[lit-ideas] Emergency equipment
- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2005 06:05:05 EDT
This is the most mind-boggling piece since the incident of shots fired at
helicopters evacuating a hospital. What the hell were the governors
thinking?!
Anyone have a semi-rational notion why in the bloody blue blazes this
equipment was not requested, even after the gov's were reminded it was an
option?!?! I'm ..... there are not enough scatological words......
Generators.
Breathing apparatus. Cots. COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS. All available and
entirely
ignored and unused. So much for "Domestic Preparedness" (see last line of
article).
_http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/03/katrina.unusedgear/index.html_
(http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/03/katrina.unusedgear/index.html)
<<WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nine stockpiles of fire-and-rescue equipment
strategically placed around the country to be used in the event of a
catastrophe still
have not been pressed into service in New Orleans, five days after Hurricane
Katrina, CNN has learned.
Responding to a CNN inquiry, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Marc
Short said Friday the gear has not been moved because none of the governors in
the hurricane-ravaged area has requested it.
A federal official said the department's Office for Domestic Preparedness
reminded the Louisiana and Mississippi governors' offices about the stockpiles
on Wednesday and Thursday, but neither governor had requested it.
The gear -- including generators, radios, breathing apparatus, cots and other
items -- is stockpiled by DHS in nine locations. The three closest to New
Orleans are College Station, Texas; Columbia, S.C.; and Clearwater, Fla. The
gear is intended to replenish or sustain up to 150 first responders.
Contractors who maintain the gear are required to transport it to a disaster
site no later than 12 hours after the initial request is made by local
authorities and approved by DHS.
Short said that while the stashes contain some items like generators, much of
the gear would not be useful in the circumstances faced by the Gulf Coast
region.
But Steve Beaumont, a retired contract manager for Homeland Security's
Prepositioned Equipment Program, said the gear would be helpful for fire
departments wiped out by the hurricane. Each pod has 200 radios, including
sophisticated equipment to make radios inter-operable, tying different
communications
systems together.
"The concept was basically, if you had a major incident, this equipment could
be brought into the city and reconstitute the local first responders. So
they get fresh bunking gear, breathing apparatus," Beaumont said.
Each stockpile consists of a tractor-trailer filled with $2.2 million in
gear, he said. Contractors are on call 24 hours a day to move the gear.
"There has been no movement of this equipment to this emergency. As of now
there's been no movement at all," Beaumont said.
"I think it's sad because you've got almost ... $20 million worth of gear
that's ready to be distributed. You've firefighters (in New Orleans) fighting
fires in shorts. That tells me they're running out of stuff."
The project is run by DHS' Office for Domestic Preparedness.>>
Other related posts:
