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FEMA: Florida Election Management Agency
Mel Brooks once said, "it's good to be king." Well when it comes to hurricanes, it's even better being the President's brother. Especially in a vital swing state. In an election year.
Louisiana's Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco is learning that the hard way. While her state suffered through a disastrous, disorganized and delayed response to Katrina from FEMA and the Bush administration, Florida governor Jeb Bush had no such problems as his state weathered four hurricanes in 2004.
There is no mystery to this discrepancy, as GovExec.com wrote in "How FEMA Delivered Florida for Bush" on November 3rd, 2004, literally the day after the President won reelection:
Now that President Bush has won Florida in his 2004 re-election bid, he may want to draft a letter of appreciation to Michael Brown, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Seldom has any federal agency had the opportunity to so directly and uniquely alter the course of a presidential election, and seldom has any agency delivered for a president as FEMA did in Florida this fall.
FEMA's preparation, performance and questionable largesse during the four 2004 Florida hurricanes stands in stark contrast with its abysmal failure in New Orleans in the wake of Katrina. While severe, the four Florida hurricanes (Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne) caused under 100 deaths and $22 billion in damage, a fraction of Katrina's destructive force. Yet FEMA's proactive role and President Bush's timely and personal involvement in Florida bear no relation to 2005:
- Hurricane Charley in August 2004 saw FEMA, National Guard troops, relief supplies and President Bush on stand by before the storm even made landfall. As the St. Petersburg Times reported on August 17th, 2004, "Governor Jeb Bush sought federal help Friday while Charley was still in the Gulf of Mexico. President Bush approved the aid about an hour after the hurricane made landfall." Cargo planes flew FEMA supplies supplies from a Georgia Air Force base to a staging area in Lakeland, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had stockpiled 11 truckloads of water and 14 truckloads of ice. Guy Daines, the former Pinellas County director of emergency services, was pleased and impressed with the rapid response of the National Guard and the delivery of pre-positioned supplies, stating "It amazed me how they got over 4,000 National Guard troops in there that quick. Rather than sit there and react, they are trying to get a jump-start on everything."
- FEMA again prepositioned personnel, supplies, and equipment for the Frances, which struck in the first week of September. A FEMA press release offered a laundry list descriptio of preparations for Frances. 30,000 tarps, 100 truckloads of water and 100 truckloads of ice were already in place. Emergency medical teams and four urban search and rescue teams were already in place. By September 6, 900,000 Meals Ready to Eat (MRE's) were stockpiled in Jacksonville. President Bush himself got into the act, distributing ice to Florida hurricane victims with brother Jeb.
- This performance was repeated for Ivan and Jeanne, which hit two and three weeks later, respectively. Again, FEMA was in place with food, ice, water, and financial aid in advance of the arrival of the storms. By September 29, FEMA was providing detailed daily updates on its relief eforts, including over $360 million in aid to individuals. This assistance was augmented by the IRS, which granted tax relief for Florida hurricane victims.
- Large and timely federal recovery funding was never an issue for the Florida Four. Congress passed $13 billion in recovery spending for the 2004 hurricanes, the bulk of which went to Florida. By August of 2005, $5.6 billion had been spent.
Whether that money had been spent wisely by FEMA director Michael Brown is another subject altogether. On May 18, 2005, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs held hearings about waste and corruption in the Florida programs. In a session titled, "FEMA’s Response to the 2004 Florida Hurricanes: A Disaster for Taxpayers?," Senators Collins, Nelson and others grilled Michael Brown over his agency's largesse to residents of Florida. Florida Senator Nelson detailed numerous frauds perpetrated by Brown at FEMA. This featured over $31 million in payouts, including paying for home and car repairs, in Miami-Dade County, which had been virtually unaffected by the storms. More morose, FEMA managed to pay the costs of over 300 funerals statewide, even though medical examiners attributed only 123 to the hurricanes.
The rest, as they say, is history. Bush carried Florida over John Kerry by a surprisingly comfortable margin. As GovExec noted after election day, 2004:
"Bush later made a handful of other Florida visits to review storm-related damage, but the story on the ground was not Bush's hand-holding. Rather, it was FEMA's performance. It's impossible to know just how much of an effect FEMA had on the Florida vote...Even so, in a closely contested state where hundreds of thousands of voters suffered storm-related losses, it's equally hard to imagine that they didn't notice the agency's outreach."
