BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. – Ostensible allies in the effort to remove the still-huge piles of debris left behind by Hurricane Katrina are engaged in an increasingly bitter conflict over the progress of the cleanup and the way it is being run.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its politically connected prime contractor AshBritt, which is overseeing the federal cleanup in most of Mississippi and parts of Louisiana, are in the middle of the fracas. In the wake of the Aug. 29 hurricane – the most destructive in U.S. history -- they have been fending off angry attacks as varied as the wreckage itself – a thick blanket of toppled trees, boards, bricks, shards of glass, wire, clothing and household items that still covers large parts of hard-hit communities along the Gulf Coast.
Maddest are local governments and citizens chafing over what they consider the lackluster pace of debris removal; critics of the process by which the federal contract expected to ultimately be worth $1 billion was awarded; and subcontractors who say their crews and equipment are standing idle even though they were promised abundant work.
Such criticism can be heard in virtually every coastal community between Alabama and Texas, but nowhere is it louder than in Bay St. Louis and Waveland, neighboring towns in Hancock County, Miss., that sustained some of the heaviest damage when Katrina’s 30-plus-foot storm surge crashed ashore.
One of the most outspoken critics is Waveland Mayor Tommy Longo, who charges that a combination of federal bureaucracy and private-sector dithering has substantially set back his city’s recovery.
“With the military, a lieutenant on the ground can make a decision,” he told MSNBC.com. “With FEMA and the Corps, the lieutenant has to run it up the chain of command and wait for someone else to decide what to do.”
'I don't think they're capable of doing the job'
He expresses equal disdain for AshBritt, noting that the Pompano Beach, Fla., environmental services firm is still bringing new subcontractors to Hancock County five months after the storm.
“A contractor like that should be able to get geared up in 30 days,” he said. “If they can’t get geared up in 90 days, I don’t think they’re capable of doing the job.”
The Corps and AshBritt also have been taking it on the chin from subcontractors alleging everything from incompetence in administering the contract to favoritism in handing out the cleanup assignments.
“I would just like to know how many contractors from Mississippi and from other states have gone home bankrupt because the Corps has jerked them around so much,” said Luke Theis, a contractor from Finley, Ohio, who rushed heavy equipment to the Gulf Coast only to see it stand idle for long periods waiting for it to be “placarded” – tagged with tracking numbers – and assigned to specific job sites.
Many locals say they haven’t fared much better.
Debbie Woodcock, a Hancock County landscaping contractor who lost $100,000 in heavy equipment to Katrina and then used her $30,000 insurance settlement to lease a tractor-hoe, a front-end loader and two trucks with 60-cubic-yard dump trailers, said AshBritt has given plum assignments in the most easily accessible debris fields to favored out-of-state contractors while her crew has been underutilized clearing rural roads.
“I do not fault (AshBritt) for bringing them in,” she said of the out-of-state competition. “There’s no way we could have handled this in the beginning ... but now we deserve a chance to make a living and keep the money in-house.”
Click 'Play' to see and hear Debbie Woodcock describe her experience as a subcontractor for AshBritt
Another local subcontractor, who spoke with MSNBC.com on the condition of anonymity because he said he feared retribution, said he was receiving good jobs from AshBritt, but was being hampered by “utterly incompetent” execution by the Corps.
“Our crews move around constantly .. .but often when they get to a new site, the supervisor doesn’t show up. So we end up sitting around, burning money,” he said.
Corps, contractor cite scope of job
Officials with the Corps and AshBritt say they understand the frustration, given that they and their grumbling partners are faced with the biggest disaster cleanup in U.S. history.
In Hancock County alone, the Corps and its contractors already have collected more than 3 million cubic yards of debris from public right of ways. That is less than half the estimated total of 7 million cubic yards of debris in the county, and reflects the fact that work is just beginning work on several vast debris fields – including a 2.5 acre wetland at Bayou La Croix estimated to contain 35,000 cubic yards of debris -- and its program to remove Katrina’s detritus from private properties is just hitting stride.
And Hancock County’s mounds account for a small slice of the total of 100 million cubic yards the Corps estimates was strewn around the Gulf Coast.
“I don’t know that anybody could have been prepared to respond to a storm of this magnitude,” said Jasper Lummus, the Corps’ mission manager for debris in Hancock County.
