Preparedness fair is ready
Disaster conference to include tips for home, family
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/245199_prepared20.html
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF
Think of it as a hunting-and-fishing fair for disaster preparedness.
The "Preparedness--Are You Ready?" event booked into the Seattle Center Exhibition
Hall on Friday and Saturday will offer lots of things to think about and plan for, but also
lots of things to buy.
Sponsored by the King County Office of Emergency Management, as well as Safeco,
Safeway and Pageantry Northwest, a home-building company, the fair offers seminars
and workshops on topics ranging from terrorism and earthquakes to fire safety and
understanding your insurance.
Admission is free.
The fair will devote Friday to business and office concerns but turn to workshops for the
home and family on Saturday, offering free CPR training and first aid along with electricgenerator sizing, safety for the home and a visit by Mariner Moose.
"Everyone who understands that our region is at risk due to natural and man-made
disasters must become better prepared for emergencies and disasters," said Eric
Holdeman, director of the county emergency-management office. "Individuals and
families need to both educate themselves on the risks they face and how to become
prepared to be on their own for a minimum of three days."
Chertoff: FEMA wasn't ready
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgibin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=chertoff20&date=20051020&query=coast+guard
By Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff acknowledged yesterday that
Hurricane Katrina "overwhelmed" the Federal Emergency Management Agency and exposed
major flaws in the nation's preparations for terrorism and natural disasters, but contradicted
accounts by former FEMA Director Michael Brown about his department's handling of the Aug. 29
storm.
Appearing for the first time before a House panel investigating the government's heavily criticized
response, Chertoff vowed to "re-engineer" U.S. preparedness after the storm that killed more
than 1,200 people and devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. But he also blamed Brown
and FEMA leaders, saying, "We certainly have to fill out the ranks of FEMA in terms of its senior
level with experienced staff who can deal with all of the elements" of its mission.
Chertoff rebutted lawmakers' questions about why he worked from home Aug. 27, two days
before the Category 4 storm hit, why he made a previously scheduled trip to Atlanta on Aug. 30,
and why President Bush stayed at his Texas ranch until Aug. 31. "I don't think there was a sense
of a lack of urgency," Chertoff said.
Instead, the secretary expressed growing frustration at days of conflicting reports from the scene,
as well as the government's failure to speed relief to thousands of victims at the Superdome in
New Orleans or to rescue residents by air or boat.
"I knew I became more involved in operational matters than I would normally expect to be or want
to be, given the fact that I had a battlefield commander on the ground," Chertoff said, referring to
Brown. "I am not a hurricane expert. I've got to rely on people to execute the details of the plan."
State emergency managers and some critics in Congress say FEMA was crippled after the
formerly independent agency was folded into the Homeland Security Department after the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks.
Instead, Chertoff denied Brown's claims, made last month to the House panel, that department
budget and personnel cuts led to "the emaciation of FEMA." Chertoff said that from 2001 to 2005,
FEMA's "core" budget grew 28 percent, to $447 million, and its staff 19 percent, to 2,445.
With support from department agencies such as the Coast Guard, Chertoff said, "FEMA has
better resources and ... it brings more to the table now than it did in the previous five, six, seven
years."
If the department fell down, it was "largely in the area of planning" for major catastrophes, he
said, which will be consolidated.
Brown testified that he pressed the White House to urge "dysfunctional" Louisiana and New
Orleans leaders to order mandatory evacuations earlier before the storm hit. But Chertoff said, "I
did not have a problem dealing with state and local officials."
He added: "Let me put it this way: Michael Brown didn't call me. I didn't speak to him prior to
Sunday [Aug. 28] and have him tell me that he was having a problem with the governors."
Chertoff said he was unable to reach Brown the day after the storm hit until nearly 8 p.m.
"We now know that [FEMA's] capabilities were overwhelmed by the magnitude of the storm," he
said.
DHS to have mobile eyes, ears in disasters
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20051019-020214-1817r
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- The Department of Homeland Security is setting up
emergency field teams ensure federal leaders know what's happening at disaster scenes.
Using currently budgeted funds, the department "is establishing emergency
reconnaissance teams that will go in, in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, to help us
get real-time situational reporting of the facts on the ground," Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff told the House select committee probing the federal response
to Hurricane Katrina.
"In the future, we need to consider how best to identify emerging issues and target
resources if our traditional sources of information -- state and local officials -- are
overwhelmed after a disaster" as they were in the aftermath of Katrina, Chertoff added in
prepared testimony.
