It’s a lot deeper than FEMA
By
Fred Goldstein
Published Sep 4, 2005 11:48 PM
The big business media are howling for the
head of Michael Brown, the hapless director of the Federal Emergency Man agement
Agency (FEMA), for gross incompetence in his handling of the preparedness and
rescue mission in the New Orleans disaster.
Brown should certainly be in
jail for murderous and racist criminal neglect. But there are numerous others
who belong there along with him, starting with President George W. Bush and his
head of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff.
In this
disaster, FEMA has shown utter negligence, in addition to disorganization, lack
of communication, confusion and general all-around incompetence. But the stage
was set for this long ago. On the scale of culprits, Brown, the inept fool in
the spotlight, is way down on the list.
The political climate for the
disaster can be laid at the foot of Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and all the others in the Bush administration who
have championed the phony “war on terrorism.” It is under this
slogan that Bush had promoted the war in Afghanistan, the war and occupation in
Iraq, the repressive, racist Patriot Act and the creation of the Department of
Home land Security (DHS).
‘Homeland security’ takes
over
In March 2003, with great fanfare, the DHS was created and
absorbed 22 federal agencies and 180,000 employees. Its bud get started out
around $15 billion and has increased every year. It was $30 billion in 2005.
FEMA was one of the agencies taken over.
FEMA had been the only federal
agency charged with the responsibility to try to prevent, plan for and reduce
the effects of natural disasters. It was also charged with dealing with the
aftermath of disasters, including providing damage insurance. It had a
cabinet-level status.
As soon as it was put under the DHS, its budget and
its status were reduced. From then on, the so-called war on terrorism pushed
everything aside and cut back on all constructive activities of the agencies
that came under the DHS.
The Miami Herald of Sept. 3 wrote: “The
Federal Emergency Management Agency, once a powerful independent agency focus ed
solely on responding to earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and other natural
disasters that occur on average about four times a month, was placed within the
huge Depart ment of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks. Homeland Security sends $1.1 billion each year to the states to combat
terrorism, but $180 million to help prepare for such disasters as Katrina. Much
of the terrorism grant money is given under the conditions that specifically
exclude spending it on items or personnel that would be used in responding to
hazards other than terrorism.”
This is a clear attempt to stop any
attempt to use the money for natural disasters.
The Herald quoted
George Haddow, former FEMA deputy chief of staff: “There are no emergency
managers at any level in the Department of Homeland Security. It’s all law
enforcement.”
Trina Sheet, executive director of the National
Emergency Management Associ ation, told the Herald: “Every state and
community has warehouses of haz-mat [hazardous material] suits, personal
protection equipment, bomb detectors, bomb diffusers, radiological detectors.
… But we’ve also got local officials where their emergency
operations center is an office and a fax machine.’”
Michael
Brown has been on television making a fool of himself. He told CNN’s Paula
Zahn on Thursday Sept. 1 that “the federal government did not know about
the convention center people until today.” That was several days after a
world-wide audience of hundreds of millions had watched in horror as 15,000
African-American men, women and children desperate for food, water and
transportation were totally abandoned by the authorities.
He also told
the CBS Early Show that he knew there were “pockets of people” who
had not received the basics but that “we have the
supplies.”
Brown has been attacked for these stunning demonstrations
of incompetence and ignorance—which also reveal the racism of the
authorities. But the real power behind destroying FEMA’s effectiveness in
preparing for disasters is Chertoff.
Chertoff is behind Brown’s
incompetence
In July of 2005 Chertoff announced his long-awaited
“review” of the DHS. After the review, his main move was to further
demote and disempower FEMA. Shaun Waterman of the United Press Interna tional
wrote about this reorganization on July 12:
“The change that drew
most attention as the country braces itself for the annual hurricane season is
that the department’s Emergency Preparedness and Response is being
dismantled.” FEMA, the agency “that currently makes up the bulk of
the directorate,” was demoted and has “a director, rather than an
undersecretary, reporting straight to Chertoff.”
And, “in a
move that is most likely to draw howls of protest from state and local emergency
managers and FEMA’s allies on Capitol Hill, the agency is being stripped
of its preparedness functions.” A former official explained,
“Preparedness is what you do all year ’round to get ready for
hurricane and fire seasons.”
The policy of reducing natural disaster
preparedness was reflected in the refusal of funds to complete a FEMA project
specifically designed to prepare for a hurricane disaster in New Orleans.
FEMA had begun to carry out Project Pam. This project simulated a level 5
hurricane. Level 5 Hurricane Ivan just missed New Orleans last year. FEMA hired
a private firm to do a $250,000 study of the problems involved. But additional
funds requested for a follow-up study on how to solve the problems were
denied.
Brown, a former lawyer for the Arabian Horse Association, is a
corrupt buffoon. He gave $30 million in insurance to Miami-Dade residents who
suffered some rain during a hurricane that hit 100 miles away, while he left
residents from other areas, who actually suffered, without funds.
But the
person in charge of the operation in New Orleans, with responsibility for
starving New Orleans of preparatory funds, is Bush’s man Chertoff. Brown
is his flunky. In fact, the racist insensitivity of the Bush administration is
illustrated by the fact that Chertoff did not even intervene in the crisis until
Wednesday afternoon. This was two-and-a-half days after the people had been left
on their own to suffer the ravages of the flood.
It was not until then
that he appointed Brown to be in charge of the operation in the region. And it
was not until then that he activated the National Response Plan to deal with the
crisis. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, had already died, and tens of thousands
were traumatized. Tens of thousands had still not been evacuated from the watery
filth.
Even after Chertoff said the plan was implemented, the presence
that the people felt was mostly that of armed troops. Food came slowly and
evacuation even more slowly. It is still incomplete. People watched the
evacuation of the private Tulane Hospital while 200 critical-care patients
across the street in the largest public hospital for the poor, Charity Hospital,
were without food, medicine, electricity or water. People were dying as
reporters watched.
The Bush administration and its point man, Chertoff,
have a reactionary, racist, anti-poor political and ideological position. This
is what explains the willful lack of preparation for the disaster. It explains
the deliberate delay in bringing even the most minimal aid to the people. And it
explains the militaristic and police reaction to masses of people who have been
subjected to a profoundly traumatic ordeal inflicted on them by criminal neglect
and capitalist greed.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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