# FEMA's use of skilled volunteers? Leafleteers and Bush Props. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 6, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438 "2005-09-06T23:33:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/1 "2005-09-06T23:33:32Z")
[Salt Lake Tribune](http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3004197) > [@](#): > > **Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA** > > Not long after some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight hours of training, the whispering began: “What are we doing here?” > As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta.[…] > > Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.[…] > > ``` > "They've got people here who are search-and-rescue certified, paramedics, haz-mat certified," said a Texas firefighter. "We're sitting in here having a sexual-harassment class while there are still [victims] in Louisiana who haven't been contacted yet."[...] > > ``` > > But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. **The crew’s first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.** This thing was a grade A clusterfuck all around. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/2 "2005-09-06T23:43:57Z")
I just don’t get it. What the hell is the matter here? Who are these fucking idiots? My husband and I have been training for 3 years to respond in just this kind of disaster situation. Our Fire Chief notified us that FEMA is doing a “preliminry resource identification” and has asked if there are any CERT members who can be available to help out in the hurricane area. Thomas got approval from his employer last week, and my boss told me this morning that I can take the time off, as well. We’re prepared and ready to be deployed and this is exactly the kind of task I expect that volunteers like us would be charged with doing. Why in the holy hell are they having the professional firefighters doing this shit, when there are more than enough trained civilian volunteers ready and willing to assist? I’m SO frustrated and annoyed – I can’t even begin to imagine how the firefighters (and the victims!!) feel. And fuck George Bush. Sideways. With a rusty chain saw. Prick. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/3 "2005-09-06T23:47:17Z")
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!! (sorry this hurts too much) Please make it stop. How can FEMA get even dumber. Trained Firemen to hand out leaflets??? This is the biggest WTF I have ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/4 "2005-09-06T23:50:19Z")
I thought I had heard all the bad shit coming out of this thing. But then I stumble across [this](http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/6/132725/8931) and then read the OP, and I don’t know. I don’t know anymore. It’s just too much. It’s got to be made up, right? I can’t believe the “fuck ups” could really be this bad. At least some of this stuff is fabricated. Right??? ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/5 "2005-09-06T23:55:29Z")
At some point, people need to rise up and say: “Enough of this bullshit!” I know we’re all supposed to respect the office of the president (and governor and senator and mayor), but these politicians need to hear directly from the firefighters themselves. They should have been directly asking Bush why they were being used as background for him, and then they should have refused to be a part of his lame PR game. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/6 "2005-09-06T23:55:31Z")
A friend sent me this today > **[A Brush with Bush in NO](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2005/9/4/145149/-)** > > This is a redacted report from a friend on the ground in Lafayette, LA.  It's verbatim (minus the names), and according to the author, "written in the heat of anger and is put together from subject... Don’t know if this what you were trying to link to. FEMA now stands for Federal extremely moronic Agency!!! ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/7 "2005-09-06T23:58:39Z")
Seven posts already, and not an apologist has shown up yet for saying we’re not allowed to play armchair quarterback until we’ve done a comparable job ourselves? Must be on their coffee break. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/8 "2005-09-06T23:59:20Z")
[sorry](http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/6/132725/8931) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/9 "2005-09-07T00:58:18Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > Seven posts already, and not an apologist has shown up yet for saying we’re not allowed to play armchair quarterback until we’ve done a comparable job ourselves? Must be on their coffee break. [monotone] You’re-not-allowed-to-play-armchair-quarter-back-until-you’ve-done-a-comparable-job-yourselves. [/monotone] How’d I do? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/10 "2005-09-07T02:18:59Z")
Leaflets?! Oh, fuck that shit. Illinois just sent 600 firefighters with trucks and equipment down there, and if a single one of them has to waste his or her time and skills handing out stupid leaflets and taking seminars on sexual harassment, I hope our governor recalls them back home. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/11 "2005-09-07T02:37:23Z")
That even more fucked up than most stuff I’ve read this week. That is saying alot. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/12 "2005-09-07T02:42:50Z")
> [@bitch](#): > > I would go back and ask the firefighter to revisit his commitment to FEMA, to firefighting and to the citizens of this country," said FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak. Wow. Wouldn’t ya know that I go and read something even more fucked up right when I thought it couldn’t be topped. It’s gotta be that damn liberal press. In Utah. Umm-hmm. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/13 "2005-09-07T02:57:22Z")
The lead story on CTV’s National News tonight was about a lot of fires breaking out in NO. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/14 "2005-09-07T02:58:05Z")
I find it fascinating that the Bush apologists are so quick to insinuate that their political opponents are traitors, and yet here we see government flunkeys willing to let Americans die to further their political aims. If anyone is a traitor, wouldn’t a flunkey willing to waste God knows how much money and all this talent on Bush’s PR and let Americans die, while firefighters are needed in New Orleans, be a traitor? ---
