(Mirrored Here As A Courtesy To The New Orleans Times-Picayune With Thanks To Reporter Mark Schleifstein)
by Mark SchleifsteinStaff writerJefferson Parish Emergency Preparedness Director Walter Maestri said Friday night that the Federal Emergency Management Agency reneged on a promise to begin relieving county emergency preparedness staffers 48 hours after Hurricane Katrina hit the New Orleans metropolitan area.
Maestri’s staff has been working almost around the clock since Katrina approached the Louisiana coastline on Sunday. Today, the staff is expected to finally switch to a 12 hours on/12 hours off schedule, he said, adding that they’re both tired and demoralized by the lack of assistance from federal officials.
“We had been told we would be on our own for 48 hours,” Maestri said. “Prepare to survive and in 48 hours the cavalry would arrive.
“Well, where are they?” he said.
Maestri said the agreement was signed by officials with the Southeastern Louisiana Emergency Preparedness Officials Association, the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of this year’s Hurricane Pam tabletop exercise. That exercise began the process of writing a series of manuals explaining how to respond to a catastrophic disaster. Financed by FEMA, it included a variety of federal, state and local officials.
A FEMA spokesman late Friday said they couldn’t confirm or deny that the agency signed the agreement Maestri referred to.
FEMA Director Michael Brown also raised Maestri’s ire when he said in a television interview Friday that he waited so long to respond because he didn’t want to interfere with local aid attempts, and that local officials hadn’t asked FEMA to come in.
“My response is very simple,” Maestri said in an interview on a cell phone after repeated attempts to reach his office. “We didn’t have any communications. We still don’t have outside communications.”
He said FEMA officials have now informed him the first members of a liaison team might arrive at the Emergency Operations Center this morning or Sunday.
Staffers also are upset by Thursday comments by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. that suggested he felt the city shouldn’t be rebuilt. Asked in the interview whether it made sense to spend billions rebuilding a city that lies below sea level, he replied, ``I don't know. That doesn't make sense to me.''
He said several of Hastert’s comments are posted on the center’s wall, “like the comments of opposing coaches are pinned on the wall of the Saints locker room.”
Hastert's office later issued a statement insisting he was not calling for the city to be abandoned or relocated.
Maestri admitted he and his staff were tired and frustrated, and that that helped fuel his criticism. Also on his list for criticism was new Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Assistant Director Jeff Smith, who he talked to for the first time only on Thursday.
Maestri said the communications problem has occurred despite the funneling of millions of dollars of Homeland Security grant money into parishes and state coffers, much to upgrade communications equipment. Jefferson Parish used that money successfully for an internal radio system that worked well during the storm, he said. But the state assigned those dollars to the Louisiana State Police, which he said hadn’t completed connecting it to the parish communications system.
Maestri also was upset with American Red Cross officials for delaying the staffing of shelters in the parish. He said a Red Cross official said he should send a staffer to Mount Olive, La., with a request for personnel. When the staffer arrived, he was handed a note saying help would not be coming until it was safe for Red Cross workers.
“They can go to Iraq and Afghanistan and tell us it’s too dangerous to
New Orleans,” he said. “I’ve got that note and will frame it with a copy of my resignation letter for the board of directors” of the southeastern Louisiana Red Cross.
Maestri said some of his frustration is fueled by conversations with several parish business owners who donated goods to the parish for use in the recovery.
“They’re saying, ‘Come. Please get it because we’re relocating. We can no longer work here,’” Maestri said.
Mark Schleifstein can be reached at mersmia@cox.net.
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