FEMA Abruptly Abandons Long-Term Recovery Office In New Orleans
FEMA Abruptly Abandons Long-Term Recovery Office In New Orleans
On September 15, President Bush stood in downtown New Orleans and pledged, “Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives.”
Today, nearly eight months later, “Housing remains in very short supply, only a handful of public schools have reopened and many neighborhoods resemble ghost towns.” But according to WWL-TV, FEMA is choosing to abandon New Orleans anyway:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency office charged with helping New Orleans devise a blueprint to rebuild destroyed houses, schools and neighborhoods after Hurricane Katrina is being closed and nearly all its workers reassigned. …
FEMA says it’s closing the long-term recovery office because local officials have failed to begin planning the recovery adequately. …
City officials are angered by the move, saying New Orleans is again being abandoned by the federal government. “We can’t plan on a paper napkin,” said New Orleans Deputy Mayor Greg Meffert.
Two points emphasizing just how outrageous this move is:
1) FEMA was partly responsible for the delays in developing city plans. FEMA says it is leaving because it’s tired of waiting for a plan from city officials. But “[o]ne major hold-up was the late release of FEMA’s flood elevation advisories,” WWL reports, “which offer guidelines on how high homeowners should raise their homes to qualify for flood insurance.” The advisories were issued last week, months late.
2) FEMA had promised to fund city planning efforts. New Orleans officials say they need federal help to pay for the planning efforts, and the former director of the FEMA’s recovery office “made a verbal promise to city officials to fund the effort.” In fact, “[s]everal employees of the disbanded office agreed [that the city needs federal assistance], saying that at the beginning the office worked closely with city officials, helping implement their plans.” Now that promise has been broken.
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Why do the good ones die so young?
...and the incompetent inbreds just keep going and going, and going....
May 4th, 2006 at 11:24 amOnce again.... who's surprised?
The thing with the administration is they can say whatever they want, wait a few days/weeks/months and then do something completely to the contrary because most of America's attention span is as long as a..... HEY, PAY ATTENTION!
YO! OVER HERE! LOOK! SOMETHING SHINY! JESSICA SIMPSON PHOTOS HERE!
Good, gotcha back. I'll keep it short.
Bush = countless unfulfilled promises.
May 4th, 2006 at 11:29 amFEMA doesn't need to be disbanded by Congress. They can handle that all by themselves. So who will be held accountable for this decision? Chertoff?
May 4th, 2006 at 11:29 amI am NOT surprised that Bush has ordered FEMA to pull out of New Orleans, but where did all the billions of dollars go that supposedly have been spent? There needs to be an audit to determine if FEMA funds were pilfered or stolen > if proven, then Bush must be arrested and given a prison term!
May 4th, 2006 at 11:30 amI'm sorry but we have neither the time or the money to help our own, our resources must be spent force-feeding democracy to the Middle East (unless, of course, said democracy brings about elected leadership from a group like Hamas, or perhaps in the near future Islamic Jihad, then we will need more money to eliminate these governments as they will not be "democratic" enough)
May 4th, 2006 at 11:33 amSummary of Bush Administration's post-Katrina plan:
May 4th, 2006 at 11:35 am#1. Don't care about poor people.
#2. Funnel as much money as possible to our friends and pet projects.
#3. Is the recovery going poorly for New Orleans? Don't forget we're "compassionate conservatives," and see Rule #1.
So whats the problem with spending 700 MILLION for a railroad that serves casinos?
We are all bent over the barrell:
May 4th, 2006 at 11:38 am..
^==o
(O) / \
So FEMA decides to pull out of NO and blame it on the local government two weeks before they are electing their mayor, Nagin or Landrieu. Makes me wonder about the decision making process.
May 4th, 2006 at 11:40 amLet's get this out of the way now...It's all Bill Clinton's fault cuz he got a bj in the Whitehouse!
(I don't really believe that hehe, but let's deflate the trolls preemptively)
May 4th, 2006 at 11:41 amAlas the news media will continue to report "breaking" developments in the
Natalie Holloway case
and the Duke rape case......
NO I am terribly sorry that these incompetent morons are currently in office....
No one in that region (Miss./Lousiana) SHOULD EVER VOTE REPUBLICAN AGAIN!!!!!!!!!
absolutely disgraceful....
May 4th, 2006 at 11:44 amMaybe FEMA just wants to get its people out of New Orleans before the hurricane season begins. It wouldn't be responsible to leave them there when you are aware of the quality of work being done on the levees.
May 4th, 2006 at 11:45 amI wonder how it would feel to pay federal taxes as a resident of NO so that you could rebuild(?) another country for corporate commercial purposes and not yours which was hit by a natural disaster. That has to hurt and anger one beyond belief.
