Mike Brown Resigns

Frankly, I don't even know what you're talking about. What happened in Chicago in 1995. Please refersh my memory.

the situation's just a wee bit different

Louisiana asked for help.
Chicago didn't.

Doesn't make the end result any less gruesome in either case.

August,1995.

An extended heat wave killed approx 1000 people in the Chicago area.
If memory serves,many of them were elderly with no way to get out.

As it has for more than 20 years, FEMA's mission remains: to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a vision of "A Nation Prepared."

Usually FEMA only steps in if the local facilities are overwhelmed. I don't think the city of Chicago asked for help.

OK, now I know what you're talking about. I don't recall that FEMA was in any way involved. That's why I didn't make the connection when you first asked the question. Nor do I recall that Mayor Daley or anyone else asked for Federal assistance. The heat wave was considered a weather anomaly not a federal emergency.

There is one aspect of this that still troubles johnboy.
On the second or third day, with people on their roofs or stranded on piers, the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, with all of its resources, was still at Ft Bragg NC. I would like to know why.
Was the government (Fema. state, local) slow to respond? We can argue about that, but at some point someone must have said, bring in the military. When was that suggestion first made and what was the response from Mr Rumsfeld and the military brass? I don't know, but somehow, deep in my gut, I have the feeling that the miltary-the active duty miltary-has a deeply ingrained reluctance to beome involved in domestic affairs and anything like a declaration of matial law.
Should they have been there earlier? No doubt. Could they have saved a lot of people (and quelled some of the anarchy, if there was indeed widespread anarchy). No doubt.
But something held them back for a week or more. What was it?

RJB -



Source

Mysteryman:

Are you say8ng you don't see the difference between levees breaking, floodwaters rising, and 100 degree heat for an extended period?

Let's arrest the clown, That's what I say.

I read that and said to myself: "that's a rather odd statement, even considering the source" Surely anyone could figure out the differences between a hurricane and a heatwave, and why the response to the former would be radically different from the response to the latter (one example: during the Chicago heatwave, there was no looting).

A quick Google search, however, resolved any questions I might have had regarding the comparison. It seems that the conservative blogosphere has been raising the 1995 heatwave as a means of deflecting criticism from Bush and redirecting it (per usual) to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

The comparisons may have actually started as early as Sept. 2, when Slate.com published a "history lesson" on the Chicago heatwave. That got picked up by conservative bloggers who couldn't help but notice that Clinton was in office during the 1995 event. One blogger asked: "Hillary Clinton has called for a 'Katrina Commission.' How come she never called for a commission to investigate why at least 1,000 Americans died in a 1995 heat wave when her husband was president?" That post was linked to the National Review Online site on Sept. 9. From that point on, we can say that this particular meme was "released to the general public." Mysteryman posted his version of it on Sept. 12.

A few things to know about the 1995 heatwave: the Cook County medical examiner attributed to the heat wave both the deaths that were directly linked to heat-related causes and also those "excess deaths" that were above the average. There were 739 "excess deaths" during the heatwave, and so that's the number that people usually cite when they try to measure the number of people killed by the killer heatwave. Is that the correct figure? Well, we don't know. It might have been more, it might have been less. There was, at the time, no standard for determining what constituted a "heat-related death," so we're not even sure if the definition that the medical examiner used was correct.

What is free from doubt, however, is that the mayor of Chicago and state officials did not ask for federal relief or request a state of emergency or national disaster area designation from the federal government. FEMA had no involvement in the 1995 heatwave.

Joe--

Thanks for the trajectory of the spin.

Squinney, I have no fault with the 82nd Airborne. They did what they were told to do just as johnboy did when he was with the 101st Airborne. My problem is with why it took so long from when the storm hit on 8/29 until 9/4 when they were finally mobilized. Who made the decision to not send them?

Funny thing is, I thought they might keep Brown as titular head of FEMA in order to untangle the mess he made there. Right now, no question that things were said to people and decisons made that only he can verify.

I figured they would appoint a competent number two, and keep Brown around only to help them figure out what was said, when, and to whom. Brown's major duties would be to sign on the decisions the number two presented him.

The reason he might agree to such an embarrasing arrangement might be the promise to forfeit, or to go easy on, possible criminal charges stemmming from his decisions and false statments on his job application.

Guess not. They were just marking time until they could locate a candidate to take over with actual disaster experience and credentials.

When was the request made at the local level for the 82nd to be called in? Why wasn't the national guard called in to help before then?

Re: Mike Brown Resigns


And did I read right? David Paulison is the new FEMA boss Bush selected? Wasn't he the guy who suggested duct tape and plastic should be part of every home owner's survival kit stuff in case of a biological terrorist attack? Boy, I'm feeling a whole lot safer, knowing he's the new man in charge of disasters (not!)

Brown is gone? But I thought he was doing "a heck of a job!"

Whens the trial ?