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Hurricane Katrina aid 'unused'
30/01/2006 21:41 - (SA)
Lara Jakes Jordan
Washington - Hundreds of available trucks, boats, planes and federal officers were unused in search and rescue efforts immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit because federal officials failed to give them missions, according to new documents.
According to an internal Fema e-mail given to senate investigators, the federal emergency management agency called off its search and rescue operations in Louisiana three days after the August 29 storm because of security issues.
The documents, released by the senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, were further evidence of lapses in Fema's response to Katrina.
They also detailed breakdowns in carrying out the national response plan, which was issued a year ago, specifically to co-ordinate response efforts during disasters.
Claims not disputed
A spokesperson for the homeland security department, which included Fema, didn't dispute the documents. Spokesperson Russ Knocke said Katrina "pushed our capabilities and resources to the limit".
Responding to a questionnaire posed by investigators, interior department assistant secretary P Lynn Scarlett said her agency offered to supply Fema with 300 dump trucks and other vehicles, 300 boats, 11 aircraft and 400 law enforcement officers to help search and rescue efforts.
Scarlett wrote: "Although the department possesses significant resources that could have improved initial and ongoing response, many of these resources were not effectively incorporated into the federal response to Hurricane Katrina."
21st century capabilities
Knocke, the homeland security spokesperson, said up to 60 000 federal employees were sent to the Gulf Coast to response to Katrina.
He said, however, "experience has shown that Fema was not equipped with 21st century capabilities, and that is what (homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff) has committed as one of our top priorities going forward".
Senator Susan Collins, head of the senate committee that released the documents, called them "the most candid assessment that we've received from any federal agency".
Outrage
Her panel, which was investigating the government's response to Katrina, was scheduled to question a Fema operations official on Monday at a hearing focusing on search and rescue efforts.
Collins said: "Here we have another federal department offering skilled personnel and the exact kinds of assets that were so desperately needed in the Gulf region in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and there was no response that we can discern from Fema."
Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the top democrat on the panel, said the interior documents underscored "an outrage on top of an outrage".
Lieberman and Collins both said an internal Fema e-mail, dated September 1, calling a halt to search and rescue task force efforts in Louisiana also dismayed them.
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