FEMA unprepared and lacks pre strategic planning
By Michael Webster, Syndicated Investigative Reporter. 1200 A.M.
Sept 29, 2017 PDT
Hurricane Maria is President
Trumps Katrina. The President relies on Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for
all disasters in the United States, which includes every state and territory.
Hurricane Maria was
an extraordinary act of nature that spawned one of the worst human tragedies in
America. It was one of the most destructive natural disasters in American
history, laying waste to Puerto Rico and the American Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.
Puerto Rico is the largest of American territories. It is an Island 100 miles
long and 35 miles wide, and an area the size of the United Kingdom, with an American
population of 3.5 million people. In the American Virgin Islands, the storm
surge obliterated coastal communities and left thousands destitute. Puerto Rico
and the islands were overwhelmed by 175 miles per hour winds and waist high
flooding in many areas. The storm knocked out all power and communications on
the islands.
As a result all told,
many American citizens lost their lives, over 3 million people suffered without
basic essentials like fresh potable water, food, fuel, and shelter.
FEMA has become so muscle
bond and powerful it can’t seem to get out of its own way in times of large or
mega disasters.
Can you imagine with
no water, toilets don’t flush and they back up quickly and American citizens
had to go out doors in the elements to relieve themselves for weeks and in most
cases without any toilet paper?
FEMA had known for
more than a week that Maria was likely to hit Puerto Rico and the American Virgin
Islands where there were nearly 4 million people and property at dangerous and
live threatening risk.
Much of the suffering
is continuing and is expected to in the days, weeks, months and yes even years
after Maria has passed. This did not happen in a vacuum; instead, the blame
lays squarely with FEMA – the failure of FEMA to plan, prepare for and respond
aggressively to the storm. These failures were not just conspicuous; they were
pervasive. Among the many factors that contributed to these failures, long-term
warnings went unheeded and FEMA officials neglected their duties to prepare for
a forewarned catastrophe; FEMA officials took insufficient actions or made poor
decisions in the days immediately before and after landfall; The systems on
which Puerto Rico and the American Virgin Islands relied on to support their emergency
response efforts failed, and FEMA Administer Brock Long failed to provide
effective leadership. These individual failures, moreover, occurred against a
backdrop of failure, over time, to develop the capacity for a coordinated,
national response to a truly catastrophic event, whether caused by nature or man-made.
The results were tragic loss of life and human suffering on a massive scale,
and an undermining of confidence in our governments’ ability to plan, prepare
for and respond to national catastrophes.
Effective response to
mass emergencies is a critical role for FEMA and every level of government. It
is a role that requires an unusual level of planning, coordination and dispatch
among governments’ diverse agencies.
FEMA leadership either
knew or should have known the disaster was near at hand and FEMA should have
ordered the evacuation of the islands peoples most at risk.
The Government has
the authority to request or if necessary commandeer cruise ships and passenger airliners.
FEMA should have used that authority and evacuated the islands immediately. Having
the ships bring in emergency supplies and pickup passengers to Evac. The same is
true with the airlines. Bring in emergency supplies and bring out American
citizens to safety.
As soon as the storm
passed FEMA should have had a contingency arrangement with the military to have
them ready to immediately parachute in the 101st and the 82 airborne with medics,
Emergency Medical Technicians and paramedics. With FEMA coordinating massive
strategic airdrops of water, food and medical supplies throughout the Islands.
FEMA should have immediately dispatched hospital ships, freighters, and oil and
gas tankers. FEMA must ahead of time included trucks, trailers with drivers as
emergency supplies arrived in the islands ports. Heavy equipment, bull dozers,
frontend loaders, etc. to clear highways and roads throughout the islands so
emergency supplies can reach those that need it most. FEMA’s heavy equipment operators should be
available at a moments notice to respond to disasters. Communication lines of contact through pre- establishing
HAM radio stations throughout America including all U.S. territories will
provide pertinent and life saving communications when normal communications are
down or unavailable.
The
mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital city San Juan issued a plea for urgent help as
she expressed frustration with the speed at which rescuers were being sent to
work on the hurricane-ravaged U.S. territory. “This is a big S.O.S for anybody
out there,” Carmen Yulin Cruz told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night, “a plea
for this help, which is right here, to get moving.” Cruz said many rescuers on
the ground had been left without marching orders and said she was aware of
instances where medics had waited for two days before being briefed.“ The red
tape needs to be ripped off as if it were a band aid,” she said, “there are
boots on the ground…but those boots need to start walking.”
Department
of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Elaine Duke said Wednesday that search
and rescue efforts were complete, and that the focus is now on distributing
supplies, including food, water and gasoline. DHS has asked the Defense
Logistics Agency to help the National Guard troops on the ground there.
AT&T is on island to work on restoring cell service, she said. The
electrical grid is more of a challenge, Duke said, adding that it's
"virtually gone."