Lummus said the record number of hurricanes this season and foreign conflicts that taxed the Corps’ resources -- especially its ability to adequate numbers of on-site quality assurance inspectors -- added to the difficulties.
“We had to compete with Texas, Louisiana and Florida, not to mention Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said.<
AshBritt President Randal Perkins denies the company is being unfair in doling out assignments, adding that some out-of-state contractors have been given the biggest jobs because they have resources that the locals lack.
Complaints about fairness called inevitable
He also told MSNBC.com that such complaints are inevitable in such a chaotic situation.
“Seventy-two percent of every dollar we’ve spent has gone to Mississippi contractors,” he said. “… But you can’t make everyone happy. There’s always going to be somebody critical of what you’re doing.”
He also said the massive effort is making good headway and predicted the cleanup will be “significantly completed by the end of April (or) mid-May.”
In Hancock County, criticism of the pace of the cleanup has been fueled by data regarding the execution of Rights of Entry – the removal of debris on private property.
As of Jan. 26, the Corps had received 8,594 ROE forms from the county, but AshBritt’s subcontractors had completed debris removal on 1,073 properties – or 12 percent of the total -- over a seven-week period, according to figures provided by the county’s Emergency Operations Center.
In just four weeks, Beck Disaster and Recovery Services, a private contractor hired by the city of Waveland to clean debris north of the railroad tracks, completed 75 percent of the 705 ROE requests it has received from residents, according to data the firm provided to the city.
“Those numbers should be flip-flopped,” said Longo, Waveland’s frustrated mayor. “With the resources of the Corps and AshBritt, the numbers should be the opposite of what they are.”
AshBritt’s Perkins rejected the comparison, noting that the city’s southern sector sustained much heavier damage than the area north of the railroad tracks.
“The mayor’s entitled to his opinion,” he said. “But the cleanup now is relegated to private property and includes … demolishing houses. There’s a process involved and it’s far more time consuming than picking up wreckage on right of ways.”
But Waveland’s mayor isn’t the only one questioning the efficiency of the Corps-AshBritt effort.
Aldermen in Pass Christian, Miss., in neighboring Harrison County, voted in January to give the Corps and AshBritt two weeks to address complaints that work is progressing at a snail’s pace and that AshBritt isn’t hiring local subcontractors. The remainder of Harrison County and at least three other communities in Mississippi also have hired private contractors rather than go with the Corps and AshBritt.
That indicates a substantial level of distrust, since local governments must pay 10 percent of the total cost to outside contractors if they decide to shun the federal program, then seek federal reimbursement later.
Communities negotiate better deals
One reason for the break-away is that those communities have been able to negotiate cheaper deals than the rate called for in the debris cleanup contract the Corps awarded to AshBritt after an expedited open-bid process that lasted just three days, instead of the usual month or more.
The exact savings are hard to pin down, but Longo said that a Corps official told local officials at a meeting in October that AshBritt was being paid about $6 a cubic yard more than the $16.95 that Waveland is paying its prime contractor to remove and dump debris.
Alicia Embrey, a Corps spokeswoman, would not confirm that, saying only that AshBritt receives $17 per cubic yard hauled as well as “additional line items in the contract.”
“The prices paid per item are proprietary information (under the terms of the contract) and are not releasable,” she said.
But a line-item sheet for ROEs distributed by AshBritt to its subcontractors, a copy of which was provided to MSNBC.com, makes clear just how lucrative those extras can be. Among the prices paid to the subcontractors:
· $79 for each “hanger” – a limb 2 inches in diameter or larger removed because it poses a safety hazard.
· Payments of between $100 and $700 for “leaners” – dead or damaged trees angled more than 30 degrees.
· Up to $395 for the removal of stumps, with additional payments if dirt is brought in to fill the hole.
Such add-ons can add up, as one ROE job site that the Corps showed MSNBC.com demonstrated.
At the lot on Waveland’s Sandy Street, a subcontractor, Billy Joe’s Excavating from Owensboro, Ky., was in the process of removing what the Corps quality assurance specialist Dennis Murchison estimated “upwards of 400 cubic yards of debris” and 25 damaged trees from a lot on Waveland’s Sandy Street.
At the rate of $9 per cubic yard that AshBritt is paying subcontractors, that works out to an overall price of at least $11,100 for a three-day job, assuming the median rate for the trees. At a rate of $17 per cubic yard, and assuming the same rate for trees, AshBritt and other contractors higher up on the construction food chain would split another $10,700.
