Many stories out of Hurricane Katrina reported that FEMA
delayed or denied aid to New Orleans in the early timeline of the catastrophe. In at least a few cases what seemed to emerge was that volunteers were turned back by FEMA because of pre-existing
contracts with private service providers that would have been breached in allowing the aid. Some of these are linked below the fold.
Certainly, however, part of the post-911 emergency management process has evolved to attempt coordination of disaster reponse among agencies from local to federal levels via congressionally ratified Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC.) The wording of the EMAC compact partly explains the seeming illogic of aid denial:
Update [2005-9-23 19:20:30 by luaptifer]: gring0242 has posted Landstar No-bid Contracts on another win by Landstar at 5x the cost his company bid for a Coast Guard job!!
more below
Emergency Management Assistance Compact
Through EMAC, a disaster impacted state can request and receive assistance from other member states quickly and efficiently, resolving two key issues upfront: liability and reimbursement.
Volunteer and Donations Information:
EMAC urges all individuals, organizations, and states to not deploy without being requested. Self-deployments are not covered under the Compact and create problems for the state when they arrive.
- http://www.emacweb.org/
(Interestingly, EMAC directs volunteers or cash to a long list of primarily Christian aid organizations.)
But what is not adequately explained by EMAC or justifiable, period, is the channeling of aid and service contracts to organizations unable to meet the 'emergency' aspect of emergency management services.
Dkos user dmsilev has tracked the delay in bus service for the exodus from New Orleans to a contract linked to Bush-supporter Jeff Crowe, the former head of the United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC) and who is current board chair of the contractor, Landstar Express, a subsidiary of Landstar System.
When ePluribusInvestigates first began looking into the FEMA fiasco, the follow the money principle suggested that we scrutinize Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lobbiers. It so happens that in 2004 United State Chamber of Commerce was 148th among the 861 obtaining access to DHS, according to the Center for Public Integrity.
Of course, one should take into account that the USCC was ranked #1 lobbier in the US last year, spending $53.4 million to reach the leaders who represent you and me.
Our Senate was at the top of USCC's target list.
The question of how the rescue from NOLA hell was so slow and so bungled is still open but may be partly explained by who obtained the contract and then subcontracted those services out by googling.
But it points to the larger question of what kind of 'market forces' may be at work promoting emergency services for disaster victims in face of the implication that 'access' rather than 'capacity' is what determines just who services the contract. Then it becomes a much larger question, how to Get the Money out of our Power?
The bottomline is clear. As dmsilev points out, it's not performance that qualifies who gets to drive the rescue bus:
Landstar's regulatory filing also said that because of Hurricane Katrina, the maximum annual value of its government contract for disaster relief services has been increased to $400 million.
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Other examples of aid delayed or denied:
Special thanks to intranets for his contribution to the list denials of FEMA aid.
Please help us find and locate other instances where the "business side" of FEMA and DHS contracts got in the way or stopped the rescue of American citizens. Post any instances of denied aid because of "contracts" in this thread.
Also posted at the ePluribus Media Community site.