Let them eat resilience

Best of luck everybody!

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was already supporting 692 federally declared disasters when hurricane season started last year. Then came the most destructive disaster season in U.S. history, causing $265 billion in damage and forcing more than a million Americans from their homes. FEMA was overwhelmed.

So the agency has a novel suggestion for Americans as the 2018 disaster season heats up: Don’t rely on us.

In a report last week evaluating its response to last year’s disaster, FEMA details “how ill-prepared the agency was to manage a crisis outside the continental United States, like the one in Puerto Rico,” The New York Times reported. “And it urges communities in harm’s way not to count so heavily on FEMA in a future crisis.”

Some numbers

I'm just trying to get an idea of the scope of this thing. These are early guesses and the storm isn't even over yet so this will change. It will likely change for the worse.

WaPo reports officials estimate some 30,000 people will end up in shelters as a result of the flood. This morning, USA Today reported a count of 5,500 so far.

Early this morning, FEMA director Brock Long said they're expecting 450,000 to register for federal assistance.  That's probably a low guess.  But for comparison sake, it's already roughly half of the 916,000 individual assistance requests resulting from Katrina and Rita combined.

Then there are the costs of rebuilding which will almost certainly become the subject of some sort of political standoff as congress goes to war with itself and the Trump administration over a number of budgetary issues next month.

The federal Disaster Relief Fund administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency had a balance of $3.8 billion at the end of July, of which $1.6 billion is already obligated, according to the most recent federal report. Trump declared Harvey a major disaster Friday, making Texas victims eligible for relief from that fund. But with damage estimates already rising into the tens of billions of dollars, the fund’s balance is almost certainly inadequate.

“All of our plans on disaster recovery are premised with the federal government coming in with a big chunk of short-term FEMA money and then a big chunk of long-term bailout money,” said Edward Richards, director of the Louisiana State University Climate Change Law and Policy Project. “With the budget coming up and the debt ceiling coming up, you could easily see this getting absolutely lost in the mix.”

One senior Democratic aide suggested that Harvey could help GOP leaders avert a government shutdown at the end of September, even though Trump threatened the shutdown as recently as last week. Adding hurricane relief to a spending bill that is otherwise unpopular among Republicans, the aide said, could help win GOP votes.

The White House had proposed an 11 percent cut to FEMA’s budget as a way to free up more money for the military. But GOP leaders had signaled they would ignore that request — at least for the next few months — and keep FEMA funding basically flat. They could come under pressure to boost FEMA’s budget, however, particularly because the Atlantic hurricane season is only about half over, and there could be more dangerous storms.

A related issue is the status of the National Flood Insurance Program. Its federal authorization expires Sept. 30, and it is more than $24 billion in debt. The program has a statutory borrowing limit of about $30 billion, and numerous new claims — which congressional aides say are likely post-Harvey — probably will require congressional action to ensure there is enough funding.

Un-Fix My Streets

That federal inspector general's report we first learned about back in January has been made official.   

A federal inspector general is recommending that the Federal Emergency Management Agency take back the entire $2 billion global settlement earmarked to help New Orleans repair city streets and underground pipes damaged by Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters.

Were the agency to accept the central recommendation of an eye-popping report released Wednesday, it would devastate the city’s hopes of improving its creaky infrastructure. The $2 billion lump sum is the bulk of what the city has on hand as it starts work on an estimated $9 billion backlog in repairs.

City officials said Wednesday that they have spent $350 million of the aid — money that would have to be repaid were the IG's recommendation followed.

According to this story, nobody seems to think a clawback of the money is actually going to happen.  But keep in mind these are Trump times and crazy things are not to be discounted off hand. 

Doesn't anybody want this grift?

The city says it is a step nearer to shaking some money out of FEMA to restore the Municipal Auditorium. After that the task will be identifying which developer will be handed the public money in order to put the building "back into commerce" as, probably, some sort of for profit operation. We expect this is what will happen, anyway. Mostly becasue of how defensively insistent they are that it will not.

