BCT Editorial – 8/31/06

This page was last updated on August 31, 2006.

Storm shelters; Editorial; Beaver County Times; August 31, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The way in which the Federal Emergency Management Agency has handled housing reflects the dithering that Hurricane Katrina has induced.

“The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that after Katrina, more than 100,000 families moved into trailers or mobile homes either in the yards of their damaged houses or in makeshift compounds.

“‘Meanwhile, FEMA flailed and flip-flopped on its contracting policies for trailers, mobile homes and other temporary shelter,’ the paper reported. ‘The first big contracts were handed out noncompetitively to four well-connected companies: Shaw Group, Bechtel Corp., CH2M Hill Inc. and Fluor Corp.

“‘Then in October, FEMA director R. David Paulison promised to rebid the contracts after Congress complained that smaller companies, especially local and minority-owned firms, should have a chance to compete for the work.

“‘A month after that, FEMA said new contracts would not be awarded until February. That deadline passed. In March, a FEMA official announced that the contracts weren’t going to be rebid after all.

“‘A week later, FEMA reversed itself again, giving up to $3.6 billion in business to small and minority-owned firms.’

“To paraphrase Casey Stengel: Does anybody here know how to run an emergency management agency?”

[RWC] I don’t know if the above story is true, but let’s assume it is for the sake of argument. After all, it presents a completely predictable result of a government agency trying to work in a politically charged environment.

Why, then, does the Times almost always advocate for government solutions to just about any problem?