Does He Listen to Himself

Yeah, I can’t help myself

BROWN: Let me start out by addressing the premise of the question, which I don’t entirely agree with — that what could FEMA have done in terms of the evacuation? What could FEMA have done in terms of communications, law enforcement?

Those are not FEMA roles. FEMA doesn’t evacuate communities.

……………….

In terms of communications, one of the things that I didn’t mention in the litany of things that we pre-positioned is something called a MERS unit, our mobile emergency response system. Those are vehicles that are command and control units that have satellite hook- ups, telephone hook-ups, video hook-ups, enable us to do communications.

I pre-positioned those in all three states, so that we would have communications wherever we needed it. I eventually sent one of those command units — in fact, it’s one of the largest ones we have, called Red October — I eventually sent one of those into New Orleans for Mayor Nagin to use.

In retrospect, I wish I had done that four days earlier. Had I done it four days earlier, though, guess what? It probably wouldn’t have gotten there. So I am now second-guessing myself, and perhaps I should have pre-positioned it there before Katrina made landfall.

But again, that’s not the role of the federal government. That’s Mike Brown Monday morning quarterbacking, having seen everything that took place and trying to figure out, OK, now seeing everything that did not work in Louisiana, if I had known it beforehand, what could I have done?

I hate to break it to Mikey, but Communications probably is considered a federal issue given the problems with communications during 9-11.

The commission’s report will note that lawmakers, facing opposition from the broadcast industry, have not established a unified emergency communications system by dedicating a portion of the broadcast spectrum to medical and disaster responders.

As on Sept. 11, when malfunctioning radios contributed to deaths in the World Trade Center, public safety officials in New Orleans have reported widespread communications problems.

“The fact that Congress has chosen not to do something about this is a national scandal that has cost lives,” Kean said.

There was a big report by the folks on that commission. Maybe Brownie has heard of it.