Homeland security officials said the teams would include FEMA disaster and recovery
specialists, alongside Coast Guard personnel and departmental law enforcement elements
such as the Secret Service or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"The details are still being worked out," departmental spokesmen Russ Knocke told
United Press International, when asked if the teams would have their own dedicated
transport and communication assets, or whether they would be using assets provided by
the Coast Guard and other departmental elements.
"Once on the ground," Knocke said, "the teams will provide real-time data and video
feeds to headquarters."
Chertoff told the hearing that the information would be "up to the minute (and)
dependable," allowing authorities to "act confidently."
Coast Guard MEDEVACs Logger Near Hillsboro, Ore.
U.S. Coast Guard | October 19, 2005
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,78954,00.html
SEATTLE - The Coast Guard medevaced a logger after he was injured today on a remote
mountainous region west of Hillsboro, Ore.
At 11:28 a.m., Coast Guard Group/Air Station Astoria, Ore., received a call from a
Washington County dispatcher requesting helicopter assistance for an injured logger.
A Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Group/Air Station Astoria was diverted
from patrol to assist.
The logger and an emergency medical technician were hoisted into the helicopter and
flown to Oregon Health and Science University Hospital in Portland, Ore.
Chopper crew aids hurt logger
http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=395&ArticleID=28
492&TM=66424.48
Hillsboro — A logger is in stable condition after a falling tree struck him Tuesday, said
Petty Officer Jamie DeSanno of U.S. Coast Guard Group Astoria today.
Timothy Littleton of Clats-kanie had lost sensation in his body from the waist down when
he called for help from a remote logging site west of Hillsboro.
A Washington County dispatcher requested the assistance of a U.S. Coast Guard HH-60
Jayhawk helicopter, which was on routine patrol from Air Station Astoria around 11:30
a.m.
Coast Guard crews hoisted an emergency medical technician and Littleton into the
helicopter, where the logger began to regain feeling in his feet, DeSanno said. They flew
him to Oregon Health and Science University hospital in Portland, where he remained in
stable condition Tuesday afternoon.
Logger injured by falling log lifted from ravine by Coast Guard chopper
http://www.oregonlive.com/metrowest/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_west_news/112972009175620.xml
&coll=7
Timber - A 37-year-old logger was injured Tuesday when he was struck in the back by a falling log in the
woods near Washington County's rural Timber area.
Brian Coussens, Banks Fire Department chief, said the man was lifted out of a 500-foot ravine by a U.S.
Coast Guard helicopter and taken to OHSU Hospital in Portland. The man's name and condition were not
available Tuesday evening.
Coussens said communications were spotty in the area, which is near the Tillamook County line and about
four miles west of the Timber-Vernonia junction south of U.S. 26.
Emergency dispatchers received a call about the accident shortly after 11 a.m. Tuesday and it took nearly
30 minutes for firefighters to arrive and another 40 minutes to hike down to the man and put him in a basket
for the helicopter hoist. Coussens said the terrain was too steep, remote and wooded for a LifeFlight
helicopter to land or for a rescue vehicle to get to the injured man.
The man complained of having no feeling in his legs at first, but by the time he was lifted into the helicopter,
some feeling had returned, Coussens said.
Coast Guard campaign takes aim at safe boating
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/sports/articles/1020out-news1020.html
Republic news sources
Oct. 20, 2005 12:00 AM
A third of all boating accident fatality victims are waterfowl hunters or anglers, and the U.S. Coast Guard's
"You're in Command. Boat Responsibly!" campaign focuses on tips to keep sportsmen safe on the water.
Veteran hunter and TV personality Wade Bourne, co-host of Ducks Unlimited TV, is featured in public
service announcements, a hunting tips brochure and a national radio tour.
The tips include everything from the importance of wearing a life jacket to such specifics as how to load a
boat and the value of a survival kit. Vessels should have an annual safety check from local U.S. Coast
Guard Auxiliary, United States Power Squadrons or a state boating agency.
Supersized America forces changes on boats, planes
http://www.kitsapsun.com/bsun/nw_national/article/0,2403,BSUN_19093_4170236,00.html
By LANCE GAY
October 18, 2005
Supersized Americans aren't just busting out of their belt sizes. They're forcing a
reexamination of minimum weight standards for everything from hospital beds to cargo in
small planes and passengers on ships.
Even caskets and cemetery vaults are coming in larger sizes to accommodate today's larger
American.
There's no question Americans are getting fatter. About 65 percent of Americans are
overweight, up from 46 percent in the 1970s, and a Rand Corp. study says the number of
adults who are extremely obese - more than 100 pounds overweight - has quadrupled since
1986 to about 4 million people.
