Just How Unprepared Was FEMA

Just consider these points.

New Orleans is begging for buses, the head of the American Bus Association spent a whole day trying to get in touch with anyone at FEMA to offer aid. He could never get a person to talk to, and they never called him back.

Instead, FEMA had given this transportation contract to Landstar Express America. Landstar then hired Carey Limousine (who they found in an internet search). Carey then turned to Transportation Management Services to get the actual coaches.

and

FEMA contracted with Carnival Cruise to charter 3 ships for up to 6 months.

The hasty appeal yielded one of the most controversial contracts of the Hurricane Katrina relief operation, a $236 million agreement with Carnival Cruise Lines for three ships that now bob more than half empty in the Mississippi River and Mobile Bay. The six-month contract -- staunchly defended by Carnival but castigated by politicians from both parties -- has come to exemplify the cost of haste that followed Katrina's strike and FEMA's lack of preparation.

To critics, the price is exorbitant. If the ships were at capacity, with 7,116 evacuees, for six months, the price per evacuee would total $1,275 a week, according to calculations by aides to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). A seven-day western Caribbean cruise out of Galveston can be had for $599 a person -- and that would include entertainment and the cost of actually making the ship move.

The cost is not truly out of line, but the number of ships chartered, and their planned usage was. One ship, used as a barracks for police, fire and other necessary and displaced security and rebuilding officials would have been a good idea. It would have only been needed for sixty days more or less, and could have been docked right in the middle of New Orleans.

Placing families on ships at ports hours away from their homes for up to six months is a poorly though out, and in the end wasteful decision. 4 years after putting securing the nation as a top national priority, 1 year after the hurricane Pam exercise, and FEMA is clueless about what to do.

I wonder who Brown will blame for this, the Mayor or the Governor.