www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/06/D8CERTB80.html -> www.breitbart.com/news/na/D8CERTB80.html
By MARTHA MENDOZA From all corners of this country, hundreds of would-be rescuers are wendi ng their way to the beleaguered Gulf Coast in buses, vans and trailers. But government red tape has hampered many who ache to help Katrina's vic tims. Louisiana's Jefferson Parish is desperate for relief, but parish Presiden t Aaron Broussard says officials of the Federal Emergency Management Age ncy turned back three trailer trucks of water, ordered the Coast Guard n ot to provide emergency diesel fuel and cut emergency power lines. An outraged Broussard said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the agen cy needs to bring in all its "force immediately, without red tape, witho ut bureaucracy, act immediately with common sense and leadership, and sa ve lives." The government says it is doing the best it can in the face of a massive and complicated disaster. "Even as progress is being made, we know that victims are still out there and we are working tirelessly to bring them the help they need," said M ichael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Some of the delays can be explained by the need to control a volatile sit uation. FEMA spokeswoman Natalie Rule said Monday she had not had a chan ce to research what happened at Jefferson Parish, but unsolicited donati ons and services have been hard to manage. "You can imagine some of the actual problem of everyone just driving towa rd the disaster zone," she said. Long lines of volunteers are being stopped on freeways on their way into New Orleans. The military was wo rried about having more people in the city. Even skilled volunteers with the best intentions can be more trouble than help if they arrive needing food, shelter or fuel, some say. "Our biggest problem has been trying not to put more stress on the commun ity, particularly with regards to gasoline. We want to make sure we've g ot enough gas for chain saws and transportation," said Larry Guengerich of the Mennonite Disaster Service, a Pennsylvania-based relief organizat ion that has three small crews currently working along the Gulf Coast, c utting and clearing downed limbs and covering damaged roofs. There are, at this point, several federal emergency command centers, as w ell as state and local command centers where coordinators are working to match nonstop requests with the appropriate nonstop offers of help. From the first hours of the disaster, FEMA has been using the National In cident Management System, a command structure to get millions of dollars worth of government resources and thousands of workers ranging from fir efighters to public health teams to places in need. FEMA also has teams designed to support smaller communities. FEMA is urging individuals and corporations to contact nonprofit organiza tions if they want to volunteer or donate. It was FEMA's management system that brought in members of the Nebraska A ir National Guard to deliver 66,000 MRE meals and extra fuel to hard-hit areas, and rescuers from Hamilton County, Ohio to search the rubble of Gulfport, Miss. And it was that system that dispatched a nine-member Disaster Medical Ass istance Team from Hawaii to the New Orleans Airport where they triaged p eople evacuated from hospitals, nursing homes, the Convention Center and the Superdome. The federal government actually wrote a "How To" book for national catast rophes after the Sept. The 426-page document, c alled the National Response Plan, was released in December, 2004. Frank Cilluffo, director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at Geo rge Washington University, said Hurricane Katrina is the first real test of the plan, and has exposed its strengths and weaknesses. "Quite honestly, at the federal level, the coordination was quite robust, " he said. "It's just the interface between federal, state and local whe re clearly we need to look to ways to improve the process." "It's not any one person's fault, but the system failed," she said. Hospitals around the country were standing by with empty beds, staff, tri age centers and air transportation to fetch patients, she said. But they couldn't launch the rescue flights without requests for help, and those requests never came. "These victims could have been here a week ago, and now they're spending a lot of time and money making triage centers? In situations like this e very minute counts, not every day counts. Frank Russo of the Chicago Ambulance Alliance said his organization was r eady to send help immediately. But the request didn't come until Thursda y, three days after the hurricane struck. "We didn't want to just up and go like everyone did after 9-11. After 9-11 everybody just went to New York and then they ju st sat there, they had no where to go." Early Saturday, ten Chicago ambulances and their medical staff finally he aded south with orders to report to a command center set up outside of N ew Orleans. By Sunday the Chicago ambulances were delivering patients fr om the New Orleans airport to regional hospitals. "It makes sense to go through the government and have things set up," sai d Russo. Richard Codey said he had a task force of 105 police officer s and 55 vehicles and a medical task force of 55 physicians and 43 nurse s standing by. Early Sunday morning, for example, a convoy of more than 35 fire, police, transportation and public works vehicles left Baltimore for an 1,100-mi le drive to Gretna, La. Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley decided to send the help, including 40 fi refighters and 28 police officers, without consulting FEMA "as a direct response to a direct request from the mayor of Gretna," said O'Malley's spokesman. He charged $1,500 worth of water, diapers, granola bars and peanut butte r crackers on his credit card and headed straight for the shelters. By Sunday evening he was driving loads of evacuees from the New Orleans A irport to a rescue shelter in Covington, La.
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