From the just-when-it-couldn’t-get-any-worse-file (hat tip: Interested Participant)…

Fraud Alert: FEMA Items Stolen; Thieves Pretend To Be ‘Procurement Officers’

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Saturday that many FEMA uniforms, badges and letterheads have been stolen in the New Orleans area are being used as fake identification by robbers.

FEMA leaders said the crooks are referring to themselves as “FEMA Procurement Officers,” even though no such officers exist. The agency said that the robbers are using the phony status to steal vehicles, fuel and valuables.

In some cases, the robbers are armed. FEMA said its agents are never armed. FEMA officials said that if an armed person claiming to be from the agency approaches you, ask for photo identification, but also cooperate with their demands to avoid being hurt.

Anyone with information about people who may be claiming to be FEMA personnel, call the offices in Baton Rouge at (225) 296-3421 or (225) 296-3335.

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Update: More FEMA-related news via Gaijin Biker. I wish this was a fraud: The disaster rap song.

Update II: This is not FEMA-related, but since I’m on a campaign against disaster idiocy, look what the Red Cross is squandering money on, via the Politakid: Bobbleheads. Yes, bobbleheads.

Update III: The reviews of FEMA’s performance continue to roll in. They are not good. And it’s not just Democrats who are dissatisfied.

New York Times:

David Vitter, Louisiana’s freshman Republican senator, gave the federal government an F on Friday for its handling of the whirlwind after the storm.

2theadvocate.com:

U.S. [Sen.] David Vitter today blasted the federal government’s hurricane relief efforts as “ineffective” and said people are dying and suffering because of the incompetence.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency “has been completely dysfunctional, completely overhwhelmed (sic), and I don’t understand why,” said Vitter….

“I think everybody involved has been a day or a half a day late,” Vitter said in an interview.

NorthJersey.com:

[R]epresentatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who finally arrived [in Hattiesburg, Mississippi] on Saturday, displayed an utter lack of understanding of the magnitude of the situation affecting Hattiesburg.

The FEMA officials simply asked city officials, “Do you need help?”

Just a cursory observation of the devastation would conclude that this community warrants immediate federal emergency intervention.

James E. Smith, a FEMA official, admitted in Hattiesburg on Saturday that the federal agency was simply overwhelmed by the enormity of Hurricane Katrina, even though they had at least four days to prepare. “It happened so quickly,” Smith said. “Nobody could anticipate this.”

Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger:

[A]id is not arriving quickly enough.

Robert Latham, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said the state has not received commodities it has asked for within the existing disaster relief framework. “I’ve lost my temper several times. It’s time to throw the rule book out on this and do what’s needed,” Latham said.

Heck of a job, Brownie.

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For another view, see former Air Force logistics officer/blogger Teflon, who posts a Logistics Primer for the Left Wing Media. He minces no words.

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