Classical Values :: Thwarting rescues and vacations

Thwarting rescues and vacations

While nothing can excuse the poor, even illegal performance of city and state officials in Louisiana (ignoring thousands of buses, preventing escapes, and blocking the Red Cross were especially egregious), it's pretty irritating to read (even in an unreliable source) that FEMA -- supposedly there to assist hurricane and flood victims -- actually served to thwart rescue efforts:

• Coordination with private relief agencies broke down and led to maddening delays. Water, food, clothing and medical supplies backed up in distant warehouses.

More than 50 civilian aircraft responding to separate requests for evacuations from hospitals and other agencies swarmed to the area a day after Katrina hit, but FEMA blocked their efforts. Aircraft operators complained that FEMA waved off a number of evacuation attempts, saying the rescuers were not authorized. "Many planes and helicopters simply sat idle," said Thomas Judge, president of the Assn. of Air Medical Services.

This comes from the LA Times, a paper I tend to distrust. But if the story is true, if this huge bureaucracy actually got in the way of rescue efforts, then it was a major part of the problem, because the problem was one of delay. What this means is that it would have been better for everyone had FEMA never been on the scene at all.

Another complicating factor which many people tend to forget was a lurking danger called vacation. Nothing is supposed to happen in August. Especially late August.

When Katrina was heading to the Gulf Coast, most of the top White House staff was on vacation, taking advantage of the president's five-week stay at his ranch near Crawford, Texas, to get time off from their normally hectic jobs.

Card, a veteran crisis manager who managed the federal response to hurricanes for the president's father, was relaxing at his lakefront summer home in Maine.

Vice President Dick Cheney, who acted as the administration's top crisis manager on Sept. 11, 2001, was at his ranch in Wyoming.

Frances Townsend, the White House coordinator for homeland security, was vacationing, too. After Katrina struck, she attended several meetings in Washington, then left on a previously scheduled trip for Saudi Arabia to work on joint counterterrorism projects.

Bush urged Townsend to make the trip despite the crisis at home as a "signal to … the enemy" that the hurricane had not distracted his attention from terrorists, one aide said.

While this looks damning (and of course the LA Times naturally focuses on the White House), anyone familiar with government knows that the last week in August is simply when major decision takers are not there. It's a bad time for anyone, anywhere, to have a major problem requiring an executive level solution.

Regrettable as it was for Washington to have been on vacation, in terms of sheer surrealism, nothing can possibly match going on vacation in the middle of the crisis. ("Mayor Ray Nagin has announced that, as bodies are still being found and as a public health catastrophe descends upon the city, he is sending 60 percent of his cops on city funds for a little R&R, mostly to Vegas hotels.")

So far, the biggest hero seems to be General Honore, who has cut through bureaucratic and political bickering with the force of his personality:

...Blanco resisted an immediate federal takeover, according to officials in both the White House and the governor's office.

Bush himself called the governor on Wednesday, but couldn't sway her. For three days, White House aides negotiated with the governor, but the two sides never reached agreement. In the end, the problem was solved in practice by Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, the officer dispatched by Northcom to command its active duty troops, "by sheer force of personality," the official said. A key factor: Honore is an old friend of Maj. Gen. Bennett Landreneau, commander of the Louisiana National Guard, who works for Blanco.

The White House had another major problem, one aide acknowledged later: It was relying principally on FEMA for its information.

Imagine that! Defeating the combined forces of bureaucracy and vacation! (All while refusing to violate the Constitution....)

I think Honore deserves a promotion.

For others, I think some permanent vacations are in order.

MORE: Billy Beck likes FEMA vacations:

I think everybody would have been better off if FEMA hadn't gotten out of bed for the duration.

Reminds me of a bumpersticker I saw at a gun show years ago, which read,

DEAR GOD, PLEASE DON'T LET THE GOVERNMENT HELP ME ANYMORE.

But will God hear the prayers of an atheist?

Hey, tough times demand tough questions!

Re FEMA refusals to "allow" planes in. Something similar happened with land and water operations.

BUT - with the latter two, it seems that FEMA would not tell them where to go: which is quite possibly because FEMA was not allowed in, had no authority to tell them where to go, and was not being told where help was needed except via newscasts. Thanks, Blankout!

John Anderson · September 13, 2005 12:51 AM