On September 4, Kim Fuller, press consultant from Witt Associates, sent an email to various Kathleen Blanco aides. It included the following:
"Gov. Blanco might dress down a bit and look like she has rolled up her sleeves… I have some great Liz Claiborne sports clothes that look kind of Eddie Bauer, but with class, but […]
FEMA has sent LA a bill for "its share of hurricane relief". Governor Kathleen Blanco says she can't pay it.
…Staffers for the governor "about fell over" Wednesday night when they received the Federal Emergency Management Agency's estimate of the state's costs for hurricanes Katrina and Rita, said Mark Merritt, a consultant working for Blanco.
FEMA projects […]
As previously discussed, JLW was originally part of team put together by IEM to create a "Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan" for New Orleans. The June 3, 2004 press release on this is here:
IEM, Inc., the Baton Rouge-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast […]
The NYT offers a report on James Lee Witt in "FEMA Leader Under Clinton Makes It Pay":
…Soon after the storm hit, the State of Louisiana signed up with Witt Associates, a disaster consulting firm. Within days, Mr. Witt had become a fixture at the state's emergency operations center in Baton Rouge, advising the governor and […]
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Arkansan James Lee Witt, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Bill Clinton, joined the Louisiana government Saturday to help direct the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
Witt, who ran FEMA from 1993 to 2001, said he will stay as long as he as needed.
"He will sit at […]
For now that is: "Witt's firm postpones Allstate job".
The firm counseling Gov. Kathleen Blanco on hurricane relief efforts has temporarily set aside another client — the nation's largest private insurance company — to avoid a possible conflict of interest.
While working for Louisiana, James Lee Witt Associates will not lobby Congress on behalf of Allstate Insurance […]
A local paper has a subscriber-only article:
A former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Friday that he’s uncomfortable with President Bush’s proposal to give the armed forces a broader role in disasters after the federal government’s handling of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath.
James Lee Witt, an Arkansas native who is advising Louisiana’s governor on that […]
Bill Clinton has criticized Our Leader Bush for his response to Katrina on Sunday's "This Week". Your job is to determine why. Is this an attempt to help heal the Bush administration, with perhaps another Bush appearance in which he'll shovel out even more money? Surely, Clinton wouldn't turn on his new best friends in […]
The article "Key military help for victims of Hurricane Katrina was delayed" says that Bush already had enough military powers to do what was necessary, he - and Michael Chertoff - simply failed to act quickly enough. The military has taken part in past disasters, and that's allowed as long as they don't perform police […]
WASHINGTON (AP) - The former FEMA director hired by Louisiana to help lead its Hurricane Katrina recovery effort has registered to lobby for an insurance company that wants Congress to create a natural disaster "catastrophe fund."
James Lee Witt and his firm, James Lee Witt Associates, registered Tuesday to lobby for Allstate Insurance Co. Their mission: […]
