Summing it all up

The NY Times has an extensive look into the failures of Katrina. There were clearly failures all around, but it is hard not to be shocked by the continuing utter detachment, if not outright callousness of FEMA officials. Especially when it comes to the now known story of Rescue Workers being detained in Atlanta for seminars instead of going to New Orleans for actual rescues.

How tone-deaf are they?

This tone-deaf:

The heart-rending pictures broadcast from the Gulf Coast drew offers of every possible kind of help. But FEMA found itself accused repeatedly of putting bureaucratic niceties ahead of getting aid to those who desperately needed it.

Hundreds of firefighters, who responded to a nationwide call for help in the disaster, were held by the federal agency in Atlanta for days of training on community relations and sexual harassment before being sent on to the devastated area. The delay, some volunteers complained, meant lives were being lost in New Orleans.

"On the news every night you hear, 'How come everybody forgot us?' " said Joseph Manning, a firefighter from Washington, Pa., told The Dallas Morning News. "We didn't forget. We're stuck in Atlanta drinking beer."

Ms. Rule, the FEMA spokeswoman, said there was no urgency for the firefighters to arrive because they were primarily going to do community relations work, not rescue.

Rule confirms an incredible charge. The whole of FEMA is riddled with political appointees, and apparently political appointees without a lick of political sense, let alone capability to do emergency work.