It is becoming clearer and clearer that the aftermath of Katrina was not as smooth as it should have been for a number of reasons, inluding insufficient preparation and incompetence at FEMA, insufficient pre-positioned contracts, and tensions between FEMA and a recalcitrant and incompetent governor of Louisiana:
Among the many failures in government planning revealed by Hurricane Katrina, one was particularly striking: No one, it seems, figured out ahead of time who was going to pick up the dead.
When the storm swept through the Gulf of Mexico six weeks ago and left hundreds of bodies to decompose in homes and streets, Louisiana officials looked to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help removing them. But since cities and localities had historically recovered bodies from mass casualties, FEMA says, it had made no arrangements.
One has to wonder how much of these tensions was based on the advice of hero to the people James Lee Wit, who was advising Governor Blanco from the get-go:
Not long before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, James Lee Witt, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and his colleagues called officials on the Gulf Coast to offer their help.
Soon after the storm hit, the State of Louisiana signed up with Witt Associates, a disaster consulting firm. Within days, Mr. Witt had become a fixture at the state’s emergency operations center in Baton Rouge, advising the governor and sleeping in a trailer. He even figured out a way for FEMA to reimburse the state for his firm’s fees, which the company estimates at $4 million to $6 million over the next year.
These two stories make me wonder if the scope of the tragedy, as well as some outside advice telling the governor to just have the Feds do everything didn’t aggravate an already bad situation. But don’t worry about James Lee (who, the story notes, speaks with a folksy twang), for apparently telling Governors what they don’t have to do in an emergency and how to get the feds to pick up the tab is quite lucrative:
The much-criticized performance of FEMA after Hurricane Katrina hit has only enhanced his reputation. But as he applies his skills as a consultant, Mr. Witt is having to step deftly to avoid being perceived as a disaster profiteer.
“I just don’t want anyone to say that we used this as a way to profit or to try to get new business,” he said. “I just don’t want that.”
In Louisiana, he cut his usual hourly fee to $275 from $500 for the no-bid state contract and declined to take on any other business there, despite what his partners say are numerous requests.
He is barely working for FREE! Of course, maybe he should:
June 9, 2004
IEM Inc., a Baton Rouge, La.-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, announced it will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast 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 (FEMA).
In making the announcement today on behalf of teaming partners Dewberry, URS Corporation and James Lee Witt Associates, IEM Director of Homeland Security Wayne Thomas explained that the development of a base catastrophic hurricane disaster plan has urgency due to the recent start of the annual hurricane season which runs through November. National weather experts are predicting an above normal Atlantic hurricane season with six to eight hurricanes, of which three could be categorized as major.
They are now in full-on CYA mode:
JAMES LEE WITT ASSOCIATES STATEMENT ON IEM DISASTER PLAN
In May of 2004, IEM included James Lee Witt Associates, LLC in their proposal to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for developing a FEMA Catastrophic Plan for Southeast Louisiana and the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
After the proposal was submitted to FEMA, James Lee Witt Associates was not approached again by IEM, nor did JLWA have any involvement whatsoever in the project.
In other words, James Lee and company got them the contract, flew their own little “Mission Accomplished!” banner, and took off into the night. Of course, it is much more fun to just blame Mike Brown for everything. Arabian horse jokes are funny! And rooting out the systemic corruption at the state and local level might prove to be difficult.
RJH
I knew Kathleen Blanco in a past life, she surely does not know enough to be governor and is fronting for someone. I assumed that would be whom she had to consult before proceeding properly, but on reading this perhaps you are right and James Lee Witt was supposedly in charge, not her.
On a personal level she is very sweet and nice.
yet another jeff
I can hold my silence on this topic no longer. Arabian horse jokes are not funny at all.
I feel like a great weight has been lifted…Dr. Nussbaum was right.
Another Jeff
Come on, the one about the Arabian horse that walks into a bar is a classic!
yet another jeff
Oh, yeah…forgot about that one. Heh…won him in a raffle…brilliant! Ok, all Arabian horse jokes except that one.
Jon H
“Of course, it is much more fun to just blame Mike Brown for everything. ”
How about Joe Allbaugh’s profiteering on the hurricanes *and* on the Iraq War?
At least Witt has a record of competence, and not just as a political hack.
jg
Since FEMA ran well under Witt now its important to find some things on Witt that can be painted in an unflattering way. Is that the strategy? Tear down the guy the dems think would have handled the situation better? Like the Joe Wilson saga, make it look like he might have an agenda to make FEMA and Bush look bad.
Still doesn’t take the heat off Bush which is clearly the intent. The federal response starts with Bush. He was on vacation. IIRC Witt and Bush arrived in New Orleans right around the same time, a few days after the hurricane hit.
Kimmitt
I like olives.
Anyways, I agree with John — this whole “privatization at all cost” crap from the Republican Party has proven itself to be a disaster.
This, however, is incredibly stupid:
Okay, hang on. We’d already established that the City of NO was completely overwhelmed and that the State of LA was completely incompetent. Can we please show a tiny inkling of initiative when something as basic as recovering American bodies is at stake?
goonie bird
Do arabian horses wear turbans?
jobiuspublius
It took him days to “become a fixture”. Brownie beat him by a year. I don’t think Witt could have significantly messed up Brownies game. Remember, Blanco intimated to the Feds that she wouldn’t be able to handle Katrina days before Katrina made landfall. Whether, that is SOP or clever advice from Witt, I don’t know.