**Author:** ![First\_Lady\_of\_Infinity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@First\_Lady\_of\_Infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/First_Lady_of_Infinity)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/15 "2005-09-07T03:30:17Z")
I guess, at this point, the surprising thing is that those firefighters were allowed into the disaster area at all, unlike [these deputies](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/02/AR2005090202363.html?sub=new) or [these doctors and their high-tech mobile hospital](http://www.wral.com/news/4935449/detail.html?rss=ral&psp=news) . Sadly, these situations seem almost the “norm” for the past week, not the exception. My own brother – a full-timer with the National Guard – was told last Tuesday that he’d have the option to volunteer for a humanitarian mission in the disaster area. Between midday Tuesday and five o’clock Wednesday evening, though, the offer was made three times and rescinded four times. (He’s pretty happy, though, that he’s at least being allowed to do something: He’s in Memphis, and spent Wed. PM through Sunday staging and clearing about 150 military units that came through on their way to La., Ms., and Al. The poor man finally went home to sleep Sunday night, after four nights on a cot in his office.) Through my job, I work pretty closely with the Public Info Officer of our city’s police department, and he also serves as PIO for his National Guard Airlift Wing. According to PIO friend, his unit was champing at the bit to go help, but they weren’t authorized until midday Thursday. Before dark on Friday, more than 300 members of the wing had _volunteered_ to go, cleared their own job/personal situations, and were on the ground in the Katrina zone. If they’d been authorized to go on Monday, they’d have likely been there by Tuesday or Wednesday, for pity’s sake! Of course, another close acquaintance is the director of our county’s emergency management agency, and has been for about a dozen years. He claims that the gutting of FEMA, and the layers upon layers of bureaucracy that have been imposed upon him since the take-over by DHS, have put him in the same position as NOLA emergency personnel: They aren’t really allowed to perform their jobs, but they will by God be put before the firing squad if a major catastrophe happens. This is a man, incidentally, who has done a beautiful job (not flawless, but great) of managing evacuations of two different coastal Atlantic cities during one major hurricane (Hugo,) and one major scare (Floyd.) He says that he’s now so hamstrung in performing his job that he’s considering retirement. And I won’t even begin to describe my sister’s fiance’s experiences in New Orleans… He was part of the helo rescues from Tuesday until being sent for R&R Saturday. I’ve only heard a small fraction of his experience, mostly edited, but he personally felt like their 1400 guys were utterly unsupported due to inaction by other agencies. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/16 "2005-09-07T19:43:05Z")
Hey, think about this a minute people. You can’t have firefighters out there just saving people willy-nilly when you (as FEMA management) have no way of knowing if these people have been trained in such critical areas as “sexual harassment”. :rolleyes: Can you point to anything that better shows just how divorced Washington politics is from reality? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/17 "2005-09-07T23:05:03Z")
The local (Chicago) NBC affiliate, NBC5, is reporting at this moment that various firefighters from Portage, Indiana, received dispatches from FEMA regarding needing firefighters with very specific skills and the ability to perform under strenuous conditions. They showed up and - yes, they were required to attend 8 hours of sexual harrassment and equal opportunity employment seminars, so they could hand out pamphlets. They’ve since returned to Indiana. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/18 "2005-09-07T23:44:14Z")
Seems to me that this sort of tihng is going to backfire on the administration. Not dramatically, like the images out of New Orleans, but at the grassroots, on a personal level that a lot of people can relate to. Just think about it – those firefighters returning disgusted and furious at being used like that, their skills, dedication, and sacrifices treated like shit, thrown away when people are fucking dying. They’ll have plenty to say about it, to family, friends, acquaintances, and what they’ll say will grab their hearers on an individual level. It’s not a bunch of strangers on TV, it’s Joe and Fred and Alice and Pat, people whose word you can take because, hey, you _know_ them. Their stories, the stories of so many other professional and volunteer rescuers whose aid was turned away or wasted, will percolate through their communities, and all the PR campaigns in the world won’t blunt their imapct. Or at least so I hope. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/19 "2005-09-08T00:58:26Z")
> [@Ferret Herder](#): > > The local (Chicago) NBC affiliate, NBC5, is reporting at this moment that various firefighters from Portage, Indiana, received dispatches from FEMA regarding needing firefighters with very specific skills and the ability to perform under strenuous conditions. They showed up and - yes, they were required to attend 8 hours of sexual harrassment and equal opportunity employment seminars, so they could hand out pamphlets. They’ve since returned to Indiana. > > :mad: [Link](http://www.nbc5.com/news/4946511/detail.html?z=dp&dpswid=2265994&dppid=65194) ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438/20 "2005-09-08T03:30:48Z")
While this may upset and confound the OP who has branded me as a Bush apologist in the past, I agree that this is a misuse of trained personnel. When the FEMA appeal to the volunteer sector was sent, another member of my department and I responded to our Chief that we would be willing to go. In light of this news, we won’t go, as we’re doing more for our community by continuing to work on Fire Prevention week activities. Were we to be deployed for rescue, hazmat, or EMS assignments, that would be another story. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/femas-use-of-skilled-volunteers-leafleteers-and-bush-props/320438.md?page=2)