What happened to FEMA???

[stormie_skies]

Hmmm. I was just reading this Washington Monthly article from 1995:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0509.franklin.html

I couldn't believe the similarities between the way the response to Andrew is described here and the way the response to Katrina is currently being portrayed:

Rarely had the failure of the federal government been so apparent and so acute. On August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew leveled a 50-mile swath across southern Florida, leaving nearly 200,000 residents homeless and 1.3 million without electricity. Food, clean water, shelter, and medical assistance were scarce. Yet, for the first three days, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is responsible for coordinating federal disaster relief, was nowhere to be found. And when FEMA did finally arrive, its incompetence further delayed relief efforts. Food and water distribution centers couldn't meet the overwhelming need; lines literally stretched for miles. Mobile hospitals arrived late. In everything it did, FEMA appeared to live up to the description once given to it by South Carolina Sen. Ernest Hollings: "the sorriest bunch of bureaucratic jackasses I've ever known."

Clearly things improved dramatically after Andrew (thanks in no small part to Mr. Witt), so how did they return to this state? Any ideas? Can it even be fixed again???

This part especially struck me:

FEMA's enabling legislation, the Stafford Act, provided FEMA officials with powers that the bureaucrats didn't exercise. "We found that without state requests, FEMA could assess the catastrophic area, assess what assistance the state needed, start mobilizing that relief, present its recommendations to the governor, and, if necessary--as Andrew Card did--get in the governor's face to force the issue of accepting federal help. Before Hurricane Andrew, FEMA officials took almost none of these steps. Consequently, when a disaster occurred, FEMA's relief efforts were inevitably too little, too late."

I haven't had time to read the entire Stafford Act yet - but assuming this is true, then why have so many federal officials been saying that they were waiting for specific requests from the governor? Weren't they - through FEMA - able to go in and set up and start helping people regardless of what exactly the governor asked for???

[Stratosphere747]

FEMA should have never been lumped under Homeland Security. That is the biggest change since Andrew.

[gtalum]

FEMA should have never been lumped under Homeland Security. That is the biggest change since Andrew.

I agree with this sentiment 100%. Either FEMA belongs outside of DHS, or the natural disaster recovery component of FEMA needs to be split into its own entity. FEMA was lumped into DHS because its original role was to help recover from a nuclear attack.

That said, FEMA was never tested under James Lee Witt by a disaster o fthe magnitude of Katrina. IMHO it would have performed the same had Katrina hit in 1997 as it did now. FEMA publicizes that we should all be prepared to be self-sufficient for a week or more because it could take them days to really get into the action after a major disaster.

[azsnowman]

I could say something but I WON'T OF course, look at me, I registered with FEMA and here I sit, with my thumb up my nose waiting for a CALL OUT

Dennis

[Indystorm]

The article on Andrew mentions that FEMA was nowhere to be found for three days. I have read elsewhere that the law or procedure is for FEMA to wait 72 hours following a disaster before they render their assistance to enable local and state national guard and emergency response teams to provide initial assistance. Is this true?