FEMA head urges patience post-Wilma

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Oct 27, 2005 | by Lara Jakes Jordan Associated Press

ABOVE MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. -- Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Wednesday asked victims of Hurricane Wilma to have patience for relief efforts as he surveyed crumpled boats, shattered mobile homes and snaking lines of cars at fuel stations along the storm's path.

Stepping up aid in Wilma's wake, Chertoff promised to deploy cargo planes overnight to gather water and ice from across the country for delivery by Thursday. He also said the government was working to find more power generators to send to south Florida, and called on oil companies to help distributors get fuel out of the ground and into gas tanks.

"I have to say, in honesty, patience will be required for everybody," Chertoff told The Associated Press during his flight to Florida. "Under the best circumstances, even in the best planning, you still confront the physical reality of a destructive storm."

Chertoff took an aerial tour of the Miami area by helicopter as part of a day in Florida overseeing the federal government's response to Wilma. Though he acknowledged delays in getting supplies to storm victims even two days after Wilma blew through the state, he said the demand for water, food, ice and gas simply outstripped what authorities had stockpiled in preparation.

Chertoff oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was widely criticized for the government's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina when it ravaged the Gulf Coast nearly two months ago.

He spent part of Wednesday hearing pleas and complaints from local officials. He was greeted in Opa Locka by a gaggle of frustrated local officials who pleaded for water, ice, fuel and -- most importantly -- power.

"A lot of challenges," said Chertoff, who mostly listened and offered few promises to the officials.

"We're all hurricaned out," he said.

Power shortages were one of the largest problems, said Miami- Dade County Commissioner, Carlos Gimanez, who pressed Chertoff for more generators. As many as 2.8 million power customers were still without electricity on Wednesday, said Gov. Jeb Bush.

"It's not a matter of we lack fuel, we just can't get it out of the ground because we lack power," Gimanez said. "Grocery stores are closed because we don't have power. The longer we go without power, the worse the situation gets."

Did he get a satisfactory response from Chertoff? "He said he'll look into it," Gimanez said. "That's as good as I'm going to get. He's not going to tell me there's 10,000 generators on the way."

Other local officials were more vocal in their frustrations.

Before Chertoff arrived in Miami, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez said he was "disappointed, angered" that FEMA hadn't sent more emergency supplies and that some sites were running low of water and ice.

Alvarez said FEMA officials have not been able to tell him when more supplies will be coming. He said bureaucratic delays were hindering Miami officials from distributing supplies from a site in Homestead, Fla., where FEMA delivered them.

In Tallahassee, where Chertoff began his swing through Florida, Gov. Bush angrily defended FEMA's performance and said the blame for any delays should fall on his shoulders.

"The emergency operations folks are doing their job, and they do it well here, irrespective of what people write," Bush told Chertoff as the two toured the state's emergency operations center, accompanied by an AP reporter.

Bush said an estimated 4,000 storm evacuees remained in 31 shelters across the state. Distributing supplies to victims had been largely successful at scores of centers across the region, he said, but, "Where they didn't work, we had supply but it wasn't adequate. It was not adequate for the demand."

Bush said "significant improvement" had been made over the last day.

On his helicopter tour over metropolitan Miami, Chertoff watched as cars lined up around the block to enter gas stations, and saw a distribution center surrounded by trucks in an empty parking lot. The storm capsized a ship in the port of Miami, where some cargo containers were knocked off their blocks. Large swaths of trees were uprooted.

Meeting with about 30 FEMA employees in Tallahassee, Chertoff asked how he could help them deliver what victims needed most.

"More water, ice," said one worker.

"Triple that," called another.

"We're working on it," Chertoff said.

Meanwhile, an early nor'easter fed by Wilma dumped heavy rain and up to 20 inches of wet snow from New England to West Virginia, knocking out power to tens of thousands, closing schools and elevating rivers.

The wintry blast Tuesday brought the leaf-peeping fall-foliage season to an abrupt end as branches still bearing leaves broke beneath the snow's weight, pulling down power lines.