Meanwhile
Puerto Ricans rushed to get basic necessities to the island’s most vulnerable
populations, in what Cruz called a "terrifying humanitarian crisis."
In San
Juan where
only a few FEMA officials have been spotted and they were only standing around
and didn’t seem to be doing anything to help. In the
capital, a group of about 50 volunteers has been mobilizing in residences for
the elderly, finding people in buildings that lacked food, running water,
access to their medicines and were dealing with no electricity in stifling heat.
“Some of these folks were bedridden, some were dehydrated because they have not
been able to get any water or food for a number of days,” Armando Valdés
Prieto, a lawyer and volunteer, told NBC News by phone of one building he
visited. “Some of them didn’t even remember when they’d last eaten.”
In
buildings with no power, diabetic patients were unable to refrigerate their
insulin. Elevators
were also no longer working in some of the residences, leaving many with
limited mobility unable to leave their apartments, for help. They all said that they had not
heard anything from FEMA.
Following the
terrorist attacks of 9/11, this country went through one of the most sweeping
reorganizations of federal government in history. While driven primarily by
concerns of terrorism, the reorganization was designed to strengthen our
nation’s ability to address the consequences of both natural and manmade
disasters. In at least two major tests, this reorganized system failed. Katrina
and Maria reveal that much remains to be done. FEMA either knew or should have known the dangers and should
have taken preemptive appropriate life saving action.
Why FEMA wasn’t better prepared? The 15000 Fema
employees all know the vulnerabilities of the elderly, the infirmed, and the disabled during and after disasters. FEMA
should have made sure that all hospitals, nursing homes and other elderly care
facilities should have been evacuated during the week or so before the storm
hit. FEMA’S director Brock Long has a lengthy back ground in emergency
preparedness, and should have known what was immediately needed, especially
when it comes to helpless and older folks. Emergency managers around the
country wonder why Fema wasn’t more aggressive in evacuating or at least
insisting that their first responders evacuate venerable and helpless elderly. In
the aftermath of the storm the survivors confronted a multitude of known and
unknown hazards in the storm's wake as best they could with limited resources.
Many cities, county and state officials say FEMA
should have more
strategically placed emergency supplies throughout the America’s. These should be fully stocked warehouses that can withstand storms,
earthquakes and other mega storms, with all necessary emergency supplies. The building
can than be used as a safe emergency shelter when needed. Every state, county and
city in America should have these types of emergency
facilities throughout their jurisdictions.
According to some FEMA
employees who all wish to remain anonymous fearing reprisals or retaliations
said, “What most people don’t
know is that FEMA is not a 1st responder agency. FEMA trains and
finances through grants to municipalities, counties and state first responders
that can be called on to response to disasters in all parts of the nation. FEMA is charged with coordinating
these efforts. In doing so FEMA personal are mainly paper pushers and fill out
FEMA’s many forms. Many FEMA employees say there is so much paper work that
they can not do their jobs. FEMA’s unofficial motto is “Cover your ass and stay
in your own lane”.
As reported by congress in the past FEMA’s
response to some major disasters has been slow, disorganized, and profligate.
The agency’s actions have sometimes been harmful, such as when it has blocked
the relief efforts of other organizations. FEMA’s dismal response to Hurricane
Katrina in 2005 dramatized the agency’s bureaucratic dysfunction. FEMA’s grants
for disaster preparedness are known for wastefulness. As for the NFIP, its
insurance subsidies are spurring development in flood-prone areas, which in
turn is increasing the damage caused by floods. The NFIP also encourages an
expansion of federal regulatory control over local land-use planning. Federalism
is supposed to undergird America’s system of handling disasters, particularly
natural disasters. State, local, and private organizations should play the
dominant role. Looking at American history, many disasters have generated large
outpourings of aid by volunteers, individuals, businesses, and charitable groups.
The Congressional
Executive summery went on to further state “however, growing federal
intervention is undermining the role of private institutions and the states in
handling disasters. Policymakers should reverse course and begin cutting FEMA.
Ultimately, the agency should be closed down by ending aid programs for
disaster preparedness and relief and privatizing flood insurance”.
After the less than stellar performance of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during the hurricane Sandy natural
disaster, Americans may well wonder if any federal agency can be counted on to
successfully accomplish its designated mission efficiently. Redundancy, and mismanagement (e.g. the Government Services Administration),
have appreciable inefficiencies, and also suffer from funding issues.
Citizens can legitimately question the federal government's ability to
successfully accomplish even simple tasks on time and on budget.
FEMA, however, was a department enacted with a
high purpose: to address the twin concerns of civil defense and disaster
mitigation. Specifically, its two core missions are, (1) to improve the federal
government's ability to survive a foreign attack (e.g. a nuclear war), and (2)
to assist state and local authorities in responding to natural disasters. From
its inception FEMA has been a study in evolution of purpose, organization,
usage, and politicization. FEMA has often attracted negative attention during natural
disasters, attention that triggered in-depth investigations, initiated mission
adjustments, caused revisions in organizational structure, and improvements in
strategies and tactics. Each change has further exacerbated FEMA's
disaster resolution problems. The changes have also increased its
politicization, its use of patronage as a reward, and the distribution of
"pork barrel" funds to cronies of the sitting presidents.
