FEMA FOOL SAT ON HIS HANDS By DOUGLAS SIMPSON, TED BRIDIS and IAN BISHOP
The head of FEMA waited a mind-boggling five hours after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf before even contacting his boss about sending personnel to the area - then suggested workers be allowed two days to get to the ravaged region, shocking internal documents reveal.
One stunning Aug. 29 memo - sent from embattled Federal Emergency Management chief Michael Brown to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff - called killer Katrina a "near-catastrophic event," but otherwise lacked any other urgent language underlining the potential magnitude of the disaster.
Brown then politely ended his memo with: "Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities."
In another note sent later to FEMA workers, Brown said one of their duties would essentially be to make the agency look good.
"Convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public," he wrote.
In Brown's memo to Chertoff, he proposed sending 1,000 Homeland Security workers within 48 hours and then another 2,000 within seven days.
In explaining the two-day period that workers had to arrive in the disaster area, Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said it was to ensure they had adequate training before going down.
The same day Brown wrote his memo to Chertoff, he also urged local fire and rescue departments outside Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi not to send trucks or emergency workers into disaster areas without an explicit request for help from state or local governments.
Brown said it was vital to coordinate fire and rescue efforts.
Several congressmen have already called for Brown's resignation.
In other developments yesterday:
* President Bush and Congress pledged separate probes into the feds' response to Katrina.
* The airline industry said the government's request for help evacuating storm victims didn't come until late Thursday afternoon - three days after Katrina made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane.
* A Long Island congressman ripped into New Orleans officials, who he said did a woefully inadequate job of responding to the hurricane, compared with how New York handled 9/11.
"All New Orleans has to worry about is a hurricane. They don't have to worry about terrorist attacks," Republican Rep. Peter King said. "They've seen this coming for 200 years."
As the Army Corps of Engineers battled to pump out flooded New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin warned that the receding water will reveal horrors.
"It's going to be awful and it's going to wake the nation up again," he warned.
* Late last night, Nagin authorized law enforcement and the military to forcibly evacuate residents who have refused to obey orders to leave.
* A refugee from the devastated city attempted suicide aboard a commercial flight bound for Washington, D.C., causing the plane to be diverted.