has been transformed into definitive “proof” that FEMA and, by extension the Bush Administration, failed to act in a timely manner in relieving the distress of the people of New Orleans.
Rick,
I have a lot of respect for your writing and work on Katrina.
However, in this case you have left out a key paragraph:
This is the key point I found in this report.
– Only after the storm was bashing the
coast was FEMA departmentally engaged —
That is a massive failure.
Comment by Dean — 9/7/2005 @ 9:43 am
“Departmentally engaged” takes into account where a sizable chunck of FEMA’s budget and personnel are; disaster assistance and community outreach.
FEMA assets having to do with disaster coordination, search and rescue, military liaison, and disaster relief were all deployed (according to AP) “in a semi-circle” around New Orleans.
Why most of that stuff didn’t get to the people who needed it will be one of the major scandals of this disaster.
FEMA screwed up plenty. But for the AP to complain about paper shufflers not getting into New Orleans for a couple of days is disingenuous at best and deliberately biased at worst.
Comment by Rick Moran — 9/7/2005 @ 9:49 am
[...]
UPDATE, CHANGING FOCUS and BUMP TO THE TOP ON Wed, 09/07/05 02:06… Ri [...]
Pingback by SoCalPundit » Associated Press Blasts Fed, Ignors State & Local Screw-Ups — 9/7/2005 @ 4:13 pm
Rick,
Your timeline is one of the most useful tools on this story in the blogosphere, but I don’t get how after pulling all those facts together you’ve gone back to picking a nit with this ‘paper shuffler’ stuff. You’re right that the MSM seem hyper-focused on the Feds and saying precious little about local and state responsibility…
But, aren’t these the FEMA administrative people on the ground that should help coordinate all that other stuff that ‘didn’t get to the people?’ Aren’t they the ones who would have appeared at the major assembly and evac. points and provided basic info., started name lists, etc. so that those first few days after the storm wouldn’t have been so chaotic and traumatic for survivors who couldn’t (or wouldn’t) get out?
It’s exactly that kind of simple on-the-ground info. and coordination that gets harried masses to relax, and makes them feel like someone gives a damn. I think depicting them as some kind of useless bureaucrats who would have just gotten in the way, and didn’t need to be there moments after the storm is off the mark.
Comment by Joseph — 9/7/2005 @ 10:47 pm
In war (in this case political war), truth is the first casualty.
Comment by Ken — 9/7/2005 @ 10:58 pm
Joseph, you may have a wee point, but only because of the utter incompetence of the state and local authorities pre- or post-hurricane. However, Rick has a excellent point re AP’s clearly playing Monday quarterback for a chance to bash the administration over something as ludicrous as, as… positioning bureaucrats on the ground, in the midst of a disaster, with no infrastructure and few resources for them to do their oh-so-useful bureaucratizing.
Rick, you wrote this:
Aah, but my friend, their industry has no credibility.
Indeed, that’s why there are bloggers, conservative talk radio, the Media Research Center, and Fox News. (And RWNH!)
Comment by The MaryHunter — 9/8/2005 @ 6:08 am
The whole Katrina episode proves beyond a shadow of doubt that once the hurricane touches land, if you have not prepared in advance you are toast. Maybe that is why all hurricane plans, all hurricane public notices, all hurricane public seminars I have ever attended stress that fact.
The mere fact the leftist-MSM keeps dancing around the issue of prior preparation and evacuation being the only answer to hurricanes is evidence of massive bias being levied on an uninformed public.
Comment by From the Swamp — 9/8/2005 @ 6:17 am
“They had nothing to do with even coordinating any of these activities. All these people were already there, on the ground, in New Orleans working tirelessly to save lives.”
Yeah…like the almost 1,000 firefighters and policemen, trained in emergency search and rescue techniques, who were brought first to Atlanta for a day of intensive training in, among other things “sexual harassment” issues, to prepare them to be shuttled to New Orleans to…drum roll please…hand out leaflets?
Oh, wait…the first fifty sent in were given the urgent job of being human wallpaper for a Bush photo op.
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3004197
Comment by Lance — 9/8/2005 @ 6:56 am
Bad Science, Worse Journalism
The arrogance and hubris that can breed bad science maps perfectly onto the MSM. After all, not unlike scientists, journalists are an elite corps, chosen from on high and trained to distribute knowledge and information to the lowly masses.
…
Trackback by TMH's Bacon Bits — 9/25/2005 @ 9:34 am