Firm connected to GOP, hired former Corps official
AshBritt's political connections and use of lobbyists led to some raised eyebrows when the company received the Katrina contract – worth an initial $500 million and another $500 million if the Corps triggers an option, which Perkins said he expects will occur in late February.
The Corps said at the time that AshBritt, and three other companies awarded cleanup contracts on an expedited basis, were selected from 22 bidders based on “past performance, technical capability, ability to provide sub-contracting goals for small and disadvantaged businesses, ability to respond, and price.”
But the company’s political connections have prompted congressional investigators to look into the contract and payments to its subcontractors, the New York Times reported in September.
Among the links presumably being scrutinized are the company’s $40,000 contract with the former lobbying firm of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican stalwart who was Ronald Reagan’s White House political director and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
The Hill newspaper also has reported that AshBritt also hired the former head of the Corps, Mike Thompson, as its lobbyist shortly before it won the contract.
In addition, campaign records compiled by the nonpartisan group Political Money Line and reported by the Associated Press show Perkins, AshBritt’s president, and his wife, Saily, have given $50,000 to the Republican National Committee, $10,000 to the Florida Senate campaign of Mel Martinez, former secretary of housing and urban development in the Bush administration, and thousands more to the Florida GOP since 2000.
Also attracting attention was the insertion in the contract of language preventing the Corps from releasing information that AshBritt identifies as “proprietary,” such as the line-item payments.
Alex Knott, political editor for the Center for Public Integrity, said such that such language could be used to dodge public accountability.
“A lot of times companies don’t want to give out details of how they do business ... arguing that giving out this information would put them at a competitive disadvantage,” he said. “But it’s difficult to know whether that’s a legitimate concern without seeing the information that they’re withholding.”
AshBritt’s Perkins said his company won the contract on the merits of its bid and played down the importance of the non-disclosure clause, describing it as standard legal language.
“We’re not really worried about it getting in the hands of the competitors,” he said. “It will eventually become public.”
Conspiracy theories abound
The secrecy surrounding contract specifics has helped fuel conspiracy theories among those trying to make a living on the spoils of destruction.
Several Hancock County contractors interviewed by MSNBC.com, all of who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they have been quietly been told by AshBritt representatives to take their loads to a specific debris dump in the county.
“If you don’t, you don’t get any work the next time,” said one.
Others speculate that the company is handing out the best cleanup assignments to companies in which AshBritt has an investment, allowing it to “double dip” in the federal financial trough.
Perkins acknowledged that his company has “ownership interests in several companies around the United States that are involved in disaster related services,” but denied allegations of favoritism.
“We have no ownership stake in any dumps in Hancock County … (and) we don’t have any interest that would be considered in conflict with our contract,” he said.
Many Hancock County subcontractors interviewed in preparing this article also charged that AshBritt and the Corps have zero tolerance for complainers.
“I’m working with these people,” said one local subcontractor. “Maybe in a few months I can talk about my issues.”
One local offered up an example to back up the charge: Gerald Charles, owner of a Bay St. Louis construction company with heavy equipment at the ready.
Charles, he said, antagonized AshBritt and the Corps by complaining at a Board of Supervisors meeting that he had been given no cleanup work despite an assurance from company officials that he would be among the first hired.
“Gerald pushed too hard and made a lot of people mad,” the contractor said.
Charles, interviewed outside the FEMA trailer he is sharing with his family, said the only work he has been able to land since Katrina was a grading job from the county, and has received not a single job from AshBritt despite many visits to the firm’s local office.
He reiterated the complaint he made at the supervisors meeting, saying the shutout was doubly painful since he is effectively being prevented from working for neighbors who would have hired him if they weren’t waiting for Corps contractors to come in and clean their lots for free.
“I told them, ‘Look, not only didn’t you allow me to work, you took work away from me,’” he said.
A beacon of hope in Waveland
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This is terroism of the God of ______ and in any case of disaster secaracy is necessary. This is a war against _____. And freedom and openness of contracts has nothing to do with it.
This is a shame that the very people who are distroyed by the strom are not allowed to go back their home and fix it. But some contractor on fat pay is cleaning the pockets of tax payers.
John Wayne, Tempa, FL (Sent Jan 31, 2006 4:00:26 PM)
I really wish those who perceive us as being lazy could see us down here. Everybody is working. We are taking
our appliances, our drywall, our furniture, carpet,
and flooring out of the house and out onto the curb.