That extra heft is not only requiring new standards for the width of seats in airplanes and
football stadiums, but also the width of doors and size of rooms in hospitals.
It's also making boats and planes dangerously top-heavy.
The National Transportation Safety Board cites the March 6, 2004, capsizing of the Lady D, a
36-foot water taxi in Baltimore Harbor, in which five people drowned.
The Lady D was carrying only 25 people, no more than its limit. But the NSTB added the
weight of all aboard and concluded that the boat was 700 pounds over its 3,500-pound
capacity when it capsized.
NTSB Chairman Ellen Engleman Conners said the problem is the Coast Guard set its standards
in the 1960s, when the average passenger weight was calculated at 140 pounds.
"Average adult weights have increased by nearly 25 pounds in the last 40 years," she said,
urging the Coast Guard to come up with new standards.
Angela McArdle, a Coast Guard spokeswoman, said the agency is taking another look at its 40year-old standards and has contracted for a research project to come up with
recommendations. "It's in study now," she said, noting the regulations could affect passenger
loads in about 20,000 vessels operating in America's coastlines that come under Coast Guard
jurisdiction.
After a boat carrying 47 elderly passengers capsized on Lake George this month, New York
Gov. George Pataki directed state park officials to adjust the weight limits on boats in New
York's parks from the 140-pound average to 174 pounds to reflect the changing dimensions of
the average American.
The NTSB said outdated weight standards also played a role in the 2003 commuter plane
crash that killed 21 people in Charlotte, N.C. The Federal Aviation Administration has revised
its weight standards for aircraft, requiring aircraft owners to use 174 pounds as the average
weight of passengers instead of 160.
The increased weight of Americans has prompted other changes. Elevator manufacturers no
longer install passenger limits in elevator cabs, but instead set gross weight limits for what
elevators can carry.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington interest group that campaigns
against fatty food and sugary sodas, has compiled a list of other routine changes a fatter
society has required. Thanks to vanity sizing, the group notes that today's size 10 for women
was sold as a size 14 in the 1940s and sales of plus-size clothing for women amount to a
quarter of clothing sales.
The store chain Casual Male Big & Tall said surveys found that men don't particularly like the
Big & Tall label and so is changing the store name to Casual Male XL.
Big changes also are being made to hospital equipment. Hill-Rom, a Batesville, Ind., supplier
of health-care equipment that is part of Hillenbrand Industries, says it is offering an array of
new equipment for use in bariatric medicine - the treatment of obesity.
Suzanne Bish, marketing manager for the company, said hospitals are increasingly buying
instead of renting items like the 1,000-pound capacity beds Hill-Rom makes.
"With the explosion we've seen in the patients, there's a demand for more bariatric products,"
she said. She said hospitals need the larger beds, which are 40 inches to 50 inches wide, to
handle the widest and heaviest patients weighing 300 pounds and 400 pounds.
She said it's not just the patients who need the wider beds and wider seats, but the nurses
and other health-care workers need larger equipment and stronger stretchers so they can
conduct their routine tasks.
Bish said the company also advises hospitals in establishing wards for bariatric medicine
patients, who require larger rooms for the larger equipment, larger doors to get through and
different styles of bathroom equipment. "Wall mounted toilets and sinks aren't good," she
said.
For end-of-life considerations, Batesville Caskets last year launched its "Dimensions" line of
supersized burial caskets.
Joe Weigel, spokesman for the company, said demand from funeral homes last year for
oversized caskets continued to increase. Weigel said casket size has been traditionally limited
by the 30-inch-wide vaults into which they are finally placed. Oversized vaults are now made
that can accommodate 32-inch-wide caskets.
Your e-mails: After Katrina
CNN.com users on what's next for government
(CNN) -- Government response to Hurricane Katrina was sharply criticized at all
levels. CNN.com asked readers whether government -- at any level -- should be
restructured to respond better to the next disaster. Here is a sampling of those
responses, some of which have been edited:
The United States Coast Guard should be designated he first responder at the federal level. The Coast
Guard is one of the five armed forces of our country and possesses a sophisticated command and control
system nationwide. As a military service you have the discipline and fast response to operational
requirements without the Department of Defense being directly involved. The Coast Guard has units
throughout the country and interfaces with all the D.O.D. services on a daily basis. I think it is wrong to
consider our fighting forces as a lead in disasters. The Coast Guard has and is participating in all our wars
but also has numerous other missions dedicated to helping people.
