Katrina and government responsibilities to protect

[Anastasia13]

Critics of the federal Hurricane Katrina response say had our military not been so spread out overseas, our response in New Orleans may have been more successful. Which is our government's greatest responsibility - to quell international attacks or domestics ones?

[ardillacid]

Is it really the government's job to provide its citizens with aid?

[jmjtina]

The problems don't lie just with the government but also with local authorities.

Who would have thought that Cuba would be giving the US aid?

[ardillacid]

I don't understand where the government derives its powers to aid as in this situation for example, i guess.

[Kilroy the Ninja]

The military had nothing to do with the response to the disaster in New Orleans.

Poor planning on the part of local and state officials had everything to do with the response.

President Bush took the blame, but it was not his to take. He was pretty much doing it to get people to shut up.

If FEMA is to blame it's because of who they had in charge. And even if Bush did put him there, is this guy still not an adult? Since when did we stop holding adults responsible for their actions?

The thin-military argument is simply another garbage argument being put out there by the same uninformed people who really believe that celebrities like Sean Penn can make a difference in flooded N.O.
(which btw is a hilarious story if you can still find it on the internet. Worth googling).

[Kilroy the Ninja]

Here's an interesting article about how FEMA was already investigating the local and state governments of LA.

Can you say [url="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-money17sep17,1,5736422.story?coll=la-headlines-nation"]corrupt?[/url]




P.S.

As far as I can tell the above link works now, but it may only work if you are registered with the LAtimes. If that's the case I apologize for linking to it, and a print of the article is on my next post.

Edited September 18, 2005 by Kilroy the Ninja

[Chris of Zewe]

[quote]to quell international attacks or domestics ones?[/quote]

Whoa, wait...what*? Who attacked us now?

*LOL ALLITERATION

[Kilroy the Ninja]

Link won't work.... I'll work on that... but in the mean time here's the text of the article at the LAtimes.com




September 17, 2005

KATRINA'S AFTERMATH
Louisiana Officials Indicted Before Katrina Hit
• Federal audits found dubious expenditures by the state's emergency preparedness agency, which will administer FEMA hurricane aid.

By Ken Silverstein and Josh Meyer, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON — Senior officials in Louisiana's emergency planning agency already were awaiting trial over allegations stemming from a federal investigation into waste, mismanagement and missing funds when Hurricane Katrina struck.

And federal auditors are still trying to track as much as $60 million in unaccounted for funds that were funneled to the state from the Federal Emergency Management Agency dating back to 1998.
In March, FEMA demanded that Louisiana repay $30.4 million to the federal government.

The problems are particularly worrisome, federal officials said, because they involve the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, the agency that will administer much of the billions in federal aid anticipated for victims of Katrina.

Earlier this week, federal Homeland Security officials announced they would send 30 investigators and auditors to the Gulf Coast to ensure relief funds were properly spent.

Details of the ongoing criminal investigations come from two reports by the inspector general's office in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, as well as in state audits, and interviews this week with federal and state officials.

The reports were prepared by the federal agency's field office in Denton, Texas, and cover 1998 to 2003. Improper expenditures previously identified by auditors include a parka, a briefcase and a trip to Germany.

Much of the FEMA money that was unaccounted for was sent to Louisiana under the Hazard Mitigation Grant program, intended to help states retrofit property and improve flood control facilities, for example.

The $30.4 million FEMA is demanding back was money paid into that program and others, including a program to buy out flood-prone homeowners. As much as $30 million in additional unaccounted for spending also is under review in audits that have not yet been released, according to a FEMA official.

One 2003 federal investigation of allegedly misspent funds in Ouachita Parish, a district in northern Louisiana, grew into a probe that sprawled into more than 20 other parishes.

Mark Smith, a spokesman for the Louisiana emergency office, said the agency had responded to calls for reform, and that "we now have the policy and personnel in place to ensure that past problems aren't repeated."

He said earlier problems were largely administrative mistakes, not due to corruption.