This is where it is supposed to go, for the Corps to
pick up, as per the suggestions of local officials.
Alternatives include getting a truck and hauling
it to the dump yourself. The dump is far and it
ain't free. Furthermore, some of the trash (esp.
what's inside the fridge) is decaying organic
matter. Unsafe for anyone to mess with at close
distance, which is what it ends up being if you
haul it off yourself.
I think a lot of the perception problem is due to
disaster fatigue. I felt the same after 9/11 or after
the 1993 floods in the Midwest - "aren't they done
yet? why aren't things normal yet?"
I doubt I will ever feel that way again.
J., Bay Saint Louis MS (Sent Jan 31, 2006 6:04:22 PM)
WHAT A MESS...man this is craZy
andy,ms (Sent Feb 1, 2006 9:18:31 AM)
I have read many of the comments posted here & I understand it is much easier to point the finger at the government & big business and say they are to blame. Yes there has been a terrible breakdown of the whole rebuilding process and yes there are people making more money than they deserve on other peoples misfortunes but this type of story needs to be put on the news everyday so that people can be shown what is going on. I applaude MSN for letting us know how it really is. In America today it is easy to lose yourself in your own problems & life, to forget about Katrina & those it touched but we need to remember them & to help fight for them. Let's stop blaming & put that energy to good works whether it be as simple as praying for good honest reliable assistance for those in need or contacting our governmental officials & let them know that though it is not our state that is involved that something for the victims needs to be done now, this needs to be done until something happens. In a perfect world it would be great if some type of non-profit organization could be formed to coordinate the whole clean-up and rebuilding effort without political or corporate sponsorship. But hey we would be living in Utopia then! I know that our system is flawed but at least we have a system, they are trying to help though it may not appear that way. The great thing about our country is if you don't like something you need to exercise your right & stand up and do something about it. I thank God for the life that I have every day & I will continue to pray for those touched by Katrina.
Lyn S., Hudson, WI (Sent Feb 1, 2006 9:30:14 AM)
Why is it God's creatures can find a way to survive this terrible tragedy months after, when 3-5 days after the storm news crews were showing people on video complaining they hadn't eaten a decent meal for days, and they were starving? Seems to me our furry friends have a little more grey cells than some of the 2 legged ones! It also looked to me the people caught on camera could have afforded to miss a couple of meals. I feel lucky to live in this Country and if you don't you can change the way things are done or you have the choice to leave. You also had this same choice months ago! It is time for you to move on and make a new life, and please make it the right one!
Julie, WA (Sent Feb 1, 2006 9:31:44 AM)
My home was also flooded, I also lost everything, during Alison. I am a single mom with very little to begin with. I pulled myself together, cleaned up the mess and started over. I did not, nor did I ask for the govt. to come clean up the mess for me. If I can do it, anyone can. No one offered, free housing, no one offered free anything. Much less a shelter. I did it by myself and so can these people.
CJS, Houston, Texas (Sent Feb 1, 2006 2:00:21 PM)
I think that the New Orleans disaster is one big wake up call I Think that God is trying to tell those people to get out of that town and get somewhere where it is more safe and more watchful. There are a bunch of sinners in New Orleans and God is warning thim before its too late. Warning comes before destruction.
Latoya Rogers (Sent Feb 1, 2006 4:16:02 PM)
Today I wrote a letter to a Seattle newspaper:
Katrina destruction cleanup question:
I think it's shameful that New Orleans still looks like a war zone. I would think that "clean up" would be a top priority. How can people hope to rebuild with destruction and dispare everywhere they look?
THEN I found your most excellent article with answers I dreaded to have confirmed.
In my opinion, this whole mess is just another nail in the Bush coffin.
Pat Arnone, Tumwater, WA (Sent Feb 1, 2006 5:15:02 PM)
That is so typical- the lack of compassion that comes through in these posts. You people have no idea what these people have to go through day to day. You just think that these things can be repaired over night and people can just get back to their lives. Their lives are gone- try to comprehend that. You wake up one day and there is NOTHING to go back to- life as you know it has been changed forever. How many of you could step outside of your comfort zone and deal with a gut blow like that. I tell you it would be very few. Keep your head up Louisiana; despite what these posts may portray there are alot of people rooting for you!
