Why FEMA was the central problem

When the hearings start, and people try to blame the state and local officials, everyone should go back and look at FEMAs mission. They are supposed to coordinate all the various agencies involved.

The first step in that is to establish communications. In a city with no power, that means replace phones and radios that require electricity with a self-conatined communications system. FEMA should have had military communications people and ham radio operaters with generators on the ground as soon as the Hurricane passed. They did not do so.

Every state or local agency needed to coordinate movement along roads, emergency supplies, refugee movement with police, deputies, national guard, state police, city and parish emergency officials, fire departments, medical agencies, the Coast Guard, etc. Much of what the locals are already being blamed for actually were caused by the inability to coordinate with others. Without information regarding what other jurisdictions are doing, each local agency was guessing.

That failure to set up communications first thing caused many of the problem we have spent nearly two weeks watching play out.

That failure belongs directly to Michael Brown and FEMA. Most other systemic failures rest on FEMAs failure to insure that communications were in place and working in a timely manner.