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Ex-FEMA Official - Katrina response reflects agency re-org |
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Author: Jim O’Sullivan Source: State House News Service |
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STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, September 8, 2005 - The submersion of the Federal Emergency Management Agency into the Department of Homeland Security hamstrung the Hurricane Katrina relief effort by obscuring the natural disaster response mission, according to a state senator who served as an associate director of FEMA during the Clinton Administration. Rescue and recovery missions could have been expedited by an independent FEMA whose director still held a