WASHINGTON, Sept. 7, 2005
Memo Tells Story Of FEMA Delays
Top Boss Waited To Ask For Help And Gave Workers Days To Arrive
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National Guardsmen from Michigan ride through New Orleans, looking for individuals who need to be rescued. (AP/The Dallas Morning News)
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Gracielee Platt (left) of Bristol, Indiana, talks to a young hurricane victim as she staffs a table set up by church group volunteers from her state offering help to evacuees. (AP/The Truth, Rick Meyer)
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Interactive Hurricane Katrina Katrina's historic and deadly assault on the Gulf Coast: photo essays, how to help information, state-by-state damage and more.
President Bush and Congress on Tuesday pledged separate investigations into the federal response to Katrina.
"If the president says we need an investigation, he needs only to look in the mirror," says California Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader.
Criticism of the Bush administration is not limited to the Democrats.
"Governments at all levels failed," said Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins. "If our system did such a poor job when there was no enemy, how would the federal, state and local governments have coped with a terrorist attack?"
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke says as FEMA director, Brown had positioned frontline rescue teams and Coast Guard helicopters before the storm. Brown's memo on Aug. 29, according to Knocke, was aimed at assembling a federal work force to support the rescues, establish communications and coordinate with victims and community groups.
According to Knocke, instead of rescuing people or recovering bodies, these employees were to focus on helping victims find the help they needed.
"There will be plenty of time to assess what worked and what didn't work," says Knocke. "Clearly there will be time for blame to be assigned and to learn from some of the successful efforts."
Brown's memo told employees that among their duties, they would be expected to "convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public."
"FEMA response and recovery operations are a top priority of the department and as we know, one of yours," Brown wrote Chertoff. He proposed sending 1,000 Homeland Security Department employees within 48 hours and 2,000 within seven days.
Knocke says the 48-hour period suggested for the Homeland employees was to ensure they had adequate training. "They were training to help the lifesavers," Knocke explains.
Employees required a supervisor's approval and at least 24 hours of disaster training in Maryland, Florida or Georgia.
© MMV CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
