Dog In The Manger

As fire and toxic waste become the newest dangers for rescuers and victims alike in New Orleans,

there is rising anger along the Gulf Coast strip that insufficient resources have been allocated to areas outside New Orleans, and especially along the Mississippi coast in devastated towns such as Biloxi, Waveland and Gulfport, where those who weathered the storm now have to scavenge for basic supplies.

"I have been all over the world. I’ve been in a lot of Third World countries where people were better off than the people here are right now," said William Bissell, a retired Air Force captain. "We’ve got 28 miles of coastline here that’s absolutely destroyed, and the federal government, they’re not here."

Indeed on Sunday, five days after Katrina, the town of Hattiesburg, Mississppi was finally visited by two FEMA agents, who identified themselves as Agents Smith and Jones.

The mayor said the FEMA representatives asked about 15 people gathered at the emergency operations center if they needed help.

"I'd say there was a problem when someone from the federal government has to ask us if we need help," he said.

FEMA representatives couldn't explain why it took five days for the agency to arrive in Hattiesburg.

...

Assistance for outlying rural areas is even slower, said Hattiesburg attorney Chipper Johnson, who is city attorney for New Augusta.

Johnson went to the Emergency Management District office Saturday trying to find the FEMA representatives.

"We now have people who have no food," Johnson said. "They have no gas to get to Hattiesburg. I am hoping these churches will fan out into the areas around Hattiesburg. They are desperate for help. No one is helping them."

The FEMA representatives left before Johnson could talk to them.

"They're gone. I guess that says it all," a dejected Johnson said as he left the facility.

There are now, according to official figures, 23 major Navy vessels, 13,000 active duty military personnel and 38,000 National Guardsmen in the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama area. By and large their instructions still appear to be piecemeal and haphazard as is illustrated by delays in getting orders to the Navy and by this line from the London Times article I cited at the kick-off to this post:

Efforts to evacuate those determined to stay put are being stepped up - and rescue workers have been told not to deny fresh supplies of drinking water to those who refuse to be evacuated.

They had to be told that?

Meanwhile the breaking news is that even while Congress appoints an investigation, Bush has announced he wants one of his own.

"Bureaucracy is not going to stand in the way of getting the job done for the people," the president said after a Cabinet meeting at the White House. "What I intend to do is lead an investigation to find out what went right and what went wrong."

Mr Bush added: "We still live in an unsettled world. We want to make sure we can respond properly if there is a WMD (weapons of mass destruction) attack or another major storm."

Forgive me, but this is a dog-in-the-manger move. No investigation carried out by a public figure who may himself be culpable can possibly have any integrity or believability. The competence of George Bush in making appointments to FEMA and Homeland Security and in conducting oversight of those appointees actions should surely be a key issue in any investigation. Both have already come under criticism in several areas, not least for claiming to reporters that they were getting information on the severity of the situation firsthand from TV reports. In at least one case that is provably a lie, as Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, has come forward to say that his office briefed them 32 hours in advance.

"They knew that this one was different," Mayfield said yesterday. "I don't think Mike Brown or anyone else in FEMA could have any reason to have any problem with our calls. . . . They were told. . . . We said the levees could be topped."

Its like if the lead wolf of the pack announced he was going to investigate what his wolves were doing in the henhouse.