The following is from a friend who has a relative who is a firefighter helping in the hurricane zone. Re-posted with permission.

FEMA is the US Federal Emergency Management Agency. I find it rather frightening that they should be showing such obvious ineptitude dealing with the disaster.

I just got off the phone with ****. He describes a snafu like you wouldn’t believe. First thing that happened when they arrived was that they were told, “This is NOT a fire. You are NOT in charge. FEMA must make ALL decisions.” And damned if that isn’t so. Every request for a truck coming from an outside agency must be routed to FEMA. It is then sent to Washington where some asshole feels he must keep his finger on everything. The order to move the truck comes back from Washington. **** says they’ve already had a few cases where a truck was sent back. The truck would arrive, only to be told (angrily) that they had asked for it 2 or 3 days earlier, and, receiving no response, solved the problem in some other way, and they could take their damned truck and go home.

The fire department is full of get-the-job-done people. The Army is a get-the-job-done group. But they aren’t allowed to wipe their asses without some jerk in Washington telling them which hand to use.

The other day, a Sheriff and a group of deputies came on the post and commandeered a truck full of supplies that were desparately needed. Some Army guard tried to stop them half-heartily (a single guard). The sheriff tackled him, cuffed him, threw him in the truck, and took him along.

**** was calling to ask me to expedite a Treo cable to him. Apparently they have NO internet service there, although that is critical to the distribution effort. It is supposed to arrive Real Soon Now. TMobile service is spotty, but when it is up ****’s Treo can serve as a modem to his laptop, providing the needed link. Gah. This is his personal equipment, and the only way they can work.

At home for the second time this week. On Tuesday I worked from home on purpose, as things in the office were quiet and I needed to do some stuff on a side-project web site.

Today however, Isaac woke up with a whopping 39.5 temperature. This managed to coincide with the work computer system being very ill indeed (database refusing connections: “No. I’m not going to connect you. I don’t like you. Go away.”) Thanks to some medicine the temperature has gone down somewhat, and thanks to some DBA magic the database is being nice again, but I’m home for the day.

Thanks to the miracle of computer networks and modern telephony, I am able to do a large proportion of my work from home. Sometimes it’s a curse, sometimes it’s a blessing.

(Outgoing Yarra Trams CEO) Hubert Guyot criticised “so-called advocates of public transport”, saying he had found road lobbyists at the RACV more supportive than the Public Transport Users Association. — The Age, 6/9/2005

Hmm. Well PTUA represents passengers, whereas Yarra Trams is an operator, which while it is providing customer service, is also trying to fulfil its contractual obligations, preferably as cheaply as possible. We’re bound not to always see eye-to-eye.

Since I was at home, I rang in to an ABC Radio talkback segment later in the day. Despite the host trying to stir things up, both Hubert and I were conciliatory, and looking for points of agreement:

Guyot thinks … greater priority needs to be given to trams than cars. Bowen says he agrees with Guyot, apart from on some minor points. — 774 ABC Melbourne, 4:40pm 6/9/2005 (Media monitoring)

Followed up with a letter in the next day’s paper:

IT’S certainly true that the Public Transport Users Association has not always seen eye to eye with outgoing Yarra Trams boss Hubert Guyot on every issue. But we agree on a number of topics - none more so than the need for tram priority on our roads.

Melbourne’s trams (each carrying scores if not hundreds of people) continue to be delayed by cars on the road. Trams continue to wait needlessly at traffic lights. Trams continue to wait behind right-turning vehicles. The State Government and Melbourne City Council have shown complete unwillingness to fix these issues. Until we accept that we should be moving people around our city, not motor vehicles, and give public transport the priority it deserves, cars will continue to dominate - with dire consequences for Melbourne’s liveability. — Letter from Daniel Bowen, The Age, 7/9/2005