FEMA Has Been A Total Disaster
It's now quite evident that FEMA was a total disaster in its handling of the many problems relating to Hurricane Katrina. Clearly, FEMA was a "symbol of a bumbling bureaucracy" so far beyond repair that it should be scrapped. That's what I have believed from the very beginning. More importantly, it is also the opinion of a bipartisan committee of the U.S. Senate. In a report the Senators on this committee called for creation of a new disaster relief agency. The problem is that time is short since the next storm season is just around the corner. In any event, replacing the agency was the top recommendation coming from the Senate inquiry. When one looks at all of the waste of taxpayer's money by FEMA, much of which never went to the real needs of people and businesses all along the Coast, a criminal investigation seems to be warranted. We could all use the mobile homes that were never used and are still around to house any folks who were convicted of a crime.
The Senate committee concluded that top officials all the way from New Orleans to Washington failed to adequately prepare for and respond to Katrina. Despite weather forecasts predicting its path through the Gulf Coast, FEMA was totally unprepared. The committee noted that "the first obligation of government is to protect our people." The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs investigation concluded that governments at all levels failed to meet that fundamental obligation. It should also be mentioned that experts had predicted for years that a major hurricane hitting New Orleans would result in exactly what happened when Katrina finally struck.
The bipartisan report's executive summary gives President Bush a mixed review for his performance. Although crediting him for declaring an emergency before the hurricane's landfall, it faults the President for waiting until two days after it hit to return to Washington and convene top officials to coordinate the federal response. The summary concludes that "the White House shares responsibility for the inadequate prelandfall preparations." The inquiry's final report faulted New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco for failing to protect sick and elderly people and others who could not evacuate the city on their own. It also concluded that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Michael Brown, who then headed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, either did not understand federal response plans or refused to follow them. It is beyond comprehension that men like these two could be placed in high government positions. It's most unfortunate that Chertoff is still around and even more unfortunate that he is in a critically important position.
The bipartisan panel issued 86 recommendations for change that, taken together, indicate "the United States is still woefully unprepared for a storm of Katrina's scope" with the start of the hurricane season little more than a month away. Nobody has to remind us that Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. The storm killed more than 1,300 people in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama; left hundreds of thousands of homeless; and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage. If our government handles other critical responsibilities like FEMA and the White House handled Katrina, we are in deep trouble. The Senate recommendations conclude that FEMA is crippled beyond repair by "years of poor leadership and inadequate funding" and call for a new agency - the National Preparedness and Response Authority - to plan and carry out relief missions for domestic disasters.
Source: Associated Press
