Brownie ..you DID a heck of a job !

"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job", said President Bush during his first of three tours of Louisiana on Friday September 2nd referring to the previously much unheard of Arabian Horse fancier and staunch republican, Under Secretary Michael D. Brown Head of FEMA

Now Under Secretary Michael D. Brown Head of FEMA has handed in his lunch pail and resigned. His resignation comes three days after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff removed Brown from federal relief efforts in the Gulf Coast and sent him back to Washington.

Criticism of the hapless Brown have been bipartisan - ``It's very appropriate that Michael Brown step down,'' Representative Jim Kolbe, an Arizona Republican, (see pic with POTUS in Tucson) said in a Friday Sept. 9 interview...... ``Clearly, FEMA's response has been weak and inadequate.''

If you go to Jim’s website you will find he must have anticipated the resignation because he carries this message -

My deepest sympathies go out to the victims of hurricane Katrina. While we are saddened by this tragedy, our compassion in this time of adversity will prevail. I am confident the spirit of community and generosity will be seen from across the country as we begin to clean up and rebuild from this horrible disaster.

Hey wait a minute – you can with profit read what Drownie Brown had to say to the 2004 National Hurricane Conference, Orlando Florida, April 7, 2004 (in Spanish)

He spoke at length about the work of FEMA and it’s relevance to handling Hurricane Isabel which had savaged the Atlantic Coast. I’m not a hurricanologist, but the work they do at FEMA – consisting of many, many sincere hard working, well qualified, dedicated people, sounds impressive, here are some samples – but read it for yourself – it’s very instructive and makes it more puzzling why the whole post Katrina effort was such a fuck – up.

He spoke about forecasting ...

Southern and Gulf Coast states are well aware of the need to be ready for hurricane season, and serve as a model of preparedness and risk reduction against these powerful storms.

The importance of both timely and accurate hurricane forecast information provided by the Tropical Prediction Center in Miami was again demonstrated. A special thanks to Max and the dedicated staff at the Center for all your continued hard work and exceptional forecasting.

Co-ordinating activity by the best means available....

During Hurricane Isabel, we conducted twice-daily video tele-conferencing among the states, the National Hurricane Center, Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, SE and Mid-Atlantic River Forecast Centers to ensure they had the best available storm forecast information. This is an expansion and increased frequency from previous response efforts - made possible by the Strategic Communications Resource (SECURE) Initiative.

We’ll continue to reap the benefits of this real-time communication during future incidents because Homeland Security has installed secure videoconference capabilities in the emergency operations centers of all 50 states and the District of Columbia and secure communications equipment in all state governors’ offices.

Of preparations before landfall - remember Katrina hit Florida Thursday / Friday 25/26 August .... NOLA on Tuesday.

We crafted an expedited declaration policy for this storm which was communicated to the states in advance of landfall to ensure they understood how to obtain access to federal resources and to assist with cost recovery for their readiness actions.
We pre-positioned newly developed "shelter packs", containing equipment/supplies needed to support shelter operations -which weren't requested - previously our equipment/supplies for this mission were not packaged for mission-specific tasks.
One of our response enhancements include our pre-positioned National Disaster Medical System teams and equipment in strategic areas. This enables FEMA to respond faster if medical units are needed in an effort to reduce the loss of life in affected areas.

He spoke of the importance pre-positioning disaster supplies and of sustaining communications in case of failure

For this Hurricane season, FEMA’s logistic centers located throughout the country, have been restructured to prepare the disaster supplies so the they can be immediately shipped to a disaster area and better protect life and property.

Another area where we are leaning forward to help our partners in the states is through our mobile communications. During Hurricane Isabel, we sent mobile communications assets – before impact – close to emergency operations centers and other coordination sites to be readily available to supplement state emergency communications, if their resources were affected by the hurricane.

Pre-positioning Urban Search and Rescue teams to strategic locations ...

And, last year while making preparations for Hurricane Isabel, we pre-deployed Urban Search and Rescue teams to strategic locations so they would be able to immediately mobilize in case rescue efforts were needed just after the hurricane made landfall.

Software developments are continuing to aid planning and critical decision making for evacuations ...

All of us are aware of the importance of these tools like HURREVAC -- available on-line to the state and emergency management community. HURREVAC is a critical decision assistance aid for state and local officials, who can use this tool to track a storm event and make informed, timely, decisions on critical activities like emergency evacuations.

I understand that this year we are expanding HURREVAC to provide forecast information on inland flooding, which is one of the serious hazards associated with hurricanes and tropical systems.

He stressed the resulting deaths from flooding .....

Since 1970, more than 60% of the hurricane-related deaths have resulted from freshwater inland flooding.

There were even more tools that aided decision making and pinpointing evacuation zones for vulnerable people...

Besides the Hurrevac, we also have Storm Surge Mapping. Local Emergency Managers utilize storm surge mapping to aid in determining hurricane evacuation zones showing populations vulnerable to these life-threatening hazards.

FEMA, in cooperation with NOAA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has developed hurricane evacuation tools and products in 21 coastal states and in the Pacific and Caribbean Territories. Effective evacuations are dependent on both the knowledge of the storm surge that can be expected and the extent and magnitude of the winds.

He stressed the multi hazard approach FEMA adopted to deal with Flood / Fire / Winds / Tornadoes / Space Shuttles / Fires / Power Blackouts etc.,.... multi - tasking (must have had some women in the planning there then)....

FEMA responded to numerous significant disasters including the Space Shuttle accident, Hurricane Isabel, the California Fires, the May 2003 tornado outbreaks in the Midwest, the northeast power blackout, and many other storms and flooding events and provided planning support to the Winter Olympics and other special events.

President Bush and Secretary Ridge believe in this all-hazards approach. President Bush has witnessed first hand with me the devastation to the Midwest last May after being ravaged by tornadoes.

He ends – (Vomit Alert!) ….

Because of President Bush’s vision and leadership, we’re stronger and better prepared today than we were a year ago from all-hazards.

Now all this extremely sophisticated planning (and costly) just adds to my belief that the fuck-up was not accidental. Go read it for yourself.