FEMA was created in March of 1979 by executive
order under President Jimmy Carter to bring together a complicated array of
overlapping jurisdictions in three governmental agencies: Commerce, Housing, and Urban Development,
along with the executive branch. In theory, the objective was to
rationalize organizational structure and streamline decision making to
enhance implementation of the two core missions. Prior to FEMA's formation,
natural disasters were dealt with in a one-off manner with legislation enacted
to deal with each individual crisis up and until roughly 1930.
In 1932 President Herbert Hoover started the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). The RFC was initially designed to
lend money to banks to energize economic activity and to distribute federal
funds (often in the form of outright grants) in the wake of disasters. From
this tiny beginning the RFC grew and matured into the agency now known as FEMA.
Yet major natural disasters, beginning with
hurricane Andrew in 1992, the South Florida hurricanes of 2004, and hurricane
Katrina in 2005, exposed material deficiencies in FEMA's response capabilities.
In fairness, a number of the criticisms cited were a
function of a misinterpretation of FEMA's charter and mission. FEMA's core
mission was to "assist local and state agencies" in responding to
natural disasters, not to function as the primary or secondary responder.
Nevertheless, FEMA clearly was not structured to deal with mega disasters and
an in-depth review after Katrina in 2005 exposed appreciable shortcomings,
shortcomings that had already been revealed in at least three assessments
subsequent to hurricane Andrew in 1992. These deficiencies included:
Lack of fast-reaction forces which could be
quickly added to the trained personnel already on staff in each of FEMA's 11
preparedness districts (Regions) throughout the country
that respond to area disasters.
No workable budget. FEMA's budget allocates 60%
of the available funds to each state equally, not on a risk basis, therefore
leaving a funding amount too small to deal with a specific major problem in any
jurisdiction.
No ability
or technology to communicate within and/or outside the area of destruction
during and immediately after an incident.
Lack of clear, predetermined lines of
communication between local and state governments and the specific individuals
representing each of the responding entities.
No ability and necessary equipment/supplies to
preposition in advance of a pending disaster... water, generators, fuel, food,
blankets, temporary shelter etc... And, if you will, a super
group deployable at ground zero of the disaster area to enhance the district
team's supply capabilities.
No clear standards for interacting with the
victims of a tragedy and a tested methodology for setting realistic
expectations regarding future actions and interactions.
During 2003, FEMA was incorporated into the
newly created Department of Homeland Security (DHS), therefore losing its
independence and adding complexity. Its organizational structure became so
complicated that only a Ph.D in structural engineering could understand the lines
of authority. Additionally, FEMA never received the funding necessary to
prepare for catastrophic disasters and meet its daunting responsibilities.
Prior to the founding of DHS, FEMA had begun to
morph into a highly politicized entity, since it retained the ability to grant
large sums of funding (read pork) to state and local governments (and cronies),
and its staffing was largely by appointment at both the federal and district
levels. Funding to states and local entities followed the number of disaster
declarations cited by the administration in power. During the George H.W. Bush
years an average of 43.5 declarations per year were made. Under Bill Clinton
the number grew to 89.5 per year, then to 129.6 per year under George W. Bush
and finally to an incredible 153.0 per year (thru 2011) under Barack Obama. In
addition, from March 2009 to October 2011, FEMA employment grew from 4,400 to
7,470, an increase of 70%. (The Obama record is astonishing since within this
time-frame no terrorist attacks occurred, no Category 2 or higher hurricanes
happened, and no earthquake with a force of 6.0 or more on the Richter scale struck. FEMA during the same period seems to
have been utilized as a tool or mechanism to build reelection support.)
After the founding of DHS and its detailed
reviews of FEMA, after the Katrina FEMA collapse and many more reviews and
adjustments, after Irene, a $20 billion disaster, and further investigations,
FEMA has shown little or no improvement in dealing with the Sandy recovery.
Events suggest that two conclusions can be drawn: first, the inadequacies
described above and identified pre-Katrina remain embedded in the organization,
and second, that the agency has become a corrupt, pork-barrel delivery vehicle
for the administration in power. Like so many other federal agencies and
departments, FEMA remains incapable of satisfying its core missions. Americans
have every right to be cynical, but also have an obligation to demand the
elimination of agencies and/or departments that can no longer perform as
designed and promised. A possible solution would be a return to one-off funding
of each disaster by Congress as they occur or alternately FEMA should ask the
President to pre-declare disasters where possible.
Sources: Congress of the United States of America, REPORT OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS Read more: www.lagunajournal.com http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/11/another_federal_disaster.html#ixzz4shnuu0WN
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