[StBernard] U.S. Senators Visit St. Bernard

[Westley Annis]

Seven U.S. senators, a former senator and Gov. Kathleen Blanco passed
through Chalmette on Tuesday on a fact-finding tour of what could have been
done differently after Hurricane Katrina and Parish President Henry
"Junior'' Rodriguez and Fire Chief Thomas Stone had some definite
suggestions for them, including criticisms of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency.

Rodriguez said he would recommend "turning it (the recovery effort) over to
the military'' and remove it from the FEMA because that agency has been so
slow to respond to problems. He said there have been times he has considered
kicking them out of the parish, he told Liebermann.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and U.S. Sen. Joseph Liebermann, D-Conn.,
both of the sub-committee on Homeland Security and governmental affairs,
listened intently and asking questions.

"We will recommend a whole overhaul'' of the response apparatus, Collins
told Rodriguez as they stood outside the parish's Central Fire Station in
Chalmette, which was one stop on a bus tour that included U.S. senators Mary
Landrieu, D, La., David Vitter, R-La., Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota, David
Pryor, D-Arkansas, Mark Dayton, D-Minnesota, and former Sen. John Breaux,
D-La., as well as Collins and Liebermann.

"We have heard so many complaints today,'' Collins said.

Liebermann called the federal response "an American tragedy.'' He said that
unfortunately it likely will take "a long time to bring (this area) back to
where it was.''

Rodriguez and Stone gave examples of problems with FEMA.

The parish president said that while FEMA has been slow in delivering travel
trailers to residents, parish government found several thousand trailers
that were available for sale at a cost of several thousand dollars each less
than FEMA has been paying for trailers. But Rodriguez said FEMA refused to
pay for the ones the parish found or reimburse the parish if it bought them.

Rodriguez said such a situation didn't make sense to him and smelled of
possible corruption.

Stone, asked by Collins for examples of lessons to be learned, said, "You
have to have better communications systems'' because the system failed
during the last hurricane.
"The world didn't know St. Bernard was alive'' immediately after the storm
because there was no communications possible, the chief said.

Stone also complained that overtime expenses accumulated that were
reimbursable by FEMA haven't been paid.