FEMA's Charter: Catapulting the Propaganda

by Mary

Did you ever wonder what FEMA's job is? (No, it's not that fancy mission statement they put on their website.) Why, gosh, its charter must be to coordinate skilled emergency responders to be cheerleaders and props for Bush photo-ops. That's why you had a thousand volunteer firemen getting training in Atlanta to enable them to help with the Katrina disaster, by handing out flyers to people who need to contact FEMA for help.

Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers. Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.

Or to give Bush a special hand in showing what a masterful leader he is during this crisis:

But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.

Of course, Michael Brown knew right away Katrina was a huge deal, and so he let his boss know that it would be important to get some Home Land Security personnel to the scene as fast as possible, which according to Brown was within 48 hours after Katrina hit. And what was the need for these top notch personnel?

Brown's memo on Aug. 29 aimed to assemble the necessary federal work force to support the rescues, establish communications and coordinate with victims and community groups, Knocke said.

Instead of rescuing people or recovering bodies, these employees would focus on helping victims find the help they needed, he said.

...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.

Why did they need 48 hours? Why to give them special disaster response training such as the firemen described in the earlier article. I guess it never crossed their mind that they might want to have conducted some of this training before disaster struck. And obviously, they never figured out how to deploy the right people for the right jobs. But never fear, the well-trained community service people did a nice job handing out FEMA's phone number and web-site to people without phone service or running computers. Too bad some people had to die before little things like food or water showed up.