Sid, Mandeville, LA (Sent Feb 1, 2006 5:24:20 PM)
I recently drove from Gulf Shores, AL to New Orleans (along the coast where able) and was appalled by the conditions remaining there. Thank God when the railroads have a huge derailment, Hulcher is there immediately to begin the cleanup. Why can't other clean-up/recovery teams learn from them? My heart breaks for the families living this nightmare. How do you come out of your FEMA trailer each morning to face the same deplorable situation?
Ann, Savanna, IL (Sent Feb 1, 2006 8:57:18 PM)
My question for the people "in charge" is, why don't they burn up those big mounds of debris. To me it would make great sense and also save a lot of money just to set all that wood and other debri on fire. And let it burn for days if not weeks then what ever doesn't burn up haul it off to the dump. Maybe that makes too much sense and would be to easy? I feel for all those who are going through this mess. Because I believe there is a way more affective way to clean this up faster. You always got greedy people looking out for themselves only. And that's what's going on will all those people tring to milk the system and only "hooking up" their buddies. Peace to everyone because this mess ain't worth dying for! By the way I did live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for over 4 years. I left there just a little over a year ago. There is always a place and prayer in my heart for ALL!
Tyler Z., Vacaville, CA (Sent Feb 1, 2006 9:47:07 PM)
We sensed it, we smelled it comming, we didn't want to see, we turned our attention when we could, we layed down, took a nap, tried to distract ourselves, became tired, angry, depressed, disgusted, some of us may have been even suicidal. But this is something none the less that we can only over come by standing in our best light and not giving up and not sitting on the sidelines. This is us America, we have put ourselves here and we always have the choice to make impact on our lives and the lives of others. Don't give in! Don't be tempted to just voice your opinion and then go back to watching the TV. Organize and make a difference, anything else is from the evil one!
Steve Austin Cincinnati Oh (Sent Feb 1, 2006 11:24:52 PM)
HELLO...America?...Anyone?... I hope a million people read this. This is not rocket science. You so called intellects that read this story and are under the false impression that you know what is going on. Or you yuppies that simply write a statement to defend your government and corporations are complete buffoons. This story was intended to give us the press coverage that we so desperately need. New Orleans has received more media attention than Mississippi and Alabama combined. We are in horrible shape down here CURRENTLY. Have you not seen the other stories on this issue. It's not just the debris cleanup, it's everything. The cleanup is incomplete 5 months after the storm which is understandable. Yet, the reconstruction isn't underway. 9,000 applicants are still waiting for FEMA trailers to live in. The unemployed are still unemployed. And the term lazy, we do not understand that word in Mississippi. Get a clue America. The year is not 1860. We do not ride horses. We are diverse in our communities. And yes we wear shoes. Mississippi has gone by the wayside in the eyes of America. 9/11, no prob. Tsunami, gotcha. Katrina, here's some bucks, spend them well. Oh yeah, you have no control over the allocation of funds from the federal government. This area was encountering an economic renaissance until this catastrophe. Now we take our position at the bottom again for another 15 years. Thanks America.
P.S.- Can you fathom 90,000 square miles of destruction? 65,000+ homes totally destroyed in Harrison County Mississippi alone?
Nelson Ballew, Gulfport, MS (Sent Feb 2, 2006 2:52:55 AM)
After spending two weeks down in the tri- county area around gulfport as a GSA emergency worker hundreds of miles away from my family,what i seen that was devestating also was people going from shelter too shelter taking way more than what they needed by the vehicle load at times ; and fema letting them do it. what was with all the hostility and being cursed at,being treated unfairly while i was there by people down there.They knew the storm was coming in for days and the area is prone for hurricanes and such.Everbody wants too point fingers at Fema but what about the states and local governments where were/are they?
emt,Gaston,SC (Sent Feb 2, 2006 5:13:08 AM)
This is what these "red states" deserve. They voted for Bush and his cronyism and his "let them eat cake," mantra. You vote on single issues such as abortion, and then wonder how the GOP can be so corrupt right in front of your face! This country is declining rapidly with health care, pensions, jobs education all in jeopardy. But as long as Bush says everything is fine you believe despite the fact that you do not have health insurance or a pension. As long as he rails against "gays' he can count on you on election day.
