Fema Contracts Commercial Airlines

PITbull

Veteran
Dec 29, 2002
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www.usaviation.com
FEMA has contracted many of the airline carrier's a/c and crews to take evacuees out of MSY to airforce bases and other places where they will house them and give relief. US Airways has been participating since Saturday with 737 a/c. Our crews are volunteering to do these flights and are going on a volunteer"list" to fly these chartered flights

The State of TX has accepted over 230,000 evacuees and the military is still looking for survivors in the flood torn disaster areas. The military engineers contracted by FEMA are also at the same time trying to repair the levies so that that the clean up and body recovery can take place. The area is becoming a bio-hazard infectious cesspool every day that the water remains stagnant.

I believe the nation IS doing all it can without creating chaos by having too many volunteers in one place hendering search/recovery and clean up. The airport was literally full of a/c all over the place with commerical a/c and military with medical supplies, food/water, as well as airlifing survivors. Some a/c had to be diverted because the airport couldn't handle all the traffic coming in and out.

There needs to be semblance of order.

I know that U has a huge list of crews that have volunteered to board these FEMA flights and help out with the evacuation.

I believe and have read that the donations from the American people as well as other nations like Russia are sending in engineers and generators to begin to pump the water out of MSY, (which will take months) and Corporations are donating hundreds of millions of dollars to help in this historical disaster along with millions from private donations and the $10 billion for starters from Feds.

When I hear of folks talking and commenting on suing the government, I start to get infuriated, because this is saying to sue the American people for the disaster and saying that the response was too slow.

What about the "before-the-storm response" by the local and sate governments of these states?

I think it was imperative for the President to assess the situation in order to know HOW to respond to such a disaster. The local and state government have a responsibility to its citizens to have an evacuation plan in place being that they are a city that has only man made levies to protect the city from a flood disaster. The local and state government acted too little too late and THEY waited 24 hours BEFORE katrina hit to publicaly announce a mass evacuation. Heck, WHERE WAS THE MAYOR AND WHY DIDN'T HE START WITH SCHOOL BUSES TO GET THE ELDERLY FOLKS OUT OF NURSING HOMES AND HOSPITALS? If the Feds are too act first, why have local and state officials at all? there was a guy (hero) who the news reported took it upon himself to take a school bus that was sitting with the keys in the ignition and get the heck out of the city. He picked up 70 folks on his way out of Dodge.

Common sense works too.

The MAYOR of MSY should have had an evacuation in place, but now he is blaming the federal government, and of course, the government are the citizens of this nation.

There were Government contractors that were trying to fix the levies and had to be escorted to the site to dodge bullets from sniper fire. Everyone in surrounding states in the area are doing what they can to help in this catastrophic situation.

I am NO Bush fan, but folks, the mayor of MSY didn't even evaluate the potential for this kind of devastation and should have started an evacuation of the hospitals and nursing homes earlier than 24 hours before the storm hit. He announced an evacuation 24 hours before Katrina hit, but why weren't the nursing homes and hospitals emptied out? Where was the supply of food/water/medical? I had friends from PBI calling me 3 days before Katrina hit the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi and said that this storm left them at a catagory 1, BUT was picking so much momentum going up through the Gulf from the heated waters that the winds were going to be over 200 miles an hour and hit MSY and the Gulf states in that area. That's what my friends in PBI warned 3 days ealier.

If they knew, why didn't the Mayor of MSY know or the Governors of these Gulf coast states??????

They now want to blame the President for not acting fast enough????? Does that leave the Local and State officials lack of prepardness "off the hook"?

Dialogue?
 
Pretty simple to me. The N.O. mayor knows he screwed up big time and is going to scapegoat anyone he can to divert the attention from himself and his administration.

I wonder if the N.O. mayor knows Crelin?

mr
 
No much more to add except I agree that enough blame to go around.


My brother-in-law a paramedic for the city of Pittsburgh was offered 12 hours pay for every 8 hours worked in this bio hazard nightmare, he declined knowing a little too much of just how bad it really is. This disaster is bringing out the best and worst of the human spirit. This will be in the history books.
 
What about the "before-the-storm response" by the local and sate governments of these states?

The local and state government acted too little too late and THEY waited 24 hours BEFORE katrina hit to publicaly announce a mass evacuation. Heck, WHERE WAS THE MAYOR AND WHY DIDN'T HE START WITH SCHOOL BUSES TO GET THE ELDERLY FOLKS OUT OF NURSING HOMES AND HOSPITALS? If the Feds are too act first, why have local and state officials at all? there was a guy (hero) who the news reported took it upon himself to take a school bus that was sitting with the keys in the ignition and get the heck out of the city. He picked up 70 folks on his way out of Dodge.