May 4th, 2006 at 11:49 amCan't wait to see what happens if Hilton Head SC. or some other such town is hit by a hurricane this coming season and what the response will be. I'll bet the golf courses and marinas will be priority.What a country this has become.
May 4th, 2006 at 11:54 amPost 11 lol you could be right the levees around New Orleans have basically not even been repaired, so if a hurricane hits again this summer > NO most likely will flood even worse! If a category 5 cane hits the city, then everything including the French Quarter would be obliterated!
May 4th, 2006 at 12:05 pm13. It could happen this year. The east coast, Carolinas in particular, are said to be in the path for the 2006 season. Not that I want another Katrina sized disaster to hit this country, but it makes for an interesting "what if" scenario.
May 4th, 2006 at 12:07 pmHaven't we seen something similar like this before? Like, say, NCLB? Something in there about underperforming schools will lose federal funding?
Pretty much the same, just with underperforming cities instead, at least in the eyes of FEMA.
May 4th, 2006 at 12:08 pmFunny that Mayor Nagin and the Landrieu family have kissed Bush's ass repeatedly, so their reward is swift kicks to their butts > lol. Sen. Landrieu is one of the most pathetic Democrats in the Senate > she is almost as bad as Lieberman!
May 4th, 2006 at 12:17 pmNews Orleans Super Dome is being rebuilt because Bush believes that baseball stadiums are more important than houses for the poor!That building should be blown up and used as landfill for the city!
May 4th, 2006 at 12:34 pmFrom the Times-Picayune, and indication that either FEMA has backtracked, or the intial report was incorrect, or something!
In one area an accord was reached. Citing reports that FEMA was closing its long-range planning office in New Orleans because neither the city nor the state could create a timely recovery plan, council members lacerated the agency for deserting desperate citizens and taxpayers. Misczak said that was not the case and that perhaps confusion arose over location, not intent. In fact, he said, FEMA is not shuttering its New Orleans operation, but is simply moving a small piece of it under another roof.
That view was echoed later in the day by Gil Jamieson, FEMA's deputy director for Gulf Coast recovery. Jamieson said the long-range planners are shifting to Algiers, a move that should cut FEMA's costs and improve communication while still leaving a core group of planners nearby when precise recovery blueprints are drafted.
"Reports our office in New Orleans are closing are inaccurate," Jamieson said.
May 4th, 2006 at 12:49 pmSorry. Article link:
May 4th, 2006 at 12:50 pmhttp://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1146729028321760.xml
Correction on post 18 > NEW not NEWS lol > typo!
May 4th, 2006 at 12:50 pmBut Tony Snow still wants to send Bush down there to swing a hammer for a day.
What the hell? Nobody reads. Everybody just looks at the pictures anyway.
May 4th, 2006 at 1:47 pm#14 and #18. you really quite ignorant and quite insensitive. please think about what you are saying before you say it.
1400 people died and hundreds of thousands more left homeless, jobless and futureless, and you LOL.
the levees are being repaired and will be ready for hurricane season - perhaps not cat 5 or even cat 3, but the holes will be plugged. a cat 5 may or may not flood the city, and/or the French Quarter, you can never know about such things. a fast-moving storm of high intensity with little rain may do no damage, but a weaker, slower-moving one may be much more destructive as it lashes the city for days with wind and rain.
the superdome has never been the home for a baseball team. the home team zephyrs play in an outdoor stadium in the suburbs. as insensitive to New Orleans' plight as george bush has been, it has not been so that he could build a baseball stadium. the damage to the roof in the aftermath of the storm was very overheated. the roof is repaired and i am unaware that any federal money was used. the New Orleans saints football team expects to play an entire slate of home games there in 2006.
the building is in no danger of collapse, and the site really couldn't work as a landfill, anyway. it is directly in the center of downtown, with large office buildings and hotels in the immediate vicinity.
i am happy to share any fact or tradition of New Orleans that i may posess, but I really do beg you to be more considerate of people who have lost everything.
May 4th, 2006 at 2:15 pm#12. it sucks.
May 4th, 2006 at 2:21 pmSorry to be slightly OT here, but...
May 4th, 2006 at 2:31 pmI heard that oil companies in Texas pay the state for drilling privileges, but Louisiana gets no money from the oil companies when they drill in that state. True?
Does that explain the disparity of wealth between the two states?
It's the feds who share oil royalties with other states on offshore drilling, but not with Louisiana due to La. taking an all-or-nothing (instead of shared) stand in the 50's. So La., due largely to its own ancient fault, is treated differently than other offshore states. La. has some leverage on this, and the wise answer would be to have the feds treat all states the same.
