FEMA says it's set for action this time
WASHINGTON - Inside the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency yesterday, no one needed to be told that after three years of cramming, test time had finally come.
Representatives of more than a dozen federal agencies tried to ensure that everyone knew what part they had to play as Hurricane Gustav churned toward the Gulf Coast.
"What I need from you is a sense of exactly what the Coast Guard can do," Paul Schwartz, the leader of the command center that was activated for the storm, told a Coast Guard representative.
There was a certain confidence yesterday that the federal government had learned its painful lessons and that there would be no repeat of the ineptitude that defined the response to Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
Evidence of FEMA's preparedness was visible both in the command center in Washington and on the ground across the Gulf Coast. The Coast Guard, Defense Department, National Guard, and FEMA all have far more personnel, equipment, and emergency supplies in the region than they did three years ago before the hurricane, officials said.
In a swift, hands-on reaction to the crisis, President Bush yesterday said he would personally head to Texas today to be with evacuees and emergency responders.
After a briefing at the FEMA headquarters, the president said he would skip the Republican National Convention and he sought to assure the nation that the federal government was ready for the hurricane and working well with state and local leaders.
"There's a lot of preparations that have gone in, in anticipation of this storm," Bush said. He has called governors, declared emergencies in the states likely to be affected, talked to the New Orleans mayor, and thanked emergency workers for their long hours, the Associated Press reported.
FEMA had 18 search-and-rescue teams ready to go, compared with seven before Katrina landed. It had 240 truckloads of water and packaged meals and 400 more truckloads of blankets, cots and tarpaulins, far more than three years ago.
The Defense Department was coordinating the airlift of more than 1,000 patients from Gulf Coast hospitals and nursing homes. The Coast Guard had about 500 extra personnel assigned to the response, said Vice Admiral Bob Papp, ready to operate 31 helicopters brought to the region, two squads with rescue boats, and other equipment.
Critical to the response was a decision by officials in New Orleans not to set up emergency shelters within the city limits, as they did at the Superdome in 2005. That means the tens of thousands who have evacuated are at a safe distance from the city, and getting them food and shelter will be much less complicated.
Louisiana state officials abandoned an effort to immediately register people as they boarded buses to evacuate, after computer problems surfaced. City and state officials, with help from the federal government, also struggled briefly to find an alternative supply of buses after only about 200 buses arrived of the 700 they had arranged to help with evacuation.
FEMA activated its new family locator service - a call-in system that helps separated family members find one another. And it was providing shelter space for cats and dogs owned by evacuees. 