Common sense works too.



I kind of thought that the first time I saw the picture yesterday of the flooded school busses sitting there. But hear me out, please. So he took the initiative to load up these people, especially sick and elderly....where would they go, what would they eat, and where would they stay once they got "there?" Who would care for them on the busses..and could they even sit up? And since about one in a hundered hurricanes acutally hit New Orleans (wasn't Camile the last?) what would he do 2 days later..simply drive back? Sounds good on paper, but the problem is there was no PLAN to start with...just a bunch of great sounding TSA type reports. LA is a very poor state, but is our nations premier port, oil depot, and a very large rail center. Its politicians are weak and have very little pull, and thus are not able to get much "pork" to do the proper work. Our entire nation will now suffer because a cloverleaf was built in Omaha instead of a levee fortified in NO. This goes back to the idiots running TSA, now running FEMA with an inexperienced head guy (you know, the one who called the press liars while sitting 60 miles NORTH of the Superdome...when even I could see not enough help was there.) It is a shame our "dry run" for the next terror attack will probably cost 10,000 lives or more. Its a damn shame. Always nice to hear from you Pit! Mark.
 
Hindsight is always 20/20 and I don't want to be unfair, but some things beg to be answered.

First off, political disclaimer... I can't stand the two party system, I consider the choice between Republicrats and Democans to be a sham beauty contest that offers no true choices, and only allows the sheep of America to delude themselves into partaking of the beauty contest process. No matter which party wins, we the people lose. (However I do vote in each and every election, too many people died to give me that gift for me to not respect their sacrifice).

That being said, I watched so much coverage of this disaster and found it utterly unbelievable that we didn't see the mayor, or the police chief, or the sheriff at all until almost five days had passed. I watched the news conferences where he told everyone to evacuate, but what happened then?

It is inconceivable to this viewer that the mayor didn't follow the model set by Rudy G. in 2001, and step up boldly and strongly to show the people that someone is in charge and things are under control. Where was he?

Seeing the video of police officers in uniform pushing a shopping cart around a store and looting, and hearing no response from city government just blows my mind.

I feel that the mayor was weak and indecisive, the governor was overwhelmed, and now they are deflecting and posturing to throw the blame at the feds. Remember, the feds have to be requested or invited in by the governor...

Our country better get its act together, as we appear weak and disorganized to the world at large and our enemies are watching this, this is a very dangerous signal to be sending.
 
Dilligas said:
I feel that the mayor was weak and indecisive, the governor was overwhelmed, and now they are deflecting and posturing to throw the blame at the feds.  Remember, the feds have to be requested or invited in by the governor...

.
[post="296886"][/post]​

Dilligas,

Your point, is the main issue. The Feds have to be invited in by the governor. The Governor of Louisianna asked for 40,000 troops, and she got 40,000 troops within 24 hours of asking for it. Five days after the disaster hit, the N.O. Mayor said for "everyone to get up off their azzes and "do something". His quote. That's the day we heard from him. I know there was no electricity, or phone service etc.. but, they should have been prepared for this as well.

I understand that it is hard to force folks out of hteir homes, and again its difficult to convince others of the potential peril of such a storm. Nonetheless, the Mayor was ill prepared and now wants to blame the Federal government. Personally, I wouldn't have thought to blame anyone, but his guy just kept pointing the finger and than I heard it coming from everyone in the media and on the radio talk shows. I started to get disqusted which is an emotion I didn't not want to have specifically with such a horrific tragedy of loss.

I just can't help but say that IMO, the "first response" folks were the local government officials who should have started an evacution plan days BEFORE Katrina hit. The Mayor (s) want to blame the President for their percieved lack of rapid response, but heck, there were no roads or tents, or anything set up to even house 40,000 troops.

Now, I know the media has a way of sensationilizing what they want the public to view, and I am well aware of that, but a National Guardsmen wrote to me in an e-mail and gave me a blow-by-blow detail of his first 2 days in N.O. And he said they had to travel 352 miles with supplies from where they were positioned to sleep to get to the flood zones, which was everywhere. The only way to get the food/water/supplies in N.O was by helicopter and they had to throw it down. Only certain able body residents could run to get the supplies; which left many that couldn't, with nothing. They couldn't get boats in because of too much debris floating in he waters.

IMO, "an evacuation PLAN" to evacuate early being that they sit in a flood zone, is the "first rapid response".

And they failed.