May 4th, 2006 at 2:39 pmPost 23 > stop defending Bush on here about New Orleans! I have been to that city several times and the government of Louisiana is one of the most corrupt in America! The Super Dome has become a symbol of needless deaths and should be demolished! Public funds are being used to repair it and if you care for N.O. and its people , then you would not want that building getting first priority! Having football games for the rich is NOT the way to help the poor!
Do not be so quick to label someone ignorant unless you intend to pick a fight on here! I do not know you from Adam Ant, so take your opinions elsewhere Bienville!
May 4th, 2006 at 3:00 pm"we will do what it takes, and stay as long as it takes"...wait....NEVER MIND!
May 4th, 2006 at 5:22 pm[...] FEMA Abruptly Abandons Long-Term Recovery Office In New Orleans Think Progress, DC - 6 hours ago FEMA says it’s closing the long-term recovery office because local officials have failed to begin planning the recovery adequately. … [...]
May 4th, 2006 at 5:44 pm#27. I cannot see how my post could be interpreted as support of Bush. Defense of that contemptible ogre is the very farthest thing from my mind.
I was born and raised in New Orleans, and I lived there for more than half of my life. My parents, my in-laws and my sister live there. My grandparents are buried there. I am New Orleans and her people. No one could care more.
Your posts 13, 18, and 27 betray a gross lack of knowledge of New Orleans and her condition, despite your visits there. I do not mean to offend.
What happened in the Superdome during and after Katrina was tragedy of the highest order. Many parts of the city saw great tragedy. But, if every building that saw the passing of a victim of Katrina was destroyed, we would have few left.
Repair of the roof is seed corn. It will bring visitors. Visitors bring money. We must eat, but we must not eat all the seed corn.
As I said, I do not mean to offend. But you really must consider your words. There is no need to attack me.
May 4th, 2006 at 9:28 pmPost 30 then do not call someone you do not know ignorant on here! The Super Dome is NOT a seed corn for anything > it is a symbol of death and governmental stupidity now! The price tag to completely refurbish the building has been estimated to exceed 100 million dollars! Price to demolish it > one million! Do you want to go to Football games and sit in a chair where at that very spot someone died during Katrina, or at that spot a huge pile of human waste was located, or a spot where some woman was raped or abused?
FEMA has allocated funds for the Super Dome that could be used to build houses for the poor > 100 million would go a long way for house construction! Most of the poor could never afford to go to a Super Dome sports event because cheapest seats about $50 a person up to a couple thousand bucks for a skybox! Look at your city and see where the priority of funds is going? To rebuild Super Dome, clean up French Quarter, get Casinos back in shape, get expensive hotels in order, etc! Next to nothing to clean up the 9th ward and other poor areas! At least all the buildings that are destroyed should have been bulldozed and removed by now, all the trash and dead trees picked up, roads repaired, etc!
Never start a post on here attacking someone and you will not be attacked back! Get mad at Bush for staging photo-ops in your city, like setting up lights in Jackson Square and when leaving removing the generators afterwards, or setting up a bogus food station, but after the pics it gets closed and the food hauled off too! Get mad at Mayor Nagin for putting people into the Super Dome, instead of using school buses to take them out that instead were left in the city and ruined by floods! Get mad at Sen. Landrieu for being so out of touch that she praised Bush for letting hundreds drown in the city for 5 days! Get mad at your Gov. who never seemed to understand how serious the situation could become! Get mad at FEMA for not even dropping water and food to the people floating in the flooded streets of your city! But do not yell at posters like me who are trying to shame Bush to do something!
May 4th, 2006 at 10:57 pmSurprised?
May 4th, 2006 at 11:09 pmNOT!!!!!!
FEMA has NO room to talk! It takes alot of nerve, or total ignorance, to hold the cities devastated by Hurricane Katrina responsible for being unable to do their part, when it was the failure of FEMA to respond to their dire situation that made a bad situation impossible. The list of f*ck-ups that can be tied directly to FEMA is a mile long. So, you all need to keep your worthless asses right where they are, until you fix it ALL.
May 5th, 2006 at 12:40 amYou might have noticed that I make no attempt to defend the politicians that you have attacked. I am past the stage of anger. Elections will deal with them.
I have made no attack against you, though you have received it as such. I merely obesrved that you are not aware of some things and that such is indicated in your posts. You are clearly emotional about New Orleans and we all appreciate that. You made a series of remarks about New Orleans and revelled by saying "LOL," which I found offensive. I think we should set aside being defensive.
Perhaps we can start again. You have been to New Orleans. Have you returned since Katrina?