And who the hell are the rest ofthese jokers?
There is a differance between was not approached and took off. You know, Witt doesn’t have a pretty good record. Brownie is a putz. DHS is a contract mill. Good luck pinning the blame on Witt.
Johnny! Finish your plate before you have your dessert, or whatever it’s called!
jobiuspublius
BTW, them blackwater types make more than $350 per hour plus per diem and they still complain. When you see how much other people are charging, Witt is cheap. Yum yum lets eat some more guppies.
Barry
John cole: “One has to wonder how much of these tensions was based on the advice of hero to the people James Lee Wit, who was advising Governor Blanco from the get-go:”
And after reading your post, John, one still has to wonder, because you haven’t given an actual reason with actual evidence to assume that anything is Witt’s fault.
Jeez Louise, are you that desparate to hop on the “It ain’t FEMA’s fault!” bandwagon?
pleonastic piranha
so, any actual evidence that witt is at fault here for something, anything? let’s see it.
to me (and i’ve had my eye on IEM since shortly after the storm hit) it sounds more like they fucked up, and part of how they fucked up was by not approaching JLW, the people with loads of experience. how does not being approached translate into riding off into the night?
Andrei
Wow… just wow.
We’ve gone from making jokes about how Dems are looking to blame Brownie for the deaths of 18,000 Pakistanis to finding a way to dilute blame on the aftermath of Katrina from the current blokes in charge of state and local governments and FEMA to be shouldered by one of the more successful directors of FEMA from a past administration.
The mind boggles, John. The mind boggles.
Asshole.
I’ll one up you on the asshole meter though: I hope the Chargers kick the Steelers ass all up and down the field. And I’ve got Big Ben as my Fantasy Football QB to boot. See? Anyone can play the asshole card.
Steve S
It’s funny. I read this post that John linked to saying that we should all blame Saudi Arabia for being mean to women, but we shouldn’t look at the meanness of Americans towards women because it is not morally the same.
And here John is making the same argument… Except this time he’s saying we shouldn’t be blaming FEMA because it’s possible that Blanco is also incompetent… While at the same time not acknowledging that the two are not morally comparable… because FEMA’s failure was a magintude worse.
What point are you trying to make here John? That idiocy for idiocy sake is a worthwhile endeavor?
Kimmitt
The more I think about this, the more it pisses me off. Get OFF your GODDAMNED ASSES and NOTICE that things have gone to hell. You’re the “EMERGENCY Management Agency,” not the “Perfectly Routine Management Agency.” Stop being such morons, over and over. Yes, we get it, Louisiana is a shithole. We noticed that during the gubernatorial election, when the racist morons voted for a incompetent chick because the alternative was a dark-skinned Indian. You weren’t such assclowns in Mississippi; get your shit done. Jeebus.
scs
Okay, do we still know this for sure? I agree with John. So many times in my life, people went with their “perceptions” and not the facts, and their perceptions often times turned out to be wrong. We perceive Mike Brown to be incompetent because of his background, a few of his remarks, etc. But what proof do we have that actually he did anything incompetent?
We DO know for sure that the Lousianna Homeland Security gave the order not to feed or give water to the people at the convention center.(And three babies died of dehydration there.) We do know that local authorities did not allow people to walk out of the superdome or convention centers. We do know that the Louisianna National Guard was nowhere to be found. We do know for sure that by law, states are responsible for their own disaster management, especially the initial response and are only to use the 2,500 FEMA employees as a tool to help.
So, where is the reporting on the state and local incompetence? I think THIS is a national media scandal, especially the lack of reporting about the order not to give food and water to the convention center. There should have been plenty of time to investigate this. Let’s all get the facts first, instead of relying on our perceptions.
Steve S
True. But the thing that you, John, and everybody who wants to blame Blanco for Katrina seem to be forgetting is that this hit on the gulf was of “biblical proportions”. The first responders… the national guard, the police, the fire… they were also victims.
I mean good grief, even the DoD admits this. They let the soldiers stationed over in Iraq who were from that area go back home. Not to respond to the disaster, but to be back home with their families and whatever was left of their homes.
Then ask John why his first instinct was to attack anyone who wasn’t involved with GW Bush? It’s called covering up for incompetence by blaming the people below you.
scs
Well there was no SYSTEM set up for this type of mega- disaster. They are trying to set up one now it seems with Northern Command. Now why they didn’t set one up before, who knows. We can blame Bush for that I guess, but not just Bush as there hasn’t been a system set up for that for 200 years. I don’t know what people did before. I suppose in the past, people just were supposed to just suffer and deal with disasters on their own until help did or didn’t get to them. But they didn’t have 24 hour cable back then like we do now and we can’t just sit back and ignore suffering anymore.
Even though I agree that this disaster was clearly over the state government’s head, they still made some poor choices with the resources that they did have (ie no food and water to the people at the convention center.) We can’t blame the Feds for that. I kind of do wonder if some of this strange maneuvering of the state, which in my opinion was designed to avoid lawsuits, was influenced by James Lee Witt who was supposed to be running everything. After all someone made that decision, and we still don’t know specifically who did it. Why we don’t know, I think is a scandal.
Gigahertz Inc.
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