“The good news is that there seems to be no place for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to go but up.  The bad news has been all over the front pages and nightly news for months: FEMA is in an awkward state of disrepair.  In every other challenge FEMA has met, they have done a pretty good job, even responding here in Missouri after the flood of ‘93.  But Hurricane Katrina was truly a “perfect storm,” and FEMA and the federal agencies around it broke down in the face of a complex, terrible disaster.

 

No one took the time to assess FEMA’s organization, role in response strategies, or culpability in our federal government until a catastrophe struck.  I’ve been to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast several times in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.  The destruction is unimaginable.  The lack of progress is inexcusable. 

 

Over several months, FEMA and some of the other authorities responsible for responding to the disaster in New Orleans have shown a continued lack of direction and initiative.  Congressional hearings and an independent report titled, “A Failure of Initiative,” demonstrate a systemic lack of internal and external communication, poor oversight of emergency aid allocated by Congress, and an ongoing tragedy along the Gulf Coast that FEMA has been unable to set right.

 

On the ground, problems continue.  The U.S. taxpayer has shouldered the bill for more than 10,000 temporary residences, trailer homes, most of which are sitting at the regional airport in Arkansas.  It is there that the trailer homes are inspected.  Those with flaws, major or minor, do not continue to New Orleans where they are needed; they are moved to nearby parking lots and vacant properties until the contractor can repair them.  FEMA’s guidelines mandate that the homes be sold by the government less than one year after the disaster – but six months after Hurricane Katrina, the majority of these trailers are not on site, nor are they occupied.  Why not? The electrical infrastructure has not been restored to the locations at which the homes are needed.

 

In the meantime, FEMA is also paying to house displaced residents in hotel rooms that could otherwise be occupied by visitors and tourists who hope to kick-start the restaurant and tourism industry in New Orleans. 

 

If we continue in this manner, the rebuilding of New Orleans is never going to get off the ground.  FEMA has the resources for this massive project, allocated by Congress, and they have the support of the American people who want to see the Crescent City alive and vibrant again.  But FEMA has squandered the money and the goodwill Americans have lavished on this effort, and they continue to disappoint.

 

I fully agree that there is plenty of blame to go around on the Katrina disaster.  What worries me today, however, is if there was a tsunami in California, a great fire in Chicago, or a major earthquake in Southeast Missouri – how would FEMA’s response be different?  What has been done to improve this agency?

 

The answer, I am afraid, is “not much.”

 

One solution, an important solution, is to extricate FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and make it an independent agency with Cabinet-level status.  Removing this layer of coordination and bureaucracy that exists still today between FEMA and the White House is essential to speeding communication and reaction of some of our nation’s most essential first responders.

 

The greatest mistake made in organizing the Department of Homeland Security was grouping too many disparate agencies under the management at DHS.  They are, by design, a preventitive agency while FEMA is meant to be a responsive one.  Hurricane Katrine provides ample evidence and a stern warning.  Congress has a chance to correct this mistake – and should do so with a swift response of its own.”