Arkansas Blog

what would've been the political costs potential for the DEMS/Obama campaign to have made returning FEMA to independent agency status a part of the DNC platform or campaign promise?

especially if Witt could be talked into coming back to save/restore it?

Having spent a few days in the pineywoods of East Texas, not too far from the Louisiana border, I got a glimpse of our efficient FEMA/Republican government first hand. We had a motel room reserved thru this past Saturday night and we had to fight to retain it and even though we wanted to keep the room thru Sunday night, that was absolutely impossible. NOT because they had people there fleeing the hurricane, (although some were coming in as we left), BUT because the federal government would pay the motel 3 or 4 times their normal nightly room rate if the room was either empty or filled with a hurricane refugee.

Now, wouldn't you think that a small premium of something above their normal rate would be sufficient? I saw no problem with urging us to leave if the room was needed for a family with no place to stay, but the desk clerk readily admitted that our room had to be empty or filled with someone from the Gulf area in order to get paid the fee that would be several times more than they charged their regular guests.

Pretty neat scheme, IMO.

"nobody could have foreseen barges breaking loose and busting through the levees"

(and no witnesses due to very effective evacuation)

don't think the bastards would ever do such a thing?

guess we'll know in a few more hours.

stephenhsmith 9:55am 1Sept2008

What are you implying Muleboy??
Someone [besides Gustav] trying to do New Orleans in??
MSNBC shows footage of levys being overtopped, west side of Industrial
Canal

Ding dong dang,, happens every damn time....why can't they tie those vessels up so they

don't break loose?? During BETSY our ferry boat ended up on top of the levee.

Our River Parishes being hit hard, all power out, kinda like Hot Springs.

Port of New Orleans under water.....I worry when NOLA is on east, *dirty*, side of the eye.

Where are you James Lee Witt???

SOS

Hurray hurray! It looks like this storm will not be a big deal! That sorta gives chasv some ammunition....God sends a big storm to menace the Republicans and remind the world of Katrina, but no massive loss of life and damage about like Fort Baptist got out of 2 storms this year.

I'm glad people evacuated this time, just more insurance a Katrina will never happen again. Guess it's still a little too early to proclaim Mission Accomplished, but so far so good. Maybe Republicans in desperately endangered inland, landlocked, states like Ohio, which is not in the path of the storm, will crawl out from under their beds and go to THEIR convention in St. Paul to press flesh with others of their evil ilk. Maybe McCain & Lil Sarah will cancel their Gulf Gimmick and go show the world how wonderful they are.

But most of all though.....YAY that Gustav ain't no big deal!

Of course, Louisiana wasn't hit by three major hurricanes during the Clinton administration, so we really don't know how well FEMA would have handled it back then.

I doubt that James Lee Witt will be getting any more contracts with the State of Louisiana. MSNBC had an article about his firm's contract with them after Katrina - "Ex-FEMA chief profiteering on Katrina? Witt's firm charges Louisiana double its costs for subcontracted services"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19918356

It's good to see that people are now allowed to evacuate with their pets. The previous policy was a big disincentive for some people to leave before Katrina hit.

I think the biggest difference in the outcome of Katrina vs. Gustav will be the governor, not FEMA. Bobby Jindal seems to be doing a much better job of managing a crisis than Kathleen Blanco did.

AB, Witt's absence was only part of the problem. The bigger issue was the fact that dubya took FEMA, the high-functioning independent cabinet-level agency, and rolled it into what became an enormous, floundering, crony-run bureaucracy of the Department of Homeland Security.

The badness of this idea became apparent 3 years ago.

hugh mann - I agree with you that DHS is the wrong department for FEMA. I don't think it needed to be a cabinet-level agency either. Maybe it should go back under HUD.

.

Witt's firm charges Louisiana double its costs for subcontracted services"<<

What's this. A wingnut complaining that Witt and Assoc. have adopted a Republican business plan?

some of Cheney's buddies were getting 900% mark ups on post Katrina work.
Some of Cheney's buddies were importing illegal immigrants to do clean-up and
paying them less than minimum wage. In many cases the illegals were not paid
at all but shipped back to Mexico, broke and hungry.