Michael Brown and storm victims relieved today
Associated Press is reporting that FEMA chief Michael Brown has been relieved of on-site relief command.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown, the principal target of harsh criticism of the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, was relieved of his onsite relief command Friday. He will be replaced by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, who was overseeing New Orleans relief, recovery and rescue efforts, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced.
When asked how he felt about that, Michael Brown reportedly said, “Strawberries. They’re really good covered in chocolate, but sour cream and brown sugar can be good, too.”
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I posted this on the Houston Chronicle Science Guy Blog, but it did not post.
I am actually not sure what is accomplished by naming a hurricane after female or male names.
People with names like Allison, Andrew, Carla, Hugo, Mitch, Katrina, Betsy, Camille, etc. might really be somewhat traumatized by those names. I can see a young person with a name like Katrina actually becoming a little sad or depressed with that name. With the fertilization role that some hurricanes or rain play, the person with that name might be consoled. With the damage the hurricane does,the person with that name might actually cry.
I appreciate the comment about more people still to rescue. That is good. It helps remind us of what our focus should be.
Bush and our government and all of us are like prize fighters in my view a little. 9/11 hits us and affects the way we see the world. Hurricane response and investment take on a different importance for us.
The job of FEMA director is extremely difficult. Is Savannah supposed to evacuate today? Is South Carolina supposed to evacuate today? It is a category 3? Do you see how difficult our choices are? This is hard work which requires extensive understanding of emergency, disaster, relief history. Also, earth science understanding has to be strong. What happens physically to a city faced with storm surge? How do limit the growth of germs in a city which has suffered high water level and other issues? Can we evaporate the water? Should we alter in some way where Lake Ponchatrain is? I get exhausted just taking care of myself and a parent. Think about how exhausted a FEMA director and others feel. Good post just now on the Houston Blog that the Ophelia event could be like Hugo and damage Richmond and that area. Maybe there really should be mandatory and safer evacacuation or movement of people into safe shelters. The posting said something about Charleston as below sea level. If it is below sea level, we need to probably get people to a safer place.
You wrote:
All of this is absolutely true. That’s why the very idea of giving the job of running FEMA to an incompetent political hack should be grounds for impeachment.
When one considers the types of expertise that would make a good FEMA director — a retired general with leadership and logistics skills, or perhaps a Fortune 500 CEO known for turning around failing companies — putting Michael Brown into this job was one of the most appalling acts of negligence in American political history.
Studies showing what could happen to New Orleans after a hard hit from a Cat 4 or 5 storm were available, and scientists were telling anyone who would listen that precisely this scenario was not just possible, but inevitable. And the current increase in hurricanes is not some unpredictable event, but rather part of a decades-long cycle that most atmospheric scientists regard as fact, even if its causes are still poorly understood. FEMA, along with other government authorities and politial leaders, literally had years of warning to prepare for a disaster that was absolutely certain to occur — not in the space of centuries, but within the course of a decade or two. Their failure to heed these warnings may represent the single most expensive peacetime blunder ever committed, in the United States or anywhere else.
The Sept. 12th issue of The New Yorker features a cover illustration of a man playing the saxophone above a flooded French Quarter. While this image may not be literally correct it figuratively captures the loss and sadness of what has happened.
Inside this issue, the “Talk of the Town” section, which is usually a collection of quirky New York centric observations and essays, is devoted to New Orleans, and it is much larger than it usually is. One of those articles is called “The Sunken City” and it is actually an exerpt from an article previously published in the New Yorker in 1987. The full article is called “The Control of Nature: Atchafalaya” and can be viewed at newyorker.com in the archives.
It is a fascinating article, written almost twenty years ago, about the threats facing NO, the potential for flooding, the work it involves to keep the city safe and the Army Corps of Engineers…basically things that are now talk show fodder and cocktail party chatter all over the U.S.
This should be required reading for all Fema/Bush administration apologists. Difficult choices are an essential and inevitable part of any disaster preparedness/planning. Difficult choices are very much a part a job requirement of every FEMA employee. If they are not capable of making difficult decisions and then carrying them out with the courage of their convictions and with a show of authority then FEMA should be dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up. Oh, and some serious questions ought to be asked to the Bush Administration in the process.