Federal regulators have authorized an unusual radio station to serve the estimated 10,000 evacuees living in the Houston Astrodome, part of an effort to fill the information void left by Hurricane Katrina's disruption of communications services along the Gulf Coast.

The Federal Communications Commission over the weekend granted Houston relief volunteers and media organizers permission to build a 30-watt radio station inside the Astrodome. Government and industry officials said it was the first time they could recall that a domestic radio station had been set up primarily to keep victims of a U.S. disaster informed.

So reported the Los Angeles Times on September 8, 2005. But grass roots organization is no match for bureaucratic mismanagement, especially when it comes to FEMA, according to a report by Village Voice’s Sarah Ferguson.

Amidst “concerns” as bizarre as evacuees stealing radios to the radios being used to play gangsta rap, the activists with Houston Indymedia and Pacifica radio agreed to provide 1 900 readily available Walkman-like radios and were negotiating with Sony, who had already pledged an additional 10 000, when FEMA yanked the plug.

Said councilmember Ada Edwards who represents a district in central Houston:

I’m very disappointed…One of the real challenges of this big tragedy has been access to communication -- open and honest communication. I really hoped this would be an open outlet for people to get information that was unscripted and that would really address their needs…But it seems par for the course in terms of how this whole thing has been rolling out with FEMA and the Red Cross trying to keep tight control and manage the news…It’s really sad when these people feel they have to sanitize all the time.

With the morons at FEMA, Michael Brown's departure notwithstanding, Homeland Security is fast becoming oxymoronic.