Tag Archives: FEMA

Paul Bedard/U.S. News: Ridge book makes additional assertions

Former DHS head Tom Ridge’s new book has made headlines with the assertion that h was pressured to raise the national threat level prior to the 2004 elections.

His credibility on this point can be questioned since the matter has come up before, to which he’s responded “We don’t do politics” at the Department of Homeland Security. The standard question on cross-examination, as any third-year law student should be able to tell you, would be: Were you lyingthen, or are you lyingnow?

Either way, not a favorable impression of Secretary Ridge’s credibility. Let’s then put aside the question of the 2004 pre-election threat levels.

Paul Bedard at U.S. New & World Report reports that the book also contains the following assertions:

  1. Ridge was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings;
  2. was “blindsided” by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him
  3. found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of the emergency agency blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster ignored

Mr. Bedard is the author/editor of a feature at USN&WR called Washington Whispers, which we’ll be adding to our RSS feeds.

Assume what one wants about the 2004 elections and the threat levels. Bedard has spotted more troubling issues – (1) and (2) supra suggest that creating the Departmen of Homeland Security may have been a meaningless gesture, and that protestations of interagency cooperation were disingenuous; (3) suggests that someone may actually have spotted the problems with employing someone as FEMA head without any qualifications other than English fluency.

makes assertions

Craig Fugate Confirmed as Head of FEMA

We like Craig Fugate as head of FEMA, and was confirmed by the Senate late today after Senator Vitter (R, LA) released his hold. Choice to Head FEMA is Confirmed

(Associated Press via NY Times).

We believe that Mr. Fugate is responsible for the best definition of a “disaster” – an emergency is a bad situation in which responders outnumber sufferers; in a disaster – the responders are outnumber by those in need. In my dealings with him – mostly by email, he’s been friendly, well-informed and unpretentious. He’s got a tough job – let’s hope the Administration lets him do it. Via Disaster Accountability

See also Fugate’s personal Blog, DisastersRUS

State to State comparisons – CERT team numbers by population

Our first experiment at displaying data in this way. NB: ((Nota Bene, or “take note” – Lat.))

  1. This is data reported to FEMA by the states – or directly by local administrators;
  2. We know nothing from this data of size, effectiveness, equipment, capabilities of CERT teams
  3. Other volunteer organizations – volunteer ambulance corps, fire departments, and other groups, like The 3 Steps – wouldn’t be reported here anyway.

With those caveats – based on current FEMA data:


State Population served per team
New Jersey 20,437
Wyoming 29,046
Mississippi 31,726
North Dakota 31,986
Rhode Island 36,477
Maine 36,589
Utah 37,790
South Dakota 39,811
Missouri 41,108
Massachusetts 46,401
Vermont 47,789
Total 31,161
Idaho 55,533
Texas 57,325
New Hampshire 69,254
Oregon 76,479
Kansas 81,647
Iowa 85,373
North Carolina 87,971
Florida 89,030
Kentucky 90,244
Washington 95,124
Connecticut 103,009
Oklahoma 106,392
Montana 106,429
Tennessee 111,940
West Virginia 113,252
Louisiana 116,033
Ohio 118,216
South Carolina 119,127
Michigan 122,827
Arkansas 123,252
Indiana 129,496
Arizona 132,057
Alaska 136,696
California 145,052
Minnesota 157,504
Alabama 159,581
Nebraska 161,325
Virginia 175,275
Georgia 207,495
Colorado 231,501
Maryland 255,379
New Mexico 281,416
Nevada 285,042
Illinois 313,477
Hawaii 427,796
New York 438,585
District of Columbia 588,292
Pennsylvania 592,038
Puerto Rico 657,063
Wisconsin 800,234
Delaware 864,764

Many thanks to Dannny Sanchez and his excellent table-to-html tool, Tableizer.

Urgent Request to Sign Petition Objecting to FEMA decision – no ice in disasters

SIGN THIS PETITION:

FEMA has decided that it’s not going to deliver ice in disasters, except in narrowly defined “medical” or “life-threatening” circumstances. Ice, of course, is a staple in disasters. The Disaster Accountability Project has coverage of the FEMA decision here

.

And DAP has also organized a petition drive – sign the petition at this link .