This is an incredible piece of investigative journalism that’s been well-packaged online. It documents how FEMA has just been wasting tax-payer’s dollars for years.
The paper has investigated how $9 million in FEMA tornado recovery money went to people in Miami-Dade County, even though the storm hit up to 37 miles away. More than $5 million in “free money” went to people in the Los Angeles area, even though wildfires burned up to 30 miles away. And $168.5 million went to people in Detroit to help recover from a storm that people have trouble even remembering.
It’s just scary to see how much money went to places with little or no damage.
Comments
There’s a great op-ed piece in the NY Times today about Wal-Mart and their rapid response to helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. The article stresses many things, including dismantling FEMA and contracting disaster recovery services to the private sector, but the strongest message is how Wal-Mart’s actions since Katrina hit speak much louder than words. Wal-Mart, which has become the poster child for bad press concerning its size and mistreatment of minority employees, among other issues, couldn’t buy this kind of positive media coverage. Lucky for them, they don’t need to. Based on their contributions to the relief effort, the greatest of which took place on the ground in the stores in the affected areas, they deserve this kind of press and the positive impact it will have on the company’s reputation.
FEMA, on the other hand, where inaction rules the day, has seen its reputation decimated in the last few weeks, and rightfully so. Ditto for President Bush. While his primetime speech set in front of the historic St. Louis Cathedral had the makings of a Hollywood movie set and the talking points of a Karl Rove speech, the president and all of his cronies need to realize that talk is cheap. Action is gold.
Someone once told me that at the end of each day your reputation is all you have, and in a crisis situation, one’s actions, or lack thereof, can make or break a reputation on any level in a matter of minutes . Wal-Mart understands this concept. FEMA does not. Let’s hope there are lessons learned so when there is a next time, we can be reading positive articles about the federal government’s actions to assist and recover, not Wal-Mart’s.
Doen’t matter what party is in office – government should not be in this business. FEMA should be privatized, government ALWAYS screws things up – no exceptions!
privatized to whom though? haliburton? walmart? bechtel? kbr? only a huge multinational could handle such things. when you privatize, you loose accountablility. keep fema where it’s at, but fix it.
Yeah, I’m sure that all of FEMA’s problems are the result of President Bush. Never mind the fact that FEMA’s response to Katrina was faster than their response to any other hurricane in history. I guess the truth doesn’t matter when it’s different than what the majority of people are saying. Heaven knows that if you say something long enough and loud enough, it becomes fact.
http://eurota.blogspot.com/2005/09/us-left-all-straws-clutched-every.html
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/005418.php
http://www.govexec.com/mailbagDetails.cfm?aid=32210 (search for the word premature)
LOL and you have accountability when GOVERNMENT does things???