Big Brother's Watching Your Katrina Trailer

Remember all those spy satellites we launched to keep an eye on Russia during the Cold War? Seems Washington wants to use them to keep an eye on Americans now.

In the roll-out campaign to sell Americans on having their government spy on them -- the top spook at the Department of Homeland Security (yes, they have spies apparently) says the satellites can be useful in natural disasters.

Charles Allen says spy satellites were used during Hurricane Katrina.

Well, that sells me! We all know what a smashing success the federal government was with Katrina! (CNN)

Bush Shoots for a Record

President Bush is poised to break the record for the most vacation days ever taken by a sitting President.

He's at 418 with his current August vacation. Ronald Reagan took 438 days off work. With another year in office, Mr Bush is within striking distance of the all time record.

Some highlights of past Bush presidential vacations:

2001: While vacationing on the ranch in Crawford, Texas, President Bush recieves the infamous Presidential Daily Briefing entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US." CIA analysts traveled to the ranch to brief Mr Bush personally, after which he is reported to have said, “All right, you’ve covered your ass now.”

2005: Hurricane Katrina barrells down on the Gulf Coast. Louisiana state and local officials reach President Bush on vacation and request federal assistance before the storm makes landfall. It would take the Bush administration four days to deliver water to the Superdome.

Heckuva Job, Uncle Sam!

Remember the botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina two years ago? Washington decided to fix everything with a brand new disaster response plan.

But the Bush administration doesn't want terrorists -- or state governments -- finding out about it.

So, the Bush administration worked out their plan in secret. And state leaders also report their input has been largely ignored.

"In my 19 years in emergency management, I have never experienced a more polarized environment between state and federal government." -- Albert Ashwood, Oklahoma's emergency management chief and president of a national association of state emergency managers quoted in the Washington Post

State disaster response people say the parts of the plan the Bush administration did let state leaders see is a step backward because it sets no guidelines for how states and the feds are supposed to coordinate response. (WaPo)

Katrina Promises Missed

The Bush administration has failed to keep up -- and has even fallen behind in some places -- with it's promise to make sure small businesses got a share of Katrina recovery contracts from Uncle Sam.

The House Small Business Committee reviewed federal contracts awarded since the 2005 disaster. They found only about 7.4% of contracts went to small businesses. That's down from the 12.5% they found back in April. (USAToday)

Mice and Men and Hurricane Katrina

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government (CREW) reports the federal government failed to follow it's own disaster plan in response to Hurricane Katrina.

It took nearly two years and a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for CREW to get the 7,500 records from the Department of Homeland Security and compile them in their new report.

What's outlined in The Best Laid Plans: The Story of How the Government Ignored Its Own Gulf Coast Hurricane Plans:

Critically, CREW found that FEMA had created a “Southeast Louisiana
Catastrophic Hurricane Plan” (SLCHP), which forecast a range of specific
consequences, including:

• New Orleans would be flooded with 14-17 feet of water, the levee system
  inundated with at least 10 feet of water and the hurricane would move into
  Mississippi;


• One million people would evacuate, but flooding would trap at least
  250-350,000;


• Each hurricane victim would require a minimum of two Meals Ready to Eat, one gallon of water and eight pounds of ice per day.

CREW also posted the raw documents on their website.

Nearly Six Years After 9/11 -- No National Disaster Response Plan

The top man at the Coast Guard says America's better prepared to deal with another Hurricane Katrina -- but he says we still don't have a formal, national response plan for a national disaster.

Adm Thad Allen was appointed to oversee the federal response to Katrina a week into the disaster. He's created a special Coast Guard unit based on his experiences. But it can only respond in localized emergencies. He says the feds need something like it at the national level. (Reuters)

Clinton: The FEMA Disaster

With the clean up coming up on two years after the Katrina disaster -- Sen Hillary Clinton (D-NY) wants the US to guard against another disaster like the response and recovery.

The Democratic Presidential candidate wants a national insurance backup fund.

"We have to rebuild an effective, functioning, qualified emergency system. I think we've got to get it out of the Department of Homeland Security, where it's mired in a dysfunctional bureaucracy." Sen Hillary Clinton (D-NY), in an interview with The Associated Press.

President Bush moved FEMA to the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11. Critics say that's left the US unprepared to handle natural disasters.
(Baker City Herald)

Y'all's Government, Up on Blocks Out in Front of the FEMA Trailers

FEMA's trying to unload thouands of trailers -- bought with your money in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. At least 8,000 were never used. From the Washington Post:

“The Federal Emergency Management Agency hurriedly bought 145,000 trailers and mobile homes just before and after Katrina hit, spending $2.7 billion largely through no-bid contracts. Now, it is selling off as many as 41,000 of the homes, netting, so far, about 40 cents on each dollar spent by taxpayers.”

That would sound like a bargin to people in Arkansas who lost their homes to recent tornadoes.

Rep Mike Ross (D-AR) is trying to get FEMA to sell some of the trailers to people in his district left homeless by the storms.

But lobbyists for the house trailer industry have made it harder for FEMA to sell the trailers. The lobbyists don't want competition -- preferring the homeless pay full price for new trailers. (WaPo/HT: ThinkProgress.org)

"The Katrina of 2007"

Sen Charles Schumer (D-NY) sees parallels between the Bush administration's Hurricane Katrina response and the way it's handling the Walter Reed mess.

"Make no mistake about it, this is the Katrina of 2007. Now some of you will say, 'well they responded more quickly than Katrina,' yes, but the chickens have come home to roost just like they did in Katrina."

An interesting connection: The Defense Department outsourced many of the jobs at Walter Reed to a company called IAP Worldwide. That's the same company with the contract to deliver water and ice during the Katrina response -- and we remember how bad that went.

There are also connections between IAP and Vice President Dick Cheney. The company's run by Al Neffgen, who headed up Halliburton subsidiary KBR (Kellogg, Brown and Root) at the time they were charged with overcharging the military by $100 million for fuel in Iraq. (CNN/Crooks & Liars/Main St USA)

SBA Disaster

The SBA has ignored disaster possibilities for years -- and it could cost disaster survivors




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Guard Comes up Short

Blizzards from the Great Lakes to upstate New York. Tornadoes ripping through the south. The National Guard is supposed to be there to help states deal with natural disasters.

But a Congressional commission reports that 88% of America's National Guard units are rated "not ready."

The big problem -- billions of dollars worth of shorfalls in equipment.

The Commission found Gulf States have only a fraction of the equipment they'd need to respond to another disaster like Hurricane Katrina.

They need trucks and Humvees that can operate in deep water after floods.

Louisianna reports not enough trucks.

Mississippi has to rely on contractors to supply them with trucks and heavy equipment.

What's happened to all their equipment? We've been telling you for months how National Guard units leave their equipment behind in Afghanistan and Iraq when they come home. The outfits that replace them need the equipment.

Back home, Washington's been slow to replace equipment for the National Guard.

The problem is catching up with them.

Lousianna's National Guard reports it could only handle the demands of a tropical storm or a Category 1 Hurricane. But beyond that, it'd be Katrina all over again. (WaPo)

Katrina Claim at $77 Billion

The city of New Orleans has filed a $77 billion damage claim against the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps was responsible for the levees that failed after Hurricane Katrina swept through -- leading to flooding that caused most of the damage in the city.

The city's claim came through the Federal Tort Act.

The Corps has six months to accept, settle or reject claims. After that, claimants can sue the federal government.

FEMA has provided $6.3 billion in recovery funds, $13.2 billion in flood insurance claims. (CNN)