As for Louisiana Governor Blanco, she shouldn't expect the Jeb treatment any time soon. In fact, portraying her and other state local officials as the bogeymen in the Katrina disaster is essential to the White House's strategy for Bush's political survival. As the AP reported on Monday, Blanco is instead already getting the Rove treatment:
"Blanco was not told when Bush would visit the state, nor was she immediately invited to meet him or travel with him. Blanco's office didn't know Bush was coming until told by reporters."
UPDATE (9/6): AP is reporting that FEMA Chief Mike Brown "waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security employees to the region — and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents." And yet, "Brownie" seems to enjoy job security.
—Perrspective
05:42 PM Permalink
This is spot on. If this Katrina destroyed Tampa, President Bush would be living in Florida.
Crossposted this at another site, thanks. You may see a nice spike in visits.
This is the smoking gun that Bush knew exactly what to do.
Something coming up will explain some of his reasons to stay away from doing this in the other instance.
"Governor Jeb Bush sought federal help Friday while Charley was still in the Gulf of Mexico."
I just want to know if Blanco did this too.
Jason, yep, Gov. Blanco submitted the request for a declaration on Sept. 26th, 2 1/2 days prior to landfall. The FEMA Website, unless it has been purged, carried the request and FEMA's reply. Then FEMA not only didn't do anything, they blocked the Guard, state agencies and out-of-state volunteers from access to the flood zone. Too bad for LA, MS and AL residents that they don't live in a swing state, huh?
Is it FEMA, or is it Rove?
I think the whole fiasco of delayed Federal response was a typical Rovian political strategy. I've found articles by the South Florida Sun- Sentinel about the indiscriminate hand-outs by FEMA after last year's four hurricanes, and this gem below from a WaPo article:
"Homeland Security sources said after the hurricanes that Brown and his allies promoted him as a successor to Tom Ridge as Homeland Security secretary because of their contention that he helped deliver Florida to President Bush by efficiently responding to the Florida hurricanes.
FEMA spokesman Natalie Rule said yesterday that there is "no truth" to the assertion that Brown angled to be secretary by citing his hurricane record. She denied that political considerations played a role in FEMA's Florida actions."
Other articles:
Hurricane Politics in Florida -- and Everywhere Else
The media has so far only given a passing glance to the major report issued this week by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security about misuse of FEMA money in the wake of Florida's 2004 hurricanes.
Institute for Southern Studies, May 20. 2005
The above article contains further links, including one to a scholarly article whose authors are quoted: "Did the federal government play politics in its response to the 2004 hurricanes in Florida? We should only be surprised if this were not the case." Their scholarly work tracks declaration of disasters with presidential campaigns: Discretion Without Accountability: Politics, Flood Damage, and Climate
From another Sun-Sentinel article about the 2004 hurricanes:
State records show Bush re-election concerns played part in FEMA aid
"The Republican National Convention was winding down, and President Bush had only a slight lead in the polls against Democrat John Kerry. Winning Florida was key to the president's re-election. FEMA should pay careful attention to how it is portrayed by the public, Garcelon wrote in the memo, conveying "the team effort theme at every opportunity" alongside state and local officials, the insurance and construction industries, and relief agencies such as the Red Cross.
"What FEMA cannot afford to do is back itself into a corner by feeling it has to be the sole explainer and defender for everything that goes wrong," he wrote. "Further, this is not what the President would want. Plenty is going to go wrong, and his Department of Homeland Security does not want to assume responsibility for all of it."
Garcelon, a former FEMA employee, recommended that "top-level people from FEMA and the White House need to develop a communication strategy and an agreed-upon set of themes and communications objectives."
"Communication consultants from the President's re-election campaign should be brought in," he wrote. "Above all, everybody's got to understand that no amount of flogging DHS/ FEMA will insure that the recovery will go perfectly. This is going to be a huge mess. The public needs to be prepared for it."
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"The very first points [of Garcelon's memo] have to do with shirking blame and calling in the president's re-election experts," McLaughlin said. " It only serves to underscore why we have to investigate how FEMA spent the hurricane money because there are just too many questions."
So, I think it would not be far-fetched to surmise a strategy of delay to disgrace/blame the Louisiana Democratic leadership for the tragic suffering and loss of life; then Bush and the Feds come to the rescue. The stories of FEMA people on site turning back boaters; failing to deliver food; preventing the Coast Guard from delivering fuel; not permitting the Wal-Mart water trucks to deliver; telling the navy hospital ship to go to Mississippi, etc, show that 'the troops' did indeed rush to the rescue early in the week, but stood guard waiting for Bush's most opportune moment. And apparently one report of a gunshot fired at a helicopter was shown by the FAA to be false. This was used anyway as an excuse to halt rescues. Civil disturbance is a ground for federalization of control. Couple this with rumors of a behind-the-scenes struggle between Governor Blanco and the DHS/WH for Federal control......