And Walmartgreeter is correct. The Nation will suffer.
 
I voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 and help with his campaign. While the local government clearly did not handle the situation in a responsible manner, Bush showing up on Friday....4 days after the Hurricane is unacceptable and undefendable. Had Bush showed up Tuesday the day after many more lives could have beed saved. Bush's late arrival undoubtedly cost more lives. It's really sad when one ponders the fact the class of people left behind were dirt poor. Not that the class would have or wouldn't have matter in regards to the response time, but it sure doesn't look good that it took 4 days for Bush to show up for poor people. God I hate to say it because I dislike Clinton so much, but he would have been there Tuesday morning.
 
PITbull said:
FEMA has contracted many of the airline carrier's a/c and crews to take evacuees out of MSY to airforce bases and other places where they will house them and give relief. US Airways has been participating since Saturday with 737 a/c.  Our crews are volunteering to do these flights and are going on a  volunteer"list" to fly these chartered flights

[post="296867"][/post]​


Am I misreading this?

USAirways has CONTRACTED with FEMA to do these chartered flights.

--AND--

Our crews are VOLUNTEERING.


Does this mean that USAirways is collecting from FEMA for the entire cost of a charter flight AND pocketing the money that would have otherwise paid the "volunteer" crews?
 
CNN is reporting the Mayor of NO is telling residents who won't leave that if they don't leave they won't be getting any more food or water. Is the Mayor in his right mind? If your going to make evacuation mandatory loaded em up on buses and take them out...don't starve them out! Geez! Just another screw-up in the making.
 
Here's visual proof of why it took so long for the Feds to do something:

bush_zipper.jpg
 
Where I live, we get 5 day mandatory evacuations -- sometimes the hurricanes don't even hit. But if MY little island has the balls to tell everyone to get the f' outta dodge, why wouldn't the mayor of a city that is like 5 feet BELOW sea level, with a HURRICANE (regardless of category) moving dead-on, order an evacuation the moment the 3 day cone had N.O. in it??

Its becoming more difficult to feel sorry for the people who didn't leave..... if i have the common sense to bail out of my lil island paradise 3 days before a storm comes, I think i'd have the audacity to at least CONSIDER getting out of a city that is below sea level...
 
Wait a second.

I thought they called for a manadatory evac on Saturday. That's 48 hours prior, and right about when they knew it was gonna hit where it hit.

When Charley hit Florida, the federal resources were on the ground within hours after the storm left. You don't think that's because of Jeb, do you?

Yeah, the mayor might have done better. He did get 80% of a large city out of there, and a maybe 20k or so more into the superdome (those who, you know, don't own cars).

The feds dropped the ball, big time on this. FEMA should not have come under DHS, and a politico should never have been appointed FEMA chief (FEMA is an organization that should be an independent department and run by a career FEMA type, not a polical apointee).

FEMA has been turning away trucks of water. FEMA yanked the existing communications gear of one of the outerlying Parishes yesterday, to the point where it's Sheriff posted armed guards. The list goes on (http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html is interesting reading).

And then there is the administration and it's spin machine: "Doing a good job, Brownie" is akin to heaping praise on Charles Manson. Bush had a photo op last week in front of 5 coast guard helos and their crews which could and should have been IN USE FOR SAR MISSIONS!!! They cut the funding for the Army Corps of Engineers district for NOLA.

The only guy in all of this from the federal level with a clue is Gen. Honore, who is running things for the millitary/guard.

Newt Gingrich of all people had the best idea yet: pull the FEMA/DHS folks out of there, and put Giuliani or Colin Powell in charge. Bush's flunkies at FEMA and the DHS are clearly out of their league.
 
JSsup said:
Where I live, we get 5 day mandatory evacuations -- sometimes the hurricanes don't even hit. But if MY little island has the balls to tell everyone to get the f' outta dodge, why wouldn't the mayor of a city that is like 5 feet BELOW sea level, with a HURRICANE (regardless of category) moving dead-on, order an evacuation the moment the 3 day cone had N.O. in it??

Its becoming more difficult to feel sorry for the people who didn't leave..... if i have the common sense to bail out of my lil island paradise 3 days before a storm comes, I think i'd have the audacity to at least CONSIDER getting out of a city that is below sea level...
[post="296997"][/post]​

Many of the people that stayed had no means to get out. Mostly the poor with no transportation, and the sick and elderly.
 
Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Bush was on vacation for Karina.

Can someone tell me why millions of dollars were spent to get Bush into office and he has racked up, by far, the most vacation time and Camp David time of any President?