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You are here: Home / Open Threads / The Vanishing Act?

The Vanishing Act?

by | 7 Comments

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This is interesting:

Remember my earlier point that disaster management in New Orleans had been privatised, the ‘catastrophic hurricane disaster plan’ having been handed over to Baton Rouge-based Innovative Emergency Management last year? Watching this nightmare unfold, I’ve been wondering why no fucking one is asking what exactly IEM got paid for.

It’s turning out to be very hard to find out, for rather startling reasons…

That’s right. The evidence that hurricane-management was privatised and handed over to IEM has been eradicated from the IEM website. It’s almost as if someone was trying to evade responsibility for incompetence that’s resulted in the deaths of thousands, or something.

Again, believe at your own peril, but this is something to get the hounds on.

Reader Interactions

7Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim Caputo

    For those too lazy to go read it, here’s part of what the suddenly vanished June 2004 IEM document said:

    IEM, Inc., the Baton Rouge-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southwest Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    ….A catastrophic event is one that can overwhelm State, local, and private capabilities so quickly that communities could be devastated without federal assistance and multi-agency planning and preparedness.

    Thomas said that the greater New Orleans area is one of the nations most vulnerable locations for hurricane landfall.

    So Homeland Security and FEMA just lost their “it’s a state and local problem” ass umbrella. They KNEW this was a seriously vulnerable area, so they farmed it out to some company that wound up doing a pisspoor job. Incredible.

    Our government sold what was their responsibility to the lowest bidder.
    In-fucking-credible!!!

  4. 4.

    Bruce From Missouri

    If it wasn’t obvious before, can we all agree now that the word “privatization” in the hands of this government is just code for “Bend over and lube up”?

    Whether it’s California power, or hurricane relief, or Social Security, the only thing worse than having the government do it, is to put it into private hands.

    Bruce

  5. 5.

    Jim Caputo

    John Cole Says:

    So Homeland Security and FEMA just lost their “it’s a state and local problem” ass umbrella.

    Read this.

    I wish you’d be more specific when you point people somewhere. I skimmed through the document, but I’m not sure what your point is.

    Are you saying that the ciy and the city alone is responsible?

  6. 6.

    Jim Caputo

    And just to clarify… I wasn’t saying that the federal government alone is responsible for the horrible post-hurricane conditions. The city and the state were clearly unprepared. However, national security should be a federal priority and the federal gov’t should have a plan for these kinds of situations and clearly they were just as poorly prepared as the city or the state. In fact, early reporting gives some credence to the argument that the federal gov’t may have actually slowed down relief in some ways.

  7. 7.

    Jim Caputo

    And since we’re showing each other our documents, here’s what it says on the Dept of Homeland Security’s website:

    In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort.

    So who trumps who?

    Again, this is a failure at all levels, but to hear FEMA insinuating that it’s a local/state failure, while not acknowledging their own shortcomings and unpreparedness, is bullshit that they should be called on.

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