As a result, Grant said the city will hire a consultant to perform a market analysis that can be used to form a redevelopment plan. The plan is to then hold a competitive bid process with a developer who could use the FEMA money to restore the venue in a way that would make it a viable venue for events.

Asked whether it's possible that a developer could use the building for a non-public use, Grant said the city would do anything it could to avoid a situation like that.

"We'd have to be convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt" that the building couldn't be put to public use again, Grant said. He added that people who used the building in the past "are absolutely adamant that it be for the public use."

Ok well we'll check back on this once they have the money. Let's just hope the auditor who wants to take our street repair funding back doesn't get involved.

Un-fix my streets

I know at least one federal auditor who is not interested in getting purged by Trump.

A draft audit by a federal inspector general recommends taking back most of the $2 billion for repairs to streets and underground pipes that the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded to New Orleans in a global settlement for damage related to Hurricane Katrina.

The award was meant to pay for harm done to the city’s streets and other infrastructure by the flooding caused by 2005’s levee breaches. But the audit — first reported Friday by nola.com — says there’s little evidence that the poor condition of streets and pipes around the city is attributable to the floodwaters.

“We found strong documentary and other evidence that New Orleans’ sewer and water systems were in very poor condition before the hurricanes due to years of deferred maintenance,” the audit says in part. It does not allege any misspending by the city.

God forbid we spend one cent more helping cities rebuild their infrastructure than we have to.  At least not until we make sure the right people's friends have a piece of the graft. 

Trump wants to “invest” $1 trillion in fixing and building roads, bridges, water pipes, and other infrastructure. But by “invest” he means using massive tax breaks to convince private investors to spend the money.

As Michelle Chen at The Nation writes, “The goal isn’t fixing bridges so much as fixing the corporate tax codes to promote privatization and unregulated construction with virtually no public input.”

Different kind of a green dot

Are the new FEMA flood maps good news?

Green will become the favorite color for thousands of New Orleans property owners when the new FEMA flood maps finally become official at the end of the month.

That’s because green is the code for areas that will move out of flood zones and into areas with no insurance requirements – and the new map shows it washing over large sections of the city.

The maps were released for comment in 2009, but the city appealed several times, claiming the airborne radar system used to determine elevations had made errors, and that FEMA had not considered improvements made to levees and drainage systems. It won both appeals, resulting in improvements to the maps.

If you own property it's probably good news.  If you don't own property or are thinking about buying property it's less clear. Theoretically it lowers the cost of a mortgage.  Which is nice if we're talking about a market driven mostly by single families purchasing primary residences. But I'm not so sure that's the case.

There's evidence to suggest that real estate in New Orleans is overheated by the presence of speculative investment in second homes and possible short term rental properties, not only by individuals seeking home loans, but also by companies with the capital to transact in cash.  In that context, the removal of mandated flood insurance as a concern may just spur more like investment and keep pushing prices up and up.

Plus, given what we know about subsidence, erosion, and rising sea levels, aren't these maps also.. you know.. probably wrong? I mean, I think I'll trust our new "state of the art" flood protection system for another 5 or 10 years. Probably not for the life of a 30 year mortgage, though.

Update: Just to add, that's probably the future of development in New Orleans.  More about short term investment than long term community building. It's how The Market squeezes out whatever remains of the value here before it all sinks into the sea.

So when is the next boil order?

Any day now.  Seems overdue.  Gotta get at least 6 more in before this check clears.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu on Thursday announced the “last major piece” of the federal funding puzzle for New Orleans’ post-Hurricane Katrina reconstruction, a $2 billion settlement with FEMA to fix city streets and sewerage lines.

That figure includes $1.2 billion more than the $800 million in work already identified and in some cases completed. It brings the amount of funds available for the much-needed infrastructure work to $3 billion, when funding from other sources is included.

While still far short of the estimated $9 billion necessary to fully meet the city’s needs, Landrieu, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate and other state and local officials hailed the deal Thursday afternoon at a press conference at the city’s Sewerage & Water Board office.

