[W126 Coupe] Thank you for the Chronology

Tue Sep 13 19:04:46 EDT 2005

Gary,
I have not heard from ken as yet. (6pm central -tuesday)
-Richard Hogarth 

 From: mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com [mailto:mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com]
On Behalf Of gary peck
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 5:08 PM
To: Mercedes Coupes Mailing Lists
Subject: Re: [W126 Coupe] Thank you for the Chronology

Richard did Ken respond to your e-mail

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Richard Hogarth <mailto:R_Hogarth at Foundrycove.com>  
To: 'Mercedes Coupes Mailing Lists' <mailto:mbcoupes at mbcoupes.com>  
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 10:42 AM
Subject: [W126 Coupe] Thank you for the Chronology

Ken, 
thank you for submitting this accurate chronology. 
While ya'll are arguing, We (i'm) are downhere
in LA actully living this catastrophe. 
If you have food and clothing that you wish to donate to help
those living in high school gyms, tents and civic centers, call me and I'll
help you arrange shipment. 
-Richard Hogarth
337-494-7262
Louisiana 

  _____  

From: mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com [mailto:mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com]
On Behalf Of Ken Cribbs
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 8:19 PM
To: Mercedes Coupes Mailing Lists
Subject: Re: [W126 Coupe] [Fwd: Fwd: This about sums it up.]

Of course the state and local responses to Hurricane Katrina were
inadequate; no one can reasonably disagree.  But decisions made by the Bush
administration regarding federal agencies also contributed to the New
Orleans disaster to a very large extent.  Consider the following timeline,
which I received from a friend.  I haven't verified all the facts, but so
far I haven't found any inaccuracies:

Chronology of events related to FEMA and flood control projects in New
Orleans under the Bush administration. 

January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, his crony from Texas, as head of
FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.

April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush
administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May, Allbaugh
confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned that federal
disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement
program...." he said. "Expectations of when the federal government should be
involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an
appropriate level."

2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the
three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country."

December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces his
departure to start up a consulting firm that advises companies seeking to do
business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael Brown, who, like
Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster management.

March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from its position as a cabinet-level agency
and folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is
refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.

2003: Under the new DHS organization chart, FEMA's preparation and planning
functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness and Response. FEMA
would henceforth focus only on response and recovery.

Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding
requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You would
think we would get maximum consideration....This is what the grant program
called for. We were more than qualified for it."

June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New
Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs Walter
Maestri comments: "It appears that the money has been moved in the
president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I
suppose that's the price we pay."

June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit areas is
the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after
the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany
parishes.

August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe, Bush
poses for photo-ops, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays guitar for Mark
Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his vacation.
When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the unfolding
disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a flat,
defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.

So: A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA.
Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to
be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was deliberately
downsized as part of the Bush administration's conservative agenda to reduce
the role of government. After DHS was created, FEMA's preparation and
planning functions were taken away.

Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size of
Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did
happen was no accident. It was the result of four years of deliberate Bush
Administration policy and budget choices that favor ideology and partisan
loyalty at the expense of operational competence. 

Aloha,
--Ken

At 02:50 PM 9/12/2005, Dick wrote:

Umm.  The picture while humorous if you take no political posture, does not
belie the awful truth of the failed response in Louisiana.  I think that
with time the truth will be told without the media hype and the terrible
pressure the photos of the first few days told of the suffering of so many.

Ask your selves the following questions.

In your state should a disaster occur who are the primary responders?
Does your state have a *EMA headquarters?
Who do you expect to see FIRST after a disaster strikes?
Your local PD?
Your local FD?
Your state's Guard?
Or the Federal Government?
When a disaster strikes and help from the outside is summoned, who is
responsible for having the answers to the following:
Where do you need help and what type of help do you need?
Where are the most populated areas in this disaster area where you have
coalesced evacuees?
Do you have lines of communications to each of these locations?
What resources and timelines for consumption have you made available to
these locations?
What percentage of the population moved of their own accord?
And of the remaining population what local transportation have you staged to
recover them?

Now, having answered all of these questions as they relate to you in your
state, who in your state has the ultimate authority and responsibility to
make sure your state is prepared and readied in the event of a forecasted
disaster?

Your answers should have been the state's governor, the state's emergency
management teams and coordinators, the state had readied and stockpiled
potable water and food stores to areas where they had evacuated populations,
the state should have been prepared to move in with local security and guard
forces, the state should have been prepared with communications and
transport vehicles staged and ready to roll when the conditions permitted.

I have to say that the STATE we are all watching and listening to was ill
prepared, had never run the drill, was incompetent, did not know where their
resources were, had no lines of communications established and readied, had
no reserve forces (State Guard) readied in light of the forecasted storm,
and simply sat back and waited, waited too long and when they did act it was
without a crafted and tested action plan.

Pointing fingers is fine and playing Monday night QB is fine but, the
reality is that we all expect our local government to have prepared for
disasters that are based on our location on this planet and our proximity to
a variety of 'islands of risk' that are man-made.  In Florida which was
racked by back to back hurricanes last year, the state government and local
county governments were prepared, had a plan, and executed on the plan.
They plan and prepare year round for a variety of disaster drills.
Florida's state managed emergency teams and guard were lined up miles
outside the disaster area, waiting to roll in as soon as the storm passed
each and every time.  The state was engaged and in play hours after the
storm hit, not days.  They were not standing around awaiting the federal
government to muster from thousands of miles away.  And when they did ask
for help they provided the salient details of what they needed and where
they needed it most.  They had local authority and responsibility to provide
shelter, food , water and security and in Florida they did just this time
and time again.  Louisiana is the single point of failure from which all
poorly coordinated efforts flowed.  I'd fire every last one of the
management and political flunkies and start over before the next storm
arrives.  Could be next week just like last year in Florida times 3.

The media will eventually get around to asking the hard questions that will
tell the true state of preparedness in the state of Louisiana.  In order for
an outside response to be effective, good information, solid communications,
an assessment of needs and resources has to be ready and available.  I know
this could not have been the case in New Orleans or the state of Louisiana.
Local government had no knowledge of the several thousand people in the
local hospitals running on generators with a few days supplies stock piled
by those private institutions.  The hospitals were ready but, their local
government was not.  Did not even know they were there until the media
uncovered them.

Rant over.

Continue with regularly scheduled programming.

Dick

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <dolans1 at verizon.net>
To: <mbcoupes at mbcoupes.com>
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 7:43 PM
Subject: [W126 Coupe] [Fwd: Fwd: This about summs it up.]

>
>
> Subject: Fwd: This about summs it up.
>
>
>
> Note: forwarded message attached.
> Yahoo! for Good
> Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
>
> If you ever thought that this guy would hook you up in a disaster. You
better look at what you need to be first!?
>

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