eartha James (Sent Feb 2, 2006 10:53:36 AM)
Folks, your representatives and all their friends in DC don't care about you. Certainly or local rep. cares because he is one of you. The others right now are trying to dump the Abromowitz money so why don't a few of you take a trip to Washington. Make a media event out of it to shame the greedy sobs! Demand your share of the gop's cash box. Really go for it. Band send off, wives kissing husbands, husbands kissing kids, everybody waving and crying and have the fema bus break down after about 100 feet. They are screwing with you ! Go for it.
terry malone II Marseille, France 13001 (Sent Feb 2, 2006 11:04:28 AM)
First of all, the Corps of Engineers has nothing to do with actual hands removal of materials. In disasters, the Corps works as quality assurance inspectors in Debris, Temp Housing, Temp Blue roofs, Ice and Water distrubution. The Corps can tell a company like Ashbritt the agenda for a given week, month, etc. The Corps then goes and insures the job is being done as agreed upon. The problem stems with companies like Ashbritt take that agenda and see how they can twist it to their advantage..they do this until they are called out on it and then play dumb. I know because I was down the in Louisiana from Sept. 4- Nov. 2. What these big companies do in the beginning of storms is call their main stormtracking buddies that follow them around all year so they have a base to get get started. Then knowing that it takes the Gov't a little while to set they are out cherrypicking the big piles and leaving a mess of small debris. Ashbritt was in Jefferson Parish-4 miles from New Orleans and then suddenly, packed up and left for MS with all of those "buddy" contractors, leaving a company named Ceres to restart the whole process over again, causes many days of wasted time and energy
Joe (Sent Feb 2, 2006 11:19:46 AM)
HELLO...Nelson Ballew....i think...you said whatwas needed...to make some understand...we are not just a bunch of slobbering hicks...we are Americans...STILL suffering...a horrible disaster
andy,ms (Sent Feb 2, 2006 12:17:40 PM)
Five months later and it seems that much of the nation feel this disaster movie has gone on too long down here. We of the TV and instant gratification generations are too used to seeing lifetimes, wars, and just about every aspect of life run, beginning to end, in a few short hours. We are then ready for some other diversion.
The one great lesson we have learned down here is PATIENCE. Yes, we get frustrated with incompetence, bureaucracy, and red tape but we are also dependent upon ourselves and our neighbors to get the long job of recovery going. Who's in charge? We are. This is our home, our jobs, our family, and our future. We must do the rebuilding to make it ours. We must direct the future course of every aspect of the reclamation of this, our home. We cannot expect others to do it for us. We accept and appreciate the input of others, but the process is ours until the last nail is driven in the recovery.
Some say we are too busy crying and moaning. We say, "Get out of our way and let us do it right." Come to help, not hinder. Some say we are lazy. Name another area of the country where the local power company (Mississippi Power) could restore power too all who could accept it in just 12 days after such a disaster. The cooperatives finished shortly after that. That is planning and execution of that plan.
Are we being ripped off buy the clean-up contractor?
Attorneys will surely make some handsome fees sorting that issue out.
Will the pecovery take 3, 5, 10 years? Who knows? One thing for sure, Mississipians will do it right and do it well. PATIENCE.
Dick Lyon, Pass Christian (formerly Long Beach), MS (Sent Feb 2, 2006 1:18:27 PM)
I have read all of the messages on this page. And one thing stands out. The government is F*****G up this situation more and more. When are the people in America going to go to Washington, DC and demand that their tax dollars be used correctly by the theiving Government. It time to organize and do something. Stop talking and stand in front of the White House.
Let's GO!!!! Presents will make them look out of the Window and see that we mean business. I will be praying for all involved.!!!! Meet me in front of the White House on 2/3/2006 at 9:00am!!! Let's see who is really concerned.!!!
D. Davis, Washington DC (Sent Feb 2, 2006 2:05:40 PM)
This is yet one more indication that our response to Katrina -- at best -- is on par with that of a third world country. FEMA's response has been -- and continues to be -- shameful and disgusting. Thanks W -- mission accomplished, once again.
Michael Trinkley, Columbia, SC (Sent Feb 2, 2006 2:09:44 PM)
I like many others were contacted to see if we could provide large pieces of equipment to haul debris from Hancock county MS, This was just before Thanksgiving, I was given a contract to remove upwards to 600 cubic yards a day per truck from Waveland and bay ST Louis. I was asked to provide 15 special built trucks that each would haul at least 100 cubic yard each per load. It was further told to us, that we had to be onsite ready to work for Ashbritt within 48 hours after signing the agreement. Looking at the agreement and the potential volume of work and potential dollars. We were on site within 36 hours, only to find out that they weren’t ready for us, our trucks sat for a few days while they tried to find work for us, they wanted these huge trucks to drive around and only pick up selected small amounts of materials, from certain locations, these trucks were lucky once they started rolling to pick up on avg 100-200 yards of material each day. All that Ashbritt was paying us was $6.00 per cubic yard, out of this we had to pay the truckers and expenses. This deal only lasted 4 weeks when we learned that this operation was so far messed up, and that Ashbritt had to many other sweet heart deals, going on. With the volume of materials in the areas, if these trucks were allowed to drive down a road these trucks could have hauled several hundred yards of material each day for each truck. This would have been a good deal for all of us, but between Ashbritt and the Army corp watch dogs, it was clear that if you wasn’t in there inner circle, no money could be made, we packed up and moved back to Maine. And a lesson learned was never to look at business again in this area.
bob, Maine (Sent Feb 2, 2006 6:10:40 PM)
"The tax payers are also getting screwed", but, not due what Bush is doing. We as tax payers have sent billions of dollars to Miss., and NO and we are not getting our moneies worth. No one is in charge and yet only a few at the top can maake decisions that halt work and cause lost of time and money. The local gov't in NO have put such restrictions on debris clean up that nothing is getting done and those decisions change ever day. This week the local gov't of Ray Naggan only permitted the clean up of 3,three houses. At this rate NO will not be clean until the year 2010. There is no work and hundreds of truckers have gone broke and left the area due to the lack of work. People and groups of people have put their time, energy and moneies into trying to help the people of NO and I am one of those and I'm going broke. Ray Nagan has put a whole tier of local contractors over all the subcontractors and that tier has sucked about 140 million dollars from the clean up efforts. If anyone is really interested in seeing what is happening in the Katrina desaster go to NO and talk to the sub-contractors.
Ray Yinger (Sent Feb 2, 2006 9:49:15 PM)
bob, maine...please do look at doing business in MS. again...but after AshBritt is gone .....we may have to run thier a**es out....and it's getting about time ...but you were lucky at $6 a yard now it goes for $3....and they get $17?..yeah right
andy,ms (Sent Feb 3, 2006 9:24:28 AM)
comment from a civil engineer, originally from MS, and who has been involved in a lot of major FEMA and post war events around the world:
To the Halliburton,Flour,Bectel etc.. haters - go to Engineering News Record and try to find Ashbrit. Are they in the top 10 engineering and construction firms in the country? No. Are they close? No. Ashbrit from Pomapmo Beach? There is a center of engr excellence for you. Don't mention them in the same sentence as halliburton please.
Large E/C firms with proven track records, approved procurement programs, and technical depth were specifically not chosen because everyone wanted to make political brownie points saying to the press how much they used "local" firms. Well, you all got exactly what you asked for - a fubar program with a sleaze ball firm. What did you expect from a fourth rate company that focuses strictly on raping federal relief programs (not actually producing). Billion dollar program management experience is not found at the local AGA. No small town local government is geared for this type of management task.
Instead of explaining how large federal procurement programs work and focusing on how people and companies could make a difference or participate, the main stream media went on a bashing frenzy fixated only on Bush hatred and blaming everything on the infamous "Halliburton" bogey man (Shaw Group by the way is a fund raiser for the DEMOCRATS, but you would never have known by the coverage). The facts that large E/C firms almost always use local subcontractors, have established proven plans for small and minority business participation, and can be held accountable where others (seemingly like Ashbrit) cannot were just dismissed because they didn't fit the anti-bush agenda. They were HOPING that this sitution would arise so they could scream some more.
When I came home from overseas in October and saw the limited number of resources being employed i told my family "at this rate it will take two years just to get the basics done". That isn't far off it seems. I hope for their sakes that I find someone like KBR, Flour, or someone similiar in charge and pushing the effort.
oh by the way - the rules of the game are known as "the FAR" (Federal Aquisition Regulations). If anyone wants to play with the Feds then you better read them. If Ashbrit isn't playing fair the agency to call is the Inspector General. they are really, really good at prosecuting FAR breakers.
rw (Sent Feb 3, 2006 10:50:50 AM)
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