Paul Schroeder, Montgomery Village, Maryland
I think that restructuring is not the issue. I think that disaster relief cannot be structured, that is why it is
called a disaster. What needs to happen is to have competent leaders all the way through the chain of
command. None of our leaders acted competently. We need people who can make important decisions in a
few minutes not days. We need leaders who can think on their feet. This is not just about President Bush. All
of the leaders did nothing but cry for help. We needed action not a woman crying on TV. We needed that
woman to figure out what to do! If restructuring means putting new people in charge then yes I am for it. We
need leaders who lead us to safety not victory.
Dan Rockwell, Corvallis, Oregon
Makah whaling effort gets a boost
House panel OKs resolution urging Bush to uphold 1855 treaty
http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051020/NEWS06/510200374/1020
BY MATTHEW DALY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- The House Resources Committee gave a boost Wednesday to the Makah Tribe's bid to
resume whale hunting off the coast of Washington state.
The panel approved a nonbinding resolution urging the Bush administration to uphold whaling rights
guaranteed to the tribe under an 1855 treaty with the federal government.
The resolution, sponsored by the panel's chairman, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., calls a waiver process
required by the National Marine Fisheries Service "burdensome, costly and ... tantamount to a denial of the
tribe's treaty rights."
The resolution goes on to urge Congress to express "its disapproval of the abrogation of the tribe's treaty
rights, and that the government of the United States should uphold the treaty rights of the Makah Tribe."
The votes
The Republican-led panel approved the measure 21-6, with five Democrats joining 16 Republicans to vote in
favor.
Five Democrats, including Rep. Jay Inslee of Washington, voted against the measure. Inslee ridiculed the
resolution as a "political statement" with no legal impact, introduced by an out-of-state lawmaker.
"This effort is clearly not a serious effort by Chairman Pombo to look into an important issue. It's just asking
us to make a political statement" in favor of the tribe, Inslee said.
Inslee said he supports the tribe's treaty rights, but said he also wants to uphold the Marine Mammal
Protection Act, which outlaws whaling in the United States. The tribe is proposing to harvest as many as 20
gray whales during a five-year period, with a maximum of five whales killed in any one year.
"This is a very complicated issue and we ought to have hearings on it," Inslee said.
After the federal government removed the gray whale from the endangered species list in 1994, the Makah
took steps to hunt again in waters off its reservation at the tip of Washington's Olympic Peninsula.
In 1999, tribal members killed their first whale in more than 70 years. Animal welfare activists soon sued the
tribe and its federal backers, leading to the court order that resulted in the February request for a waiver.
Rick Marks, a lobbyist for the tribe, hailed Wednesday's the vote as an important statement. The Resources
panel oversees Indian issues in the House.
"This is a good, positive message to the tribe that their treaty actually means something, and that Congress
has stood up and said the Makah's treaty rights are important and they recognize the difficult process the
tribe is in," Marks said.
Pombo said in a statement that Congress has an obligation to uphold the Makah's treaty rights and respect
their cultural heritage.
"Congress must be willing to stand behind the promises given to tribes over the years. Today, only a
handful of members opposed this resolution, with an overwhelming majority voting in strong support,"
Pombo said.
Pombo, who became Resources chairman in 2003, is one of the top recipients in Congress of campaign
contributions from Indian tribes. So far this year, at least 18 tribes -- including several in Washington state - have contributed nearly $90,000 to his leadership political action committee, federal records show.
Among the Washington state tribes who have contributed to Pombo's committee, Rich PAC, are the Cowlitz
Tribe of Longview and the Puyallup Tribe of Tacoma, each of which contributed $5,000. The Cowlitz are
seeking federal approval to build a casino near La Center, Wash.
Pombo's campaign and leadership committees have collected $221,000 from tribes since 1999, according to
Political Money Line, a Web site that tracks campaign contributions.
That figure places Pombo third among all House members in that period, the Web site said. Sen. Patty
Murray, D-Wash., was the top Senate recipient of Indian money, with $225,000 raised.
A spokesman for Pombo defended the campaign contributions from Indian tribes.
"He's the chairman of the committee that oversees Indian affairs," said spokesman Matthew Streit. "Political
contributions to his campaign don't in any way affect the way the chairman views Native American issues,
and he continues to be a staunch advocate of their rights, especially with regard to treaty rights."
Federal records do not list any contributions to Pombo or his leadership committee by the Makah.
Murray and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Cantwell, who is running for re-election next year, has received at least $4,000 in campaign contributions
from the Makah, federal records show. Murray, who was re-elected to a third term last year, received a total
of $2,000 in 2003 and 2004.