May 5th, 2006 at 8:04 amPost 34 Do not be so quick to attack someone for a LOL > that Laughing Out Loud term does not mean to offend anyone on this thread who wants to help New Orleans to recover from the killer Hurricane Katrina! Lots of mistakes were made in N.O. that cost hundreds of people their lives! 1,400 dead maybe the official death toll, but around 2,000 are still missing and many of them most likely perished! One of the most vile things Bush did was to NOT to properly locate the deceased and get proper burials for them! In a way someone in DC wanted the bodies to decay into bones, so perhaps the count would not surpass the 9/11 terrorist attack?
I have not been back to New Orleans since the hurricane, but have friends who have done so! I hope the city is prepared for the upcoming hurricane season, but I doubt residents of N.O. will ever remain behind to risk drowning again! Hopefully the levees will be upgraded to withstand a category 5 cane someday, but billions of dollars are needed to do that task!
I used to live in the oldest city in America > St. Augustine, Florida > established by the Spanish in 1565! I lived a block away from the ancient stone fort in the Old Town area and had a coffee shop/restaurant/art gallery located inside a pre Civil War house! St. Augustine
May 5th, 2006 at 9:28 amis like New Orleans, but without Mardi Gras parades and no Bourbon Street bars! If you have never been there , go take a look sometime, and imagine N.O. before it became a big city with areas of poverty, crime and blight! Perhaps New Orleans can reclaim its heritage as it is rebuilt and the city of St. Augustine its sister city once again? One can hope!!!
#35 - Jay,
May 5th, 2006 at 10:48 amFor the record, Saint Augustine is the oldest surviving continuously occupied European settlement in the United States. There are numerous older cities in the United States. They were occupied by Native Americans hundreds or thousands of years before the Spanish came over here.
I don't think keeping fatality score against the WTC attacks is very productive. It seems to be a claim to be the "greater victim."
Perhaps many of those missing like it that way; many others have disappered into New Orleans, hoping to leave a past elsewhere. But certainly there are many still buried in the collapsed and ruined houses. Some would rather die in New Orleans than live anywhere else, so some will always stay behind.
I have to diagree with your "most vile" comment. The dead are dead, and there is no urgency about them, as long as there are still living people in jeopardy. The most vile thing done by the Bush administration was to stand idly and watch. And now they close the relief office because local officials need too much help. The feeling of being ignored by the rest of the nation is the hardest thing to bear.
I have visited New Orleans three times since Katrina. It is still shocking. You should go. Everyone should go - not all at once, of course. TV does not prepare you for the reality. Some of the homes clearly have gone untouched since August 29. A returning hurricane will find little to destroy for years to come.
I have been to St. Augustine many times. It's very interesting. A little tame for my taste, but I enjoy myself every time. New Orleans will never be as tidy as St. Augustine. I'd happily give up the poverty, crime and blight, though.
BTW, I post under the name "Bienville" because he was the founder of the city. He was the first governor and served for decades. He was later the patron of New Orleans in the royal court in France. There is a statue of him between Decatur and Peters at the edge of the French Quarter, right in front of the Jax Brewery.
May 5th, 2006 at 10:49 amPost 36 Walt > yes I am referring to St. Augustine as the oldest European established city in America! Native Americans had cities that go back to the beginning of human existence!
May 5th, 2006 at 11:09 amPost 37 Bienville > Glad that you have visited St. Augustine a few times! The city is very tame compared to New Orleans, but in the past was similar with whore houses and bars for sailors! I lived on the corner of Cuna Street and Spanish Street > exactly 2 blocks from the stone fort!
I now live next to Stone Mountain, in Georgia, a ancient hill of granite that the Native Americans worshiped, and later became a site for Confederates to carve a monument to General Robert E. Lee!
May 5th, 2006 at 11:16 amBienville;Now you're seeing how big of an AssClown Jay Randal is.LOL THIS AssClown.
May 5th, 2006 at 4:25 pm[...] Think Progress [...]
May 5th, 2006 at 4:49 pmhe Darfur situation, while terrible, does not require any US involvement. How about first stopping the genocide in Iraq by pulling out? This is just another false-flag operation to divert the masses’ collective attention from the ongoing debacle in Iraq and the larger up-coming debacle in Iran.
November 20th, 2006 at 7:31 amThe Darfur situation, while terrible, does not require any US involvement. How about first stopping the genocide in Iraq by pulling out? This is just another false-flag operation to divert the masses’ collective attention from the ongoing debacle in Iraq and the larger up-coming debacle in Iran.
November 20th, 2006 at 7:32 amThis is a great article. I am new to your blog and i like what I see. I look forward to your future work.
December 8th, 2006 at 5:08 am