Here's a first-hand story of the callous treatment of strandees (from a convention) by locals and federals, that is chilling and telling.
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Now this cynical dollop of whipped cream:
New Orleans 2008
"No single step would go further to dramatize the GOP's commitment to rebuilding New Orleans than announcing now that the party's 2008 convention will be held in the recovering city. Such a move would signal the party's confidence in the Big Easy's renewal, and put it at the forefront of what should be similar commitments from private actors to do their part to help New Orleans come back.Critics will call it a transparent attempt to burnish the party's image after the Bush administration "failed" with the initial relief effort. The gesture would, however, reflect the genuine sentiment of Republicans who, like all Americans, want to help a city facing such a bleak future. We heard similar complaints — easily brushed off — about the Republicans' coming to New York for last year's convention."
That info is right on.. 100% correct and I hope someone brings it up in hearings. But I doubt it!
Miami and Dade had it made but it only rained and new orleans has paid" RLV
Bush & Co. certainly saved Florida. But Mississippi's outlet, our national energy supply, three states (half a million Americans in New Orleans) simply don't matter. Given that the four-hurricane story happened almost 100% in FL, FL should have come up with the cash to fix it. BUt they had the money before they had the hurricane. So Bush understands weather some: "Can't see global warming coming, but we can see that hurrican coming, but we can't see that hurricane coming, because Pat Robertson wants that city to suffer. And Pat Robertson is my real boss."
I remember Jeb saying it was great news, "look at all the new jobs because we need a new roof!"
Completely disassociated with the reality we live in. Every body in this GOP/Bushco/Texas coterie is an asshole. And they've crowded the government with so many like minds and losers from their terrible economic policies... so many empty heads in key positions. There must be one really smart guy in the middle, over his head because noone around him can think.
A Floridian told me that there were many huge untracked funds, and now that need has passed, FEMA has begun asking for its return. Bribing than asking for it back, very GOP chutzpah.
I would be curious to know how much of the Army Corps of Engineers flood control budget went to places like Ohio and Florida. Would we see increased spending in thoes states at the expese of NOLA? The Big Easy is the Big Blue bastion in a red state.
An intentional delay in FEMA support for the rescue of human lives? Makes it easy to imagine the White House -- with oil company friends -- using Katrina as a fine opportunity to spike gasoline prices.
German TV news reported yesterday that gas shortages there are nearing an end, with normal supplies. Don't count on *our* gas prices returning to former levels after supplies are restored from the Gulf of Mexico.
Why is there no talk in Washington of a "windfall profits tax" on the Petroleum industry, as we had under the Carter Administration when gas prices spiraled?
The Feds could use the tax to fund the rebuilding of New Orleans. Or are the oil companies planning on substituting a "voluntary contribution" program, instead?
"Spot on"? What a bunch of idiots you are. This disaster has been predicted for almost 100 years. There are not "thousands" dead, the horror stories of rape and murder have been largely disproven as rumor. By this time almost 70% of the water has been pumped out of the city. What other state was lashed by FOUR hurricanes in 2004? Did FEMA even have a chance to "deliver" any of those states to Bush? I guess it's true, being a partisan jack-off does diminish ones ability to think things through. There is no conspiracy against the poor of New Orleans, sure FEMA was slow in this instance, but if Mike Brown could so easily deliver Florida, why couldn't he deliver LA? The idea that he's "punishing" the poor or whatever you guys are thinking, is so monumentally stupid, you make "mission accomplished" seem like Ensteinian genius. I hate partisans and their ridiculous thinking.
I agree with most of what you say.
Then I scroll up to a picture of Dubya and Jeb giving ice to hurricane victims in Florida.
More photo-op BS.
Whether FEMA "delivered" Florida or not, the Bush twins were in full force there.
They had plenty of incentive to look like they cared about people and have timely photo-ops.
If Bush had merely flown over 3 days later then had his first photo-op 5 days later, and if Florida had reacted to it the same way Louisiana did to the response to flooding, and the same way Mississippi is being moslty ignored, I don't think Florida would have swung toward Red.
That and the election fraud. :)
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