Rep Davis & Waxman Letter to Chertoff -- something you all must read.

September 9, 2005

The Honorable Michael Chertoff
Secretary of Homeland Security
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20528

Dear Secretary Chertoff:

The House Committee on Government Reform has obtained from the Department of Homeland Security a document describing the “Scope of Work” of a contract issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the development of a “Southeastern Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Plan.” We are writing to request any plans and other documents that were developed under this contract.

FEMA’s Scope of Work contemplated that a private contractor, Innovative Emergency Management, Inc. (IEM), would complete the work under the contract in three stages. “Stage One” called for a simulation exercise involving FEMA and the state of Louisiana that would “feature a catastrophic hurricane striking southeastern Louisiana.” “Stage Two” called for “development of the full catastrophic hurricane disaster plan.” And “Stage Three” involved unrelated earthquake planning.

A task order issued under the contract called for IEM to execute “Stage One” between May 19 and September 30, 2004, at a cost of $518,284. On June 3, 2004, IEM issued a press release announcing that it would “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).” A second task order issued on September 23, 2004, required IEM to “complete the development of the SE Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane plan.” The cost of this task order was $199,969.

The “Background” section of the Scope of Work stated that “the emergency management community has long feared the occurrence of a catastrophic disaster,” which the document describes as “an event having unprecedented levels of damage, casualties, dislocation, and disruption that would have nationwide consequences and jeopardize national security.” According to the background discussion, the emergency management community was concerned that “existing plans, policies, procedures and resources” would not be adequate to address such a “mega-disaster.”

According to the Scope of Work, the contact “will assist FEMA, State, and local government to enhance response planning activities and operations by focusing on specific catastrophic disasters: those disasters that by definition will immediately overwhelm the existing disaster response capabilities of local, State, and Federal Governments.” With respect to southeastern Louisiana, the specific “catastrophic disaster” to be addressed was “a slow-moving Category 3, 4, or 5 hurricane that … crosses New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain.” The Scope of Work explained:



The Scope of Work further stated: “The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness (LOEP) believe that the gravity of the situation calls for an extraordinary level of advance planning to improve government readiness to respond effectively to such an event.”

The specific disaster scenario contemplated under the contract is strikingly similar to the actual disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina. The contract envisioned that “a catastrophic hurricane could result in significant numbers of deaths and injuries, trap hundreds of thousands of people in flooded areas, and leave up to one million people homeless.” The Scope of Work expressly directed the contractor to plan for the following specific conditions:



It appears that IEM completed the task order for “Stage One,” the hurricane simulation. An exercise know as “Hurricane Pam,” was conducted by FEMA and IEM in July 2004, bringing together emergency officials from 50 parish, state, federal, and volunteer organizations to simulate the conditions described above and plan an emergency response. As a result of the exercise, officials reportedly developed proposals for handling debris removal, sheltering, search and rescue, medical care, and schools.

It is not clear, however, what plans or draft plans, if any, IEM prepared to complete “Stage Two,” the development of the final catastrophic hurricane disaster plan. The task order for “Stage Two” provided that the “period of performance” was September 23, 2004, to September 30, 2005.

The basis for the award of the planning work to IEM is also not indicated in the documents we received. The task orders were issued to IEM by FEMA under an “Indefinite Delivery Vehicle” (IDV) contract between IEM and the General Services Administration. According to the Federal Procurement Data System, FEMA received only one bid (from IEM) for the task orders.

The documents from the Department raise multiple questions about the contract with IEM and the planning for a catastrophic hurricane in southeastern Louisiana. To help us understand these issues, we request that the Department provide the following documents and information:



We recognize that Department officials are engaged in ongoing relief efforts, and we do not want to impair those efforts in any way. For this reason, we have tailored our request to the discrete set of documents and information set forth above. To expedite your response to this request, we have enclosed copies of the Scope of Work, task orders, and other documents cited in this letter.

Sincerely,



Rep. Tom Davis Rep. Henry A. Waxman
Chairman Ranking Minority Member

Enclosure

Link:

http://democrats.reform.house.gov/Documents/20050909123505-34183.doc

September 01, 2005 22 30 GMT -- The American political system was founded in Philadelphia, but the American nation was built on the vast farmlands that stretch from the Alleghenies to the Rockies. That farmland produced the wealth that funded American industrialization: It permitted the formation of a class of small landholders who, amazingly, could produce more than they could consume. They could sell their excess crops in the east and in Europe and save that money, which eventually became the founding capital of American industry.

But it was not the extraordinary land nor the farmers and ranchers who alone set the process in motion. Rather, it was geography -- the extraordinary system of rivers that flowed through the Midwest and allowed them to ship their surplus to the rest of the world. All of the rivers flowed into one -- the Mississippi -- and the Mississippi flowed to the ports in and around one city: New Orleans. It was in New Orleans that the barges from upstream were unloaded and their cargos stored, sold and reloaded on ocean-going vessels. Until last Sunday, New Orleans was, in many ways, the pivot of the American economy.

