Bad Communication Hinders Area's Aid Efforts

Even though federal officials have established some communication links in the area, firefighters have been left isolated in many cases. "Those communications are not reaching the actual local responders," Schaitberger said.

Others emphasized that some of the problems can be blamed on the sheer scope of the disaster.

"Obviously, there's a lot of confusion and stuff going on, and we just want to help if we're going to be of some service," said Gilbert Irwin, founder of Manassas-based Medical Missionaries. "We're not trying to create any clouds here."

But Irwin said he is eager to take his team to the disaster area and use the experience he's had in such dangerous areas as Haiti. "What you are seeing down there in New Orleans is what you see on a daily basis in Haiti," he said.

There was confusion yesterday over which federal and Red Cross officials Irwin needed to get approvals from, so he waited.

"I'm pulling a big, heavy trailer, and I've got lots of people and whatnot," Irwin said. "We'll go if the authorities say, 'We really need you and we'd like to have you here.' You don't want to compound the situation."

A spokesman for the Fairfax search and rescue squad, Mark Stone, said team members were not frustrated by their deployment in Mississippi, although the damage "was not as significant as some had thought."

"I think we feel just as much as a team player as anybody getting in those areas, so we can at least say it's been done," Stone said.

In the case of the Loudoun group, Simpson said he received a request for help from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Department on Wednesday night and quickly lined up a crew.

But what followed Thursday, he said, was a maddening whirlwind of phone calls, with one federal department passing him off to another, all in an attempt to get the contingent's mission authorized.

Simpson said he was routed through military units and a FEMA representative in Denton, Tex., who told him he needed to talk to FEMA in Baton Rouge, La. -- but could not provide contact information.

"I felt like I talked to everybody but NASA," he said.

By 9 p.m., with his team still in Leesburg, Simpson said, he still did not have an answer. But the desperate scenes on television -- and emotional pleas from his Jefferson Parish sheriff's contacts -- persuaded him to send his team south. He instructed them to go no farther than the Virginia state line, figuring, "Geez, in six hours, we've got to have gotten through all this red tape," he said.

Not so. Ultimately, the warning from Louisiana authorities made him bring the group home.

"I said, 'I'm kind of confused. We just saw your governor on TV putting out this request for help, asking anybody and everybody to come down, and now you're telling me not to come down,' " Simpson said.

He ordered his deputies, who had reached Harrisonburg, to turn around -- but not to unpack.

The Loudoun saga took many bureaucratic twists and turns yesterday. At one point, it looked as though the group was headed to Mississippi, but the team remained grounded.

Last night, after relating the tale in an appearance on CNN, Simpson said his phone was ringing nonstop with calls from federal officials saying they would somehow get his team to Louisiana. Simpson said he is hopeful the journey will restart in the coming days.