Comments on: Innovative Emergency Management

By: Crooked Timber » » Witt Associates and IEM

Crooked Timber » » Witt Associates and IEM — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 20:15:37 +0000

[...] I received the following rather short and non-specific press release yesterday, a result, I presume, of my previous post on Innovative Emergency Management. Clearly, James Lee Witt and company are looking to disassociate themselves from IEM. I have no specific knowledge of what their relationship was; I suspect that there’s an interesting story here, but your guess is as good as mine as to what it involves. JAMES LEE WITT ASSOCIATES STATEMENT ON IEM DISASTER PLAN In May of 2004, IEM included James Lee Witt Associates, LLC in their proposal to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for developing a FEMA Catastrophic Plan for Southeast Louisiana and the New Madrid Seismic Zone. After the proposal was submitted to FEMA, James Lee Witt Associates was not approached again by IEM, nor did JLWA have any involvement whatsoever in the project. posted on Tuesday, September 6th, 2005 at 3:15 pm Post a comment [...]

By: Vicky Davis

Vicky Davis — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 14:30:04 +0000

Hurricane planning was outsourced to IEM…in June of 2004

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southcentral/2004/06/09/43008.htm

IEM to Lead Development of Hurricane Plan for Louisiana

By: david

david — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 14:26:32 +0000

The members of the New Orleans police force were just as impacted by the disaster as their fellow citizens. Many evacuated, some disappeared,at least 2 committed suicide, wile others basically shed thier uniforms and their responsibilities. The force simply was not prepared for this situation. In military terms, “command and control” were nonexistant … the situation became every man/woman/child for themselves regardless of the individuals official role in this drama.

By: jet

jet — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 13:49:03 +0000

Here is some disgusting news. Apparently they found a 14 year old girl raped and murdered in the convention center. And they also found a young boy who had been “raped to death” and put in a freezer. Now how is it that cops were telling people to go to the Convention Center and FEMA didn’t know about it until Thursday? All those people together in one building and there was no one to maintain law. How many lives could 1000 soldiers choppered into key locations have saved? And how much would that have improved FEMA picture of the situation?

By: soubzriquet

soubzriquet — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 03:10:32 +0000

david:
It looks like there is enough blame to go around. I agree the focus on Bush & Co is counter-productive. Clearly the local authorities screwed up pre- and post-landfall. Clearly state and federal dropped the ball afterward … once it was clear the city was one big snafu. Culpability for various aspects of this fiasco goes from NO civil to washington, and all points inbetween.

By: david

david — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 01:35:57 +0000

Have any of you bothered to find a copy of the Disaster Plan? Evacuation requirements are very interesting. It seems that the Mayor and the Governor and Parish officials have the responsibility of taking action to set the disaster plan into action. Evacuation should have been carried out prior to landfall but was not those officials didn’t have the guts to make it happen. Don’t blame Washington, don’t blame Bush. DO blame Mayor Nagin, DO blame Governor Blanco.

By: soubzriquet

soubzriquet — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 22:52:12 +0000

Thomas: I don’t think I really understand your complaint. If, as seems the case, IEM has had an important role in the planning failures leading up to this mess, the certainly should be held publically accountable, so it is curious that they may have (so quickly) tried to distance themselves, isn’t it?

By: Steve J.

Steve J. — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 21:30:48 +0000

Sept. 3rd –
The “huge part” of the problem: Bush, Chertoff & Brown.

LA State requested emergency disaster relief on Sunday, Aug. 28th. This did not arrive in sufficient quantities until the following Friday, just in time for a Bush photo-op.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 21:27:26 +0000

abb1, I take it you’re chewing through the evil Mr. Witt? He’s good and bloody, I hope.

My outrage at the obvious delight some people I’d respected take in making outrageous and unbelievable statements is real, by the way. Demagogue is too kind a description for these.

Sorry to wear you out with a bit of honesty in a place of feigned-but-appropriate indignation. Cocktail party chatter for the university set is what we come here for, and there I am, going on and on about, well, who really cares? Doesn’t he know that’s not done? Spout off out those incompetents out there, and their mendacity and greed, and the resulting deaths—fine. Call someone on their b.s.—totally inappropriate. Really. Not done.

In other words, I made a mistake about the nature of the game. I’d thought—wrongly, as it turns out—that the truth of the matter mattered. It doesn’t—this is about status, pissing on those guys, and it doesn’t take truth to assert status.

By: abb1

abb1 — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 18:32:58 +0000

That’s a bit hard for me to swallow

Try to chew it up first. Your schtik is becoming tiresome, Thomas.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 17:45:59 +0000

Let me get this straight: FEMA contracted with IEM and James Lee Witt’s outfit, and that’s supposed to be a bad thing. That’s a bit hard for me to swallow, after a week of hearing how James Lee Witt’s the bee’s knees when it comes to this kind of thing. I suppose that story is no longer operational, and we’ve determined that if it’s necessary to destroy James Lee Witt to destroy this administration, well, that’s a price we’re going to have to pay.

Henry, I have a suggestion: Catch your breath. Don’t casually repeat calumnies like this, especially when you haven’t a clue whether there’s any truth to them. Before you start accusing people of incompetence and such, have a basis for it. That’s simple human decency, something not seen much these days at CT. You’re usually much better than this.

By: shinypenny

shinypenny — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 17:20:03 +0000

The CEO of IEM is a GOP donor.

By: abb1

abb1 — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 15:38:46 +0000

Way to go, man. Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live!. Give 'em hell, kid.

By: China

China — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 15:20:58 +0000

Thanks to Henry for posting this. Two quick points: as robin points out to asg, I’m not ‘lenin’ – he’s the mac daddy of the group blog. Secondly, also to asg, s/he says I ‘imply’ that IEM’s actions are ‘a falsification of the idea that the private sector is more efficient & accountable than the government’. That post says that IEM behaved disgracefully, provided an inadequate plan, then tried to evade any responsibility. Believe me, if I wanted to argue for the inefficiency and lack of accountability of the private sector, I wouldn’t ‘imply’ it, I’d state it and offer my evidence. I’ve done it before and doubtless will again. (And no I won’t be drawn here on the ‘inefficiency’ of that curiously abstract bogeyman ‘government’, of which I’m no particular fan anyway.)

By: jet

jet — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 15:05:47 +0000

John Emerson,
Thank you for those kind remarks. But I fear you may have a bad case of “reading disability”. On many of the comments I’ve put on CT this week, I’ve said that it was chaos, that cops couldn’t talk to the military, and that it appeared to be a clusterfuck. I’ve never said that the rescue effort is without blame. But anyone saying that a huge part of the problem wasn’t the armed gangs, they are smoking crack. When 80% (at one point 100%) of the diminished police force is used to combat (or just contain in the Mayor’s words) the roaming gangs. When the police can’t do their job because they are besieged in “Fort Apache”, their precint building. And when the national guardsmen can’t do anything until the ammo truck arrives because no in their right mind would have prepared for New Orleans to turn into Baghdad (and would have been fired as the worst kind of racists if they had), then you know a poor plan was turned into a catastrophic failure by unforseen violence.

Here’s a couple of windows media clips from CNN to help shine some light on my “…sly people such as yourself encourage thew stupid people in that belief.”

Here’s the Mayor talking about the attacks on hospitals.

Here’s a reporter talking about Fort Apache and attacks on cops.

Reporters and camaramen on the ground are able to function depite sporadic violence, and one would hope that the authorities could too.

And now you’re just making shit up that you don’t have a clue about. I’d call you un-educated, but I know better. You’re just in full attack mode and any evidence that doesn’t fit your agenda is wrote off as spin. Jackass.