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Well, I figured it would not take long for some critics of FEMA and DHS to issue their versions of disaster response history since H. Katrina and since 911 events. This one is by a former FEMA employee, Leo Bosner. See FEMA and Disaster: A Look at What Worked and What Didn’t From a FEMA Insider: Part One and Part Two.
Note that the last two postings in this blog are complimentary to FEMA. I am trying to be even-handed in selecting news items. I leave it to the readers to sort out the conflicting views.
Recovery Diva 
I have read Leo’s paper and I considered Leo a good friend and trust his judgment and knowledge on many issues. More should be written about Katrina by many who were involved. *** Emergency Management is not for amateurs. * * *
I could criticize some of Leo’s points but in the main they are solid. Perhaps a small point is that George H.W. Bush won Florida’s popular and electoral votes in 1992 despite losing his election.
And Leo’s focus on press relations is very important. One of the reasons James Lee Witt succeeded was due to the brilliance of his Emergency Public Information program administered by Morrie Goodman. This is completely different than public affairs. All EM must understand and know the difference.
After virtually continuous reading and study of the Katrina event since it occurrence I have concluded that the best technical analysis of what happened is not in FEMA records but those of the USACOE. They have published a mea culpa of their 50 year effort prior to Katrina in the NOLA area. They admit to conflicts of interest and corruption.
Oddly there is still little outside technical analysis of the collapse of not levees [although some were overtopped or failed] but the flood walls in NOLA that failed. * * *
I am hoping that by the time a decade has passed the true accounting of Katrina which was a much larger event than anything experienced in my time in FEMA and in a location with corrupt and incompetent STATES and their local government officials a more accurate picture will have evolved.
What Leo also fails to discuss is the bitter and powerful enemies FEMA had in the Bush 43 Administration. First, VP Richard Cheney who had been SECDEF during Hurricane Hugo and Hurricane Andrew. And second, Andrew Card, the COS in Bush 43 who had been Master of Disaster as Secretary DOT during BUSH 41 after Wallace B. Stinckney begged off doing his job.
For more analysis you can follow my Vacation Lane Blog.
And thanks Leo for past and present efforts on behalf of FEMA and the American people.