FEMA outsourced the disaster planning for Louisiana in 2004

[GuvWurld]

A friend forwarded this to me with the observation that this press release used to be on IEM’s website. It’s disappeared. Wonder why?

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southcentral/2004/06/09/43008.htm

IEM to Lead Development of Hurricane Plan for Louisiana

June 9, 2004

IEM Inc., a Baton Rouge, La.-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, announced it will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

In making the announcement today on behalf of teaming partners Dewberry, URS Corporation and James Lee Witt Associates, IEM Director of Homeland Security Wayne Thomas explained that the development of a base catastrophic hurricane disaster plan has urgency due to the recent start of the annual hurricane season which runs through November. National weather experts are predicting an above normal Atlantic hurricane season with six to eight hurricanes, of which three could be categorized as major.

The IEM team will complete a functional exercise on a catastrophic hurricane strike in Southeast Louisiana and use results to develop a response and recovery plan. A catastrophic event is one that can overwhelm state, local and private capabilities so quickly that communities could be devastated without Federal assistance and multi-agency planning and preparedness.

Thomas said that the greater New Orleans area is one of the nation's most vulnerable locations for hurricane landfall.

more...

[napi21]

1. So now are we saying it was this IEM group who screwed up?

I know Shrub wants to outsource everything, but I hadn't heard this one before. Did they just put together a plan, or what?

[NYC]

3. They were supposed to be working on a plan a year ago. (IEM)

It shouldn't have been outsourced. You can't pass the blame if you outsourced it because you should not have outsourced a function of government.

It's no excuse, even if they try to make it one.

[NYC]

2. We have info. re IEM outsourcing on DU.

When the search function is back, look for it. I'm one of the people who posted about it.

[Spazito]

4. There was a plan, the point is the bush admin didn't implement

the plan. The implementation of the plan included the actions of the Federal Government agencies acting in a timely manner. It is interesting how that point seems to keep slipping away.

[snot]

5. PRIOR POSTS RE- WITT

Is someone trying to set up Blanco???

Here are 2 posts I preserved that mention WITT:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1750979
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html
WP, A01: White House Shifts Blame

Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal
officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov.
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday,
the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum
asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of
New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations
center said Saturday.

The administration had sought control over National Guard
units, normally under control of the governor. Louisiana
officials rejected the request, noting that such a move would
be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. State
authorities suspected a political motive behind the request.
"Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it
away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything
on the locals," said the source, who is an adviser and
does not have the authority to speak publicly.

Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence
from the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund
for the state's victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal
Emergency Management Agency director in the Clinton
administration, to advise her on the relief effort.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2059543&mesg_id=2059543
Privatization of FEMA HERE: GOP contributers received
contracts

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com /

September 3, 2005 -- FEMA privatized hurricane disaster
recovery planning for New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana.
The firms that received the contract are big GOP contributors.
Adding to the controversy regarding the Army Corps of
Engineers diverting $250 million from the SELA (Southeast
Louisiana) Urban Flood Control Program to Iraq and Halliburton
reconstruction projects, is the revelation that FEMA
outsourced hurricane recovery planning to the Baton
Rouge-based consulting firm Innovative Emergency Management
(IEM), Inc. to develop a "Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster
Plan for New Orleans & Southeast Louisiana." The
award was announced on June 3, 2004 on the firm's web site but
was taken down just as Hurricane Katrina's winds and waves
first started pounding New Orleans. It would now appear that
the hurricane plan IEM and its team developed wasn't worth a
damned thing.

IEM's team partners for the more than $500,000 contract are
Dewberry of Arlington, VA, URS Corporation of San Francisco,
and James Lee Witt Associates. Witt was FEMA Director under
Bill Clinton. IEM's president is Madhu Beriwal. The company
was founded in 1985. Dewberry and URS are engineering firms.
IEM is also a Defense Department contractor and has contracts
with the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC)
along with team members Booz Allen Hamilton and Lockheed
Martin. 

Now for the interesting background on Ms. Beriwal. She is a
big-time contributor to the GOP. She's given thousands of
dollars to Republicans, including Louisiana Sen. David Vitter,
Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby,
Louisiana Rep. Bobby Jindal, Rep. Richard Baker of Louisiana,
the National Republican Congressional Committee, former
Arkansas Sen. Tim Hutchinson. Vitter was the largest recipient
of funds from Beriwal.

The Chairman of Dewberry Sidney Dewberry, the Vice Chairman,
Barry K. Dewberry, and Secretary of the firm, Michael Dewberry
have been substantial contributors to George W. Bush, Virginia
Sen. John Warner, the National Republican Congressional
Committee, Sen. Shelby, "Every Republican is
Crucial" Political Action Committee, Rep. Virgil Goode of
Virginia (also fingered in the Duke Cunningham MZM, Inc.
scandal), Virginia Sen. George Allen, Virginia Rep. Frank
Wolf, Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor,
Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the Republican National
Committee, and the Federal Victory Fund of Annandale, VA
controlled by Tom Davis. The Dewberrys have also contributed
to the financially-tainted Democrat from Virginia's 8th
District, Jim Moran.

URS's board of directors includes Richard Blum, the husband of
California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein and retired
General Joseph Ralston, the former Vice Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff and current Vice Chairman of the Cohen Group
(former Defense Secretary William Cohen's firm). Ralston also
served as a director of the Timken Company, the firm of
current US ambassador to Germany William Timken, a big time
contributor to George W. Bush.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has announced that she is
hiring Witt to assist in the hurricane recovery. Just a minute
here. His firm (which includes retired Gen. Wesley Clark) was
part of the IEM team that came up with the non-existent
$500,000 FEMA New Orleans-Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic
Hurricane Disaster Plan. Why pay this guy again for his
incompetence? Republicans + Democrats = Partners in Crime.