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Marty & Joe
Rich Galen Wednesday September 7, 2005
From Baton Rouge, Louisiana
There is an unreality about the damage which was done by Hurricane Katrina. The Lad and FEMA Director Mike Brown did a helicopter tour of New Orleans and some of the outlying Parishes.
According to The Lad, the surreal scene - for as far as he could see from the air - was nothing but flood waters with the roofs of houses sticking up. "Television cameras," he said, "can't possibly show the scale."
For most normal people, the magnitude of this catastrophe would be overwhelming. But for the typical FEMA employee it is a challenge which, however difficult, can be and - in their minds - will be overcome.
Every twelve hours on the sixes - six in the morning and six in the evening - the leaders of each of the major "cells" meet in a conference room where twenty-four 8-foot aluminum tables are laid out in a square, with phone and computer wires strung from the ceiling, with maps hung from movable cloth dividers and more maps taped to the walls.
One person from every cell - from Corps of Engineers to Mortuary Affairs from the long-range planners to the community relations group - reports and is expected to tell the group not only what is going well, but where there are gaps.
These people are professional helpers who have been through hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, pestilence and, for all I know, asteroid strikes.
Because they are so good at what they do, they are not afraid to ask for help. They don't spend much time being philosophers. They spend a lot of time moving people and things from bad places to less bad places.
Two such guys - very different in temperament, but identical in dedication are Marty Bahmonde and Joe Picciano. As it happens they both live and work for FEMA in the Boston area.
Marty is a man of gentle nature and extraordinary competence. He is the external affairs guy on this team. He is the person responsible for the press operation, community relations, intergovernmental and Congressional affairs.
Joe is given to quick, broad movements of his hands when he speaks. He is from New Jersey. They all talk with their hands, there. He runs the organization which coordinates among all the entities, including the military which is taking a larger and larger role as the size of this thing sinks in.
Joe was one of the senior day-to-day FEMA operators at Ground Zero in New York City. He is an amazing leader without being intimidating.
Marty and Joe may be among the best of career FEMA employees, but they are not atypical. This is important to understand as you watch and read the coverage of victims who are frightened and angry.
The FEMA people I have worked with since Saturday are all very much like Marty and Joe. They have the skill, training, experience and wisdom to deal with issues which are of immediate concern, while simultaneously looking over the horizon at problems they know will be coming in the future.
These are people who have made it their career to help people who have suffered a huge, in this case an unfathomable, loss. They are like doctors and nurses, police and firefighters, only on a much, much larger scale.
Marty and Joe are no better than the other 70,000-or-so civilians and military personnel who are now engaged in the consequences of Hurricane Katrina. But they are wonderful examples of government employees who do very good things on behalf of large numbers of people, for not very much pay.
Americans.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Photos of Marty and Joe; a Mullfoto showing me in full battlerattle; and a Catchy Caption of the Day.
--END --
Copyright © 2005 Richard A. Galen
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