FEMA had fears of storm rioting

FEMA had fears of storm rioting
An e-mail sent just after Katrina struck warned that if aid was as low as expected, "we will have serious riots."
By Lara Jakes Jordan
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - FEMA realized that its response to Hurricane Katrina was "broken" and braced for rioting over woefully low supplies in Mississippi in the days just after the Aug. 29 storm, documents show.

The correspondence among Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, provided yesterday by a special House committee investigating the government response to the storm, follows last week's release of more than 100,000 documents by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

Taken together, the details from both states offer evidence that FEMA could not provide fast help at disaster sites - even when needs were obvious.

"This is unlike what we have seen before," William Carwile, then FEMA's top responder in Mississippi, said in a Sept. 1 e-mail to officials at the agency's headquarters. He was describing difficulties in getting body bags and refrigerated trucks to badly damaged Hancock County, Miss.

"I personally authorized Hancock County to buy refer [sic] trucks that had been carrying ice becasue [sic] the coroner was going to have to start putting bodies out in the parking lot as his cooler was getting full," wrote Carwile, who has since retired from FEMA. "Still lots and lots of bodies out there."

'Holding it together'

The next day, in another e-mail to headquarters about substandard levels of food, water and ice being distributed in Mississippi, Carwile reported: "System appears broken."

In a Sept. 1 exchange, FEMA regional response official Robert Fenton warned headquarters that the expected levels of water and ice being sent were far below what was needed.

"If we get the quantities in your report tomorrow we will have serious riots," he wrote.

Carwile wrote in response: "Will need big time law enforcement reinforcements tomorrow. All our good will here in MS will be very seriously impacted by noon tomorrow. Have been holding it together as it is."

The special House committee, chaired by Rep. Thomas M. Davis (R., Va.), released eight pages of e-mail messages. While some Democrats are participating, their party leaders have asked lawmakers to boycott the inquiry, which they believe should be conducted by an independent commission.

Delays revealed

In all, the House committee is reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents from local, state and federal officials who were involved in the disaster relief effort.

The Louisiana documents released late Friday revealed delays and state claims that requests for federal help were not received, and reflected partisan battling between the Bush administration and Blanco, a Democrat.

The House committee will hold a hearing tomorrow focusing on the response in Mississippi. Carwile and Republican Gov. Haley Barbour are scheduled to testify.

FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said the agency was undergoing an internal review for changes as ordered by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.