On the other hand, they may only be able to use this money to repair the subsurface sewerage and water lines damaged by the flood.  The boil advisories keep happening because S&WB's pump is running on a hundred year old motor that requires a hand crank and a spark gun to power it.. or something like that.  They're supposed to update it but I'm not sure if they can use the FEMA money to do that. 

Oh and also this will presumably keep #FixMyStreets from yelling at the mayor every other week... aahh who am I kidding?

Camp FEMA

That photo was taken of the Jax Brewery parking lot in December of 2005.  By this time the water was all long gone but 80 percent of the city was a shambles.  People were filtering back into town to tend to their properties or clean out apartments. But the rate at which this happened depended on each individual's resources.  Many would never catch up with "pace of progress" as this Lens report out this morning on post-Katrina demolitions demonstrates.

Accommodations in town were scarce. FEMA was delivering trailers, paying for hotels, even housing people on cruise ships. FEMA employees were stationed in makeshift "Disaster Recovery Centers" at various points around town to process aid and distribute food and supplies. If I remember correctly the tents in the photo above weren't a DRC but more of a base camp for various federal agencies operating in town.

Today it's back to being a parking lot. Most of the tourists who walk by here every day probably couldn't imagine the scene back then.

That time I got Michael Brown to sign my copy of River Road Recipes

The gag had to do with that time he was too busy having dinner in Baton Rouge to take a call during the height of the emergency. Not sure a lot of people remember that now but he sure seemed to when I mentioned it to him. 

Or maybe he was lying.  The dude will do that.

I shouldn't be asking these questions. It's not like Brown could produce an honest response. He's a liar. I didn't know just how brazenly he lies until Friday morning Sept. 2, 2005, when I was watching a morning news show at my cousin's home in Baton Rouge. Brown said, "We've provided food to the people at the (Ernest N. Morial) Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

"He's lying!" my cousin said. "Last night he said he didn't know they were there!"
Indeed. A transcript revealed that on that Thursday evening Brown said that FEMA had just learned of a Convention Center crowd that day. So how had FEMA been providing food once or twice "every single day?"

He's a liar. That's the only way to make sense of what Brown says. As Karst summarizes it, regarding the evacuation, "he's gone from being impressed to suggesting it never occurred to acknowledging that it occurred but that it sucked. Full circle."

Getting the band back together

It's not quite been 24 hours after landfall but already some of our old friends are offering their critiques of Hurricane Sandy and the federal response.

Here is Arabian Horse enthusiast, former FEMA Director, and best selling author, Michael Brown speaking to the Denver Westword  (link via Gambit)

Brown expects that in the coming days, there will also be comparisons between Obama's quick response to Hurricane Sandy and his slower response to the attacks in Benghazi, which has become a challenging campaign issue for the president.

"One thing he's gonna be asked is, why did he jump on this so quickly and go back to D.C. so quickly when in...Benghazi, he went to Las Vegas?" Brown says. "Why was this so quick?... At some point, somebody's going to ask that question.... This is like the inverse of Benghazi."

 Yes, the response was too quick. Hard to believe Obama had them mobilized on an empty stomach.

Ray Nagin has been tweeting some benign well wishes to the victims. Most of us think that's nice. But at the same time, his name has been unfairly drawn into the spat between New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Atlantic City Mayor  Lorenzo Langford. We are not often quick to defend Ray Nagin but here's Jarvis DeBerry explaining that these comparisons are based on persistent and damaging myths about the evacuation of New Orleans prior to Katrina.

Those criticizing Langford accuse him of encouraging people to hang around, which they say makes him like our former mayor. Nagin's failures are myriad, legendary even, but those accusing him of not properly warning New Orleanians of Katrina's danger are either misinformed or lying on purpose.

Given that the city is largely poor, that no storm had struck in 40 years, that it has only one interstate highway and that a 2004 evacuation nightmare had led many to say "never again," you might consider it a marvel that on the Monday morning Katrina arrived the overwhelming majority of New Orleanians were gone. We hadn't even given the storm a thought till late in the day Friday.

Now maybe later when Langford inevitably tells us rebuilding Atlantic City will depend on getting some casinos up and running, there might be something to this. But for now leave C. Ray alooone. He's got enough to worry about.

Also, the dangling crane on the NYC skyline has brought forth Ed Blakely like some sort of ill-advised bat signal. But if Blakely is angling for a job this time, it looks like he's going for political pundit rather than disaster consultant.

US political legend holds that there will be an incident, a surprise in late October in a presidential election year, which will separate the candidates at a point where one moves so far ahead that he wins by more votes than anyone anticipates. Is Hurricane Sandy the 2012 October surprise for Obama?

Given the close race, it will take a deciding deed or moment for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney to pull away in the last dash to victory. There is no doubt Sandy is a political storm and not just a weather event.

Ugh. Well, the good news is when he sucks at this stuff, nobody suffers.. I mean, unless they read it.

Anyway, if the citizens of New Orleans could offer the people affected by Sandy at least one bit of our own advice, it would probably be, whatever you do, do not hire Ed Blakely.  A few years ago, as he was preparing to leave us, I put together a helpful timeline of his tenure here just in case someone might need that information for later.

Meanwhile, is Veronica White's book still in print? This seems like the moment it was written for.

Deadly Indifference

Former FEMA stooge and hypocritical disaster book author Michael Brown endorses plan to hold Hurricane Irene aid hostage to yet another round of GOP spending cuts.

Brownie Plodder and the Deadly Indifferences

A crowd of maybe 10 reporters on assignment, four or five bookstore employees, and a few random stragglers slumped into two rows of folding chairs outside of the Garden District Book Shop last night to see former FEMA director and Arabian Horse enthusiast Michael Brown talk about his new book, Deadly Indifference: The Perfect (Political) Storm: Hurricane Katrina, The Bush White House, and Beyond The title itself is intriguing. "Deadly Indifference" sounds like someone's attempt to mock a cop buddy movie that tanks at the box office. It also happens to be the title a second rate mystery novel just in case people aren't confused enough. And if they aren't annoyed enough, there's also the grating use of "Perfect Storm" as well as that enigmatic "And Beyond" thrown in to help with that. I haven't read the book yet. I'm waiting on a library copy and I wasn't about to drop $24.95 on it last night. Gambit's Kevin Allman points us to a review by Paul Bedard that appeared in U.S. News and World Report if you're looking for Cliff's Notes.



The main thing that Brownie got across at this talk was that the "Deadly Indifference" referenced in the title of his book doesn't characterize the Federal Emergency Management Agency under his charge at the time of the flood so much as it applies to, well, possibly everybody. But more specifically, he means to tell us that individuals affected by disasters are themselves so unprepared, so deadly indifferent to the hazards that stalk their lives, that they make things difficult for the FEMAs of the world. Only Brown preferred to use "firefighters and rescue workers" as his avatar for emergency management in his examples repeatedly citing 9/11 as his case reference of choice.

“I don’t care how angry you are. I just want you to read it and think about, are you ready?” Brown said. Not being prepared for the dangers you know your environment poses risks not only your life, but also the lives of others. “We owe it to all these firefighters and rescue workers to be as prepared as we can. As powerful as we think we are, Mother Nature is more powerful than anything we can imagine.”

Depending on your point of view this is either Brown's version of "ask not what your country can do for you" or "people shouldn't live there." Either way it's a cop out for someone hawking a book about the "lessons learned" from a disaster his agency largely failed to cope with.

Despite opening his talk proclaiming his readiness to "have open discourse" about his failures, most of the "lessons" Brown wanted us to learn were about the people who failed him. He took a few obligatory shots at former Governor Meemaw, at Ray Nagin, and also, with the eager prompting of T-P reporter John Pope, at George Bush who he paints as an aloof "frat boy"

On Friday, he described Bush as “a jocular, fun-loving frat guy” who didn’t seem to understand the magnitude of the threat that Katrina posed or the breakdown that ensued after the storm passed and the floodwaters drowned New Orleans.

