Chief Goldfeder Article

I just read Chief Goldfeders comments concerning the response of DHS for this mess down south. I also urge you to read it.
When DHS absorbed the Fire Administation as part of their restructuring I could already read the writing on the wall as to the path they would be on. My main objection at that time was that the Assistance to Firefighter grants would be cancelled. Well they did not cancel the program but they did dilute it trying to tie it in to Homeland defense. My view in this situation is that the United States will experience more situations such as natural disasters than they will acts of terroism and that we should prepare for them accordingly.
I have seen grants awarded on state levels so that agencies can "Bullet-Proof " there means of communications. Yet in this disaster communications were one of the first things to fail.WHAT WERE THEY SPENDING THE MONEY ON? Integrated command has been a buzz-word lately how much money was spent on this training and how fast was it forgotten.
As most of you know ..in an emergency we do not have the luxury to sit down in committe and discuss what we are going to do. These plans have to be in place and all people on the same page. I do not believe that the Federal Monster called DHS can move fast enough in its buracrecy to do this. History has proven over and over that the fire service is expected to step to the plate in times like this. History has also proven that whenever times are good the fire service gets tossed to the side and stepped on. I dont know if I am more mad at the DHS for trying to act like an emergency response agency or the fact that our federal representatives in the fire service rolled over and accepted the subservant position they were put in. We as the responding personnel must let our government leaders know that we do not condone how things were handled by the DHS and to our federal fire leadership that we do not accept being involved as a subservant part of that group.

Please read Chief Goldfeders article, and I look forward to your replys to see if my views are wide spread or if maybe I need to step back and evaluate my position. My thoughts and prayers are with the all those involved in this tragedy.

Chief Goldfeders hit the nail on the head. Let firefighters do what who do best, handle the situation no matter what the obstacles. I'm a chief of a small town dept in Nebraska, while we don't have hurricanes, we have had our share of tornados. While a much smaller scaled incident, there are the same problems. Radio towers down, streets impassable, buildings detroyed, etc. Two years ago a tornado hit a town close to us. The dept's in our mutual aid group had the situation handled days before any government help showed up. I wholeheartedly feel that firfighters are the best trained and equiped to handle these types of situations.
From what I heard communication has been a terrible problem down there. That is why firefighters are perfectly suited for the job. We can work on our own and know how to save lives without directives from above.
I'm right in the middle of getting our fire and EMS through the IS100 and IS700 classes. Am I just waisting our time?
The fire service MUST be put in the lead role in the first days after any disaster. FEMA/DHS can take over after the initial threat to life has been handled. They are equiped to handle the cleanup and rebuilding.

I am so glad to see someone in a leadership position saying what Chief Goldfeder has said. FEMA / DHA said Sunday night they had all sorts of help staged and ready to go. "Stuffing the supply lines" was, I think, the phrase being used. Well they were not stuffed, they were jammed, as in plugged. Nothing arrived where it was needed for many days. The Governor asked for federal help, "everything you have," the day after the storm. The help did not get to the people for four more days! And the stockpiled supplies were not used! It was an even worse performance than after Andrew.