The Shock Doctrine
Disaster Capitalism in Action: fema
FEMA Under Fire for Slow Hurricane Ike Response
Carolyn Feibel and Bradley Olson, Houston Chronicle, September 15, 2008
"It didn't take long for the finger-pointing to begin. The Federal Emergency Management Agency came under fire Sunday as emergency workers were left undernourished and dozens of trucks of water and food had yet to be set up at distribution centers around Houston and surrounding communities....
"U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Houston, said he was told before the storm by FEMA officials that there was food and water already staged at the Ellington Air National Guard base. 'Now it's on the way? That doesn't make any sense to me,' he said. 'I don't know what happened ... The storm's been over for 30 hours. 'I hope some heads will roll in this,' he said later."
Scientists Say Formaldehyde in FEMA Trailers Is Due to Poor Construction and Lax Federal Regulation
Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post, July 3, 2008
"High levels of formaldehyde found in trailers provided to Hurricane Katrina evacuees on the Gulf Coast probably resulted from cheap wood and poor ventilation in designs used by manufacturers under permissive government standards, federal scientists reported yesterday. An analysis by researchers for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that four Katrina trailers emitted the toxic chemical at levels four to 11 times as high as those found in typical U.S. homes. The study looked at both commercially available units and ones custom-built for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2005 and 2006.
"The new findings appear to confirm the role that manufacturers' practices and weak federal regulation played in the public health disaster after the August 2005 storm."