For that reason, the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815 was a key moment in American history. Even though the battle occurred after the War of 1812 was over, had the British taken New Orleans, we suspect they wouldn't have given it back. Without New Orleans, the entire Louisiana Purchase would have been valueless to the United States. Or, to state it more precisely, the British would control the region because, at the end of the day, the value of the Purchase was the land and the rivers - which all converged on the Mississippi and the ultimate port of New Orleans. The hero of the battle was Andrew Jackson, and when he became president, his obsession with Texas had much to do with keeping the Mexicans away from New Orleans.

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New Orleans is not optional for the United States' commercial infrastructure. ... But in the end, the city will return because it has to.

Geopolitics is the stuff of permanent geographical realities and the way they interact with political life. Geopolitics created New Orleans. Geopolitics caused American presidents to obsess over its safety. And geopolitics will force the city's resurrection, even if it is in the worst imaginable place.

From New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize by George Friedman on September 1, 2005

Much more at the link;

http://www.stratfor.com/news/archive/050903-geopolitics_katrina.php

WSJ: White rich elude Orleans chaos, don't want poor blacks back

by John Byrne

September 8, 2005

The Wall Street Journal front-page headline reads, "Old-Line Families / Escape Worst of Flood / And Plot the Future / Mr. O'Dwyer, at His Mansion, / Enjoys Highball With Ice; / Meeting With the Mayor."

That is, however, just the beginning. According to the (paid-restricted) Journal, New Orleans' wealthy white neighborhoods emerged very much intact, while black neighborhoods are swimming in toxic sludge. The Journal piece, by Christopher Cooper, reads as something torn from the pages of Fitzgerald's iconic portrait of the roaring twenties--The Great Gatsby.



More at the link:

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/WSJ_White_rich_escape_New_Orleans_chaos_dont_want_blacks_poor__0908.html

FEMA Predicted a “Catastrophic Hurricane” Could Strike New Orleans and Cause a “Mega-Disaster”

Friday, September 09, 2005 -- A letter to Secretary Chertoff from Ranking Member Waxman and Chairman Davis describes documents from the Department of Homeland Security that show that FEMA was aware in 2004 that a “catastrophic hurricane” could hit New Orleans and “trap hundreds of thousands of people in flooded areas and leave up to one million people homeless." FEMA officials wrote: “the gravity of the situation calls for an extraordinary level of advance planning."

FEMA Scope of Work
http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/Documents/20050909130029-67700.pdf

FEMA Task Orders
http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/Documents/20050909130000-32709.pdf

http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/story.asp?ID=922

Madhu Beriwal President & CEO

Founder, President, and CEO of IEM, Madhu Beriwal is an emergency management expert with over 17 years of experience managing high-technology research activities. For more than a decade, her strong leadership has shaped the IEM traditions of quality, process maturity, multifunctional teamwork, and creative use of technology to serve client goals.

Ms. Beriwal is the primary architect of IEM’s unique process-based approach to emergency management and its science-based public outreach model. She has also been a driving force behind the use of quantitative performance measures as a way to objectively assess and improve emergency preparedness. Her demonstrated expertise in these areas led the State of Oregon to request in 1999 that Ms. Beriwal personally lead an assessment of Oregon’s readiness to respond to a chemical emergency.

With a background in Urban Planning and Transportation Engineering, Ms. Beriwal is also a recognized expert in evacuation modeling. She received a Special Merit Award from the Louisiana Emergency Preparedness Association for "her outstanding contribution to the civil defense agencies of southeast Louisiana in the development of the Hurricane Survival Plan."

Under Ms. Beriwal’s skilled management, IEM’s revenues have grown over 700% in the last 5 years, and its workforce has nearly tripled. The company’s accomplishments were publicly rewarded in 1999, when the Small Business Administration in New Orleans, Louisiana, presented Ms. Beriwal with its annual Soaring Eagle Award, which recognized IEM as a high-growth company that has built strong capabilities for future growth. A gifted public speaker who has written numerous articles, Ms. Beriwal was also named a regional finalist for the national 1999 Working Woman Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards, jointly sponsored by Bank One and Working Woman magazine.

http://www.ieminc.com/About/MadhuBeriwal.htm

FOLLOW THE MONEY: If you've been following the stories about the federal government's natural disaster preparations (or lack thereof), then you may recall FEMA's decision last year to hire a Baton Rouge consulting firm, Innovative Emergency Management (IEM), to draft a plan for dealing with a catastrophic hurricane in New Orleans. It was IEM that conducted the "Pam" exercise last year, simulating a hurricane strike in New Orleans for a group of local and federal officials.

So what exactly is IEM anyway? Funny you should ask.

IEM's president is a woman named Madhu Beriwal. If you plug in her name (along with a misspelled version, Madhu Berwal) to opensecrets.org, the online campaign finance site run by the Center for Responsive Politics, you'll discover she's been a very good friend to the Republican Party and some of its members in Louisiana.

In 2002, Beriwal gave $2,500 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. In the last two election cycles, she has also given $2,000 each to Richard Baker (a Republican congressman who represents the Baton Rouge area), Suzanne Terrell (the Republican who challenged Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu in 2002), and then-Senate candidate David Vitter (the Republican who won the seat John Breaux vacated in 2004). After the November election, which Vitter won, Beriwal gave him another $1,500.

In all, based on the records, it looks like she's given $12,500 to Republicans and conservative political action committees since 2000.

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