But federal officials disagreed. They said FEMA for years expressed concerns over patterns of improper management and lax oversight throughout the state agency, and said most problems had not been corrected.

They point to criminal indictments of three state workers as evidence the problem was more than management missteps. Two other state emergency officials also were identified in court documents as unindicted co-conspirators.

"The charges were made after some very extensive reviews by FEMA investigators and other authorities, who identified issues they felt were of the severity and magnitude to refer them to the U.S. attorney's office," said David Passey, the spokesman for FEMA's regional office in Texas.

Passey, while acknowledging that the state had made some administrative changes, said it had not completed the kind of overhaul FEMA said was needed.

"It concerns us a lot. We are devoted to the mission of helping people prepare for, prevent and recover from disasters and we want these federal funds — this taxpayer money — to be spent and used well and in accordance with the rules," he said.

Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington watchdog group, said recent Louisiana history showed that FEMA "money earmarked for saving lives and homes'' was instead squandered in "a cesspool of wasteful spending."

Louisiana's emergency office receives money directly from FEMA. It passes on much of the funding to local governments that apply for assistance.

The audit reports said state operating procedures increased the likelihood of fraud and corruption going undetected

For instance, a Nov. 30, 2004, report by Tonda L. Hadley, a director in the Denton field office, examined $40.5 million sent to the Louisiana agency, mostly for the Hazard Mitigation program. The report found that the state's emergency office did not have receipts to account for 97% of the $15.4 million it had awarded to subcontractors on 19 major projects.

The report also said the Louisiana agency had misspent $617,787 between May 2000 and September 2003.
Questionable expenditures identified by the inspector general included $2,400 for sod installation, several thousand dollars for a trip to Germany by the deputy director, $1,071 for curtains, and $595 for an L.L. Bean parka and briefcase. The inspector general also challenged unspecified spending for camera equipment, professional dues and a 2002 Ford Crown Victoria.

The day before the report was issued, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana obtained an indictment against Michael L. Brown, deputy director of the Louisiana office of emergency preparedness. (Brown is no relation to former FEMA director Michael D. Brown who resigned this week.) Louisiana's deputy director oversaw the state's Hazard Mitigation program.

Brown was charged with conspiring to obstruct the inspector general's investigation and for making a false statement to a federal investigator.

Michael C. Appe, another senior state agency official, also was charged with obstructing the audit. Months earlier, Appe had been appointed as head of a "surge team" to review projects funded with FEMA money. The team's mission was to help spot abuses.

Both Appe and Brown hold the rank of colonel for their roles in overseeing elements of the state National Guard.

Appe was arrested in Baton Rouge last November, as was Daniel J. Falanga, the state agency's flood-mitigation officer. Falanga was accused of committing perjury before a grand jury investigating misuse of FEMA funds.

All three men have pleaded not guilty to the charges and deny wrongdoing, according to their lawyers. Trial dates remain uncertain because the hurricane disrupted court schedules.

According to the indictment, Brown and Appe conspired in 2000 to use $175,000 in FEMA funds to cover a shortfall in a related agency's budget. Later, when the inspector general began investigating the agency's use of FEMA money, the two men conspired to create a fake, backdated memo to cover up the earlier diversion of funds, the indictment says.

State agency spokesman Smith said Brown had traveled to Germany, but to attend a conference. He declined to answer questions about alleged improper spending, citing the pending trial. Smith said at the time, state officials believed the trip to Germany was a proper expenditure.

Brown's lawyer, Elton Richey, said his client tried to spend federal disaster funds wisely despite job turnover and confusion between state agency officials and FEMA overseers. He said FEMA kept changing the rules.

Marty Stroud, a lawyer who represents Appe and Falanga, said, "There are no charges that anyone in this case enriched himself at the expense of a federal program."

Hadley, of the inspector general's office, issued a second report on Feb. 25, 2005, which tracked state spending of FEMA money to pay for "extraordinary costs," a special category used for the administration of disaster assistance programs. It said the agency had improperly spent $247,166 for items such as a car, computers, membership dues and travel to seminars.

In addition to alleged misspending reported in the two audits, FEMA has asked for the return of $10.7 million allocated to a program for buying property in high-risk flood areas. Most of that money was passed on to local communities to determine which property owners would benefit.

FEMA alleged the Louisiana agency had not properly monitored expenditures, and failed to ensure that properties receiving the funds were eligible.

About $2.8 million of the refund sought by FEMA went to consultant fees. Most of that money went to Aegis Innovative Systems, a Baton Rouge firm hired by many parishes to administer the flood buyout program. Aegis owners include Mark Howard, a former official at the Louisiana agency.

State Sen. Reggie Dupre said it appeared that parishes employing Aegis were especially successful in winning money from the state emergency preparedness agency.

"It smells like a horrible brother-in-law deal to me, " he said in a phone interview.

An Aegis attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

[IcePrincessKRS]

[quote]Which is our government's greatest responsibility - to quell international attacks or domestics ones?[/quote]

I have been seeing this question posed alot lately. Honestly, it seems a little ridiculous to me. Supposing it were an attack from another country's military/government/terrorists, etc., etc. I would say certainly attacks on our own turf would be a greater priority. But this wasn't a military/terrorist attack. It was a natural disaster. Our government and military have no control over that, no real way to protect us against a natural disaster. They can't shoot a missile at it and expect it to stop. When they say evacuate that means if you don't leave you'll probably die, they even said as much before the hurricane hit. Were they a little slow in getting aid into the city? Yeah, I am sure they were, Like its been said over and over, it takes time to organize these kids of things, aid, rescues, military, etc. Its not like they were sitting on their butts watching TV waiting for people to begin ranting and criticizing before they took action.

[Lounge Daddy]

[quote name='Light and Truth' date='Sep 17 2005, 02:45 PM']Critics of the federal Hurricane Katrina response say had our military not been so spread out overseas, our response in New Orleans may have been more successful. Which is our government's greatest responsibility - to quell international attacks or domestics ones?
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[/quote]

The National Guard is a first response team - and they were there [b]hour one[/b]
FEMA is not a first response team, so the criticism of FEMA I don’t take too seriously

I agree with Kilroy the Ninja – the blame should be on the local and state politicians – not the Federal Government
How did we get to the point where we rely on the federal government to bail us out of everything?
How did we get to the point where we want a nanny state?

[hierochloe]

Don't think the lousy response was even remotely related to our international activities tbh.

[White Knight]

Theres nothing we can do about Sister Nature accept prepare for her arrive, international attacks (Terrorist Attacks); we can prevent.

[Anastasia13]

[quote name='IcePrincessKRS' date='Sep 18 2005, 01:23 PM']I would say certainly attacks on our own turf would be a greater priority. [right][snapback]728613[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]
Well that does pose a different way of thinking about it. I was thinking of attacks from outside, but that would be a good distinction to make clear. Thank you.

[White Knight]

The point is, its nobody's fault but everyones for under estimating the strength of Katrina, and that costed lives, and a reconstruction act/


Our thoughts were just like the meterorloists, they had no idea Katrina would be a catagory 4 or 5, they estimated it was going to be aleast a 3 maybe a 4, turns out it was ethier a 4 or a 5.

We underused our sources to save more lives and equip ourselves more properly to prepare for Katrina, we failed all of us.


I'm tired of hearing Conservative and Liberal Issues on this, I say, screw who knew and didn't know, and lets do the best with what we have, and rebuild New Orleans as quickly and effectively as possible.


No more stupid debates on Katrina, I'm sick of.

There has been more good that has come out of Katrina than Bad.

[Anastasia13]

[quote name='White Knight' date='Sep 19 2005, 02:28 AM']No more stupid debates on Katrina, I'm sick of.[right][snapback]729503[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]
This was my homework question.