Brown illustrated this by telling us about a time that Bush annoyed him by picking on the suit he was wearing which was pretty funny considering Brown's own reputation as something of a "jocular" fashion maven himself.

Others on Brown's list of deadly indifferences included Anderson Cooper for being too unhappy on TV about search and rescue operations, rogue truck drivers for failing to move supplies into the city, and the Stafford Act for placing bizarre limitations on the process of rebuilding. That last one most of us would probably agree with although it was interesting that Brown chose to bring up the exceedingly complicated controversy over the new hospital complex in order to talk about it. Throwing in a line about how the old Charity Hospital, "probably needed to be torn down anyway" didn't help to clarify matters.

But mostly, Brown emphasized to us that we, as individuals, should learn how to make FEMA's planning go more smoothly. For example, Brown shared with us his experience evacuating from his Colorado home during a recent wild fire emergency. While Brown had managed to round up his three dogs and drive down to a pre-determined rendezvous point, he was disappointed to see his neighbors arrive there less promptly and with varying loads of (I guess trivial) personal possessions in hand. I tried to turn this on its head by asking Brown what lessons emergency managers can themselves learn to better prepare for the fact that people are going to behave with less than optimal efficiency in these situations but he didn't really answer that choosing instead to talk about putting GPS on supply trucks.

There was some attempt made by his hosts at the Book Shop and by Brown himself to characterize his appearance in front of the small and not at all deadly or indifferent crowd as courageous in some way. But actually Brown exhibited a kind of fake magnanimity toward the audience that mostly came across as trying too hard. One man showed up in a "FEMA Sucks" T-shirt. Brown made a bee line for him attempting to win him over, "Hey I gotta get a picture of that shirt!" A woman delivered a sequence of marginally coherent attacks at him, the Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Patent office, various other offenders all while Brown smiled a bit too broadly and pretended to understand what she was talking about. Finally he awkwardly slapped the table inviting her to sit next to him. I think he was just trying to have his picture made sitting with a black person. Anyway the whole thing came off as desperate and more than a little sad.

At the end I presented him with a copy of River Road Recipes to sign for me. He gladly took it and said a few nice things about the Junior League. When I reminded him of his reputation for being perhaps a bit overly familiar with the Baton Rouge dining scene, his face snapped back to that fake smile again. He might as well have been shouting, "See? Look how great a sport I am!" Again, just sad. At least I have something to remember him by.

Zombie toxic trailers

Amazing

Years after FEMA moved Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims out of formaldehyde and mold-infested trailers, the very same government-issue dwellings are once again sheltering disaster victims.

Bought at government auctions or from entrepreneurs reselling them, the trailers are appearing in increasing number along the path of the tornados that ravaged Alabama and other parts of the South last month. Jacked up on cinderblocks above severed tree limbs and piles of trash, the trailers cut a lean white silhouette eerily familiar to anyone who spent time in the Gulf Coast region in the past five and half years.

For many Katrina survivors, the sight of the trailers triggers memories of mysterious rashes, burning eyes and chronic breathing problems linked to the formaldehyde the trailers emit. Yet in Alabama, not even a federal ban on residential use of the trailers can curb the market for these low-cost housing units.

Hey has anyone checked the BATmobile for this stuff?

Happy Huricane Season

Also, fuck you.

Love, FEMA

As a new hurricane season begins Wednesday, FEMA is working to determine how much money it overpaid or mistakenly awarded to victims of the destructive 2005 hurricane season. The agency is reviewing more than $600 million given to roughly 154,000 victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and is poised to demand that some return money.

FEMA already has sent letters to thousands of victims of other disasters, asking them to return more than $22 million. Letters to victims of the 2005 hurricanes could go out in a matter of months, but it's too soon to tell how many people will be told to repay or how much money is at stake.

Barge owners off the hook

Much like the barge itself was that day.

In a ruling signed Thursday, U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval, Jr., exonerated Lafarge North America, Inc., of negligence in a series of decisions made before and during the 2005 hurricane that plaintiffs had claimed caused two breaches in the eastern flood walls along the Inner-Harbor Navigation Canal, also called the Industrial Canal.

Update: Maybe the suit would have gone differently if the barge were full of formaldehyde.

Leveredged

In a manner of speaking anyway.

While MWH is the only firm to which state officials have suspended loan-fund payouts, "strengthening of their procedures and documentation, obviously that would apply to everybody," DiResto said.

Division of Administration auditors also are looking into the disparity between disbursements from the loan fund and repayments to it, he said.

The loan fund actually comprises two accounts, a construction fund from which the city draws money to pay for recovery work and the so-called "revolver fund" into which the city deposits FEMA reimbursements. As of Monday, the construction account balance stood at $78.7 million, about 40 percent of its initial $200 million balance, while $28 million had been deposited into the revolver.

"When you've got $122 million withdrawn and $28 million now in the FEMA reimbursement revolver account, that's about 23 percent," he said. "The overall question that we have to look into is: What are the reasons for that what looks like on the surface a small percentage being replenished into the revolver account?

And remember that's WITHOUT having spent revolver funds on the Chevron building as was once discussed.

Isn't his area of expertise in horses anyway?

Former FEMA Director Mike Brown picks Colts over Saints

My favorite bit from the Politco blurb:

He has a good sense of humor about being called "Brownie" and Bush's notorious "heckuva job" comment, joking that he's trademarked the two phrases.

"It'll cost you $25 every time you say it."

Uh oh, NOLA T-shirt makers. Brownie is coming after your ass next. #Defendheckuvajobbrownie

That's when I reach for my revolver

Attention policy geeks. If you're at all curious about how the Mayor still intends to move City Hall to the Chevron building after having been shot down by City Council earlier this year, take a look at what Eli and Dambala are speculating about.

The gist of the discussion there is that Nagin is attempting to apply LRA "revolver" funds designed to front cash for FEMA reimbursed projects toward what Dambala and Eli are calling development projects unlikely to be reimbursed. If they're right, it potentially puts the city on the hook for a huge chunk of money it won't be able to repay without a great deal of pain in a few years (conveniently after Nagin is long gone). Go read both of their posts for detailed discussion. I only mention it here because I thought of a killer title I needed to share.

Dammit I knew we shouldn't have bucked the trend

FEMA may put storm victims in foreclosed homes
by Lisa Orkin Emmanuel, The Associated Press
Wednesday June 03, 2009, 10:59 AM

MIAMI (AP) -- The federal government is exploring how to put Florida hurricane evacuees in foreclosed homes if a Katrina-like storm devastates the region and shelters, hotels and other housing options are full, The Associated Press has learned.

Unfortunately, since City Business keeps telling me that our local T-shirt-and-booze plus knocking-shit-down economy is impervious to the national trends, we certainly won't have enough foreclosed homes for this to work here.... wait, what?

STOP THE PRESSES we're saved!

Update: Right on cue, the kids at City Biz write us another headline.

Congratulations. You've been rejected by FEMA

I'm still having trouble understanding how less money for our hospital is going to get us a hospital faster.

Update: This morning, Puddinhead left a comment below a previous post on this topic which read, in part,

The role of Tulane in attempting to muddy the waters to it's own benefit has become more publicly understood, but I will be very surprised if before all is settled another "powerful interest" isn't revealed to have a behind the scenes hand in attempts to scuttle the entire project to replace the teaching hospital in New Orleans, and their name turns out to start with "OCHS" and end with "NER". I'll become more suspicious of this if our beloved Sen. Vitter begins to take a more vocal "slow things down" position.

This afternoon, on NOLA.com, we read

Efforts to gut and restore Charity, rather than build a new facility, also are supported by some historic preservationists and community groups, as well by Sen. David Vitter, R-La.

Vitter, according to spokesman Joel DiGrado, believes that a public hospital should have already been rebuilt downtown, that LSU has delayed that far too long, that its plan is too big and expensive and that "gutting the old Charity shell and rebuilding a state-of-the-art hospital in it could save a lot of money."

Teaching hospital downtown hits a roadblock. There's Vitty right on cue to nod his approval. Funny how that works.