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FEMA pulls 'A Scary Thing Happened' kids coloring book which depicts Sept. 11 scene of WTC burning

By Benjamin Peim and Corky Siemaszko
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Updated Wednesday, April 29th 2009, 3:49 PM
FEMA/Daily News photo illustration Page from the FEMA controversial coloring book - digitally colored in.







Heckuva job, FEMA.

The government agency that bungled the Hurricane Katrina response has yanked a kiddie coloring book from its site called "A Scary Thing Happened" that depicts the burning twin towers on the cover - with a plane heading straight for one of them.

On page 12, the stomach-churning 9/11 image is repeated not once but three times, complete with flames - for kids to color.

"You might hear about it again and again on the T.V. or radio or read about it in the newspaper," it says on the page.

The Federal Emergency Management Association pulled the downloadable coloring book from its site last week — before a White House genius gave New York a 9/11 flashback by buzzing the city with one of the presidential planes and an F-16 jet.

"FEMA is currently reviewing all web content designed and posted by the previous administration," said FEMA spokesman Clark Stevens.
Meanwhile, New Yorkers who were shown the book saw just one color - red.

"I feel disrespected," said Jason Owens, 20, of Manhattan, who was with his 3-year-old son. "I feel like I should punch the person who did this in the face."

Standing with her goddaughter, 43-year-old Risat Jabeen of Brooklyn, said she was shocked FEMA would find it inoffensive.

"Kids color for fun so these things shouldn't be in coloring books," she said. "So many people died that day."

Vanessa Bell, 38, of Bronx, said there's no way she'd let her 5-year-old daughter color in that book. "It just makes kids feel depressed," she said.

The coloring book was dreamed up by the emergency response team in largely rural Freeborn County, Minn. - after it was ravaged by a tornado, said Rose Olmsted, a county official.

"It was developed to help children make some sense after a disaster," said Olmsted. "I have a letter from FEMA in 2003 applauding us for the coloring book."

At the time, the agency was run by Michael Brown, who became infamous when former President Bush praised him for doing a "heckuva job" even as New Orleans was drowning.

Olmsted said the coloring book was handed out to thousands of kids over the years - in the U.S. and as far away as Australia - to help them cope.

"We never had any complaints until now," she said.

Asked whether she could understand that a New York parent might not want their kid coloring in such an image, Olmsted said, "This is not about traumatizing them."

Marlys Jentoft, a 68-year-old grandmother of 10 and a Red Cross volunteer, drew the pictures inside the book.

Jentoft told The Smoking Gun, which posted the book on its site, that she did not give much thought to including the 9/11 images.

"I feel like it was happening in the world and kids saw it," she said. "It is life."