Incompetence or Negligence?
Sep 18th, 2005 at 12:56 pm by Susie
Really, either they’re completely incompetent or criminally negligent:
As Hurricane Katrina bore down on the Gulf Coast three weeks ago, veteran workers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency braced for an epic disaster.
But their bosses, political appointees with almost no emergency management experience, didn’t seem to share the sense of urgency, a FEMA veteran said.
“We told these fellows that there was a killer hurricane heading right toward New Orleans,” Leo Bosner, a 26-year FEMA employee and union leader told CNN. “We had done our job, but they didn’t do theirs.”
Bosner’s storm warning came early Saturday, three days before Hurricane Katrina came ashore in eastern Louisiana.“New Orleans is of particular concern because much of that city lies below sea level,” he warned in his daily alert to Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff, then-FEMA chief Michael Brown and other Bush administration officials.
“If the hurricane winds blow from a certain direction, there are dire predictions of what may happen in the city,” it said. FEMA’s tepid response while Katrina’s victims grew desperate, suffered and died has been acknowledged and widely criticized.
The agency’s failure is a tragic element of the Hurricane Katrina story. But, according to Bosner, FEMA’s troubles came as no surprise after its role and stature shifted when federal agencies were reshuffled in response to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
A longtime union leader, Bosner has been a whistle-blower before. This time, he says, colleagues are quietly thanking him for speaking out.
A year ago he raised concerns that Brown was in over his head. Brown stepped down earlier this month after he was removed from leading the government’s Katrina relief effort. After resigning, he criticized local officials in an interview with The New York Times, saying the White House wasn’t at fault.
“I have nothing personal against Mike Brown,” Bosner told CNN. “I feel badly about the guy. But he took a job he was never trained for. The man was a lawyer.”
Hilarious.
Caple is the funniest baseball writer in Christendom, and maybe even in Japan as well.
He wrote briefly for the Seattle P-I before ESPN snagged him, and I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with him a few years ago.
I’r rather see him on the Supreme Court than Roberts any day.
I hope that Leo Bosner has his life insurance in order. Surely he knows that anyone who dares to speak against The Prince or any of His Holy Actions is to invite the cruelest sort of revenge.
A disturbing view from inside FEMA
Veteran federal disaster workers say they warned their bosses that Hurricane Katrina would create an
Mr. Bosner can call me if he needs help updating his resume.
Sorry for a cross-post, but I have to say this:
Look, this was no accident, and it wasn’t negligence. Haley Barbour got all kinds of attention, and Blanco was ignored. Katrina gave them the opportunity to accomplish several things:
Slide more money to the faith-based cronies
1) Reduce poverty by killing poor people,
2) Eliminate a Democratic stronghold
3) Free up a lot of valuable coast line for the “right people”
4) Prove that government is ineffectual so they can continue to dismantle it
5) Give Halliburton another juicy no-bid contract
6) Establish Martial law on U.S. soil
7) Give Blackwater mercenaries free reign to kill some black people and intimidate some reporters
9) Further deplete our treasury so our economy will collapse and they can end Social Security and other social programs once and for all
10) Continue chipping away at Labor laws by allowing slave wages for the reconstruction
And let me add that the two biggest tragedies this country has ever known were exacerbated because that tool was on vacation. If he wanted the job bad enough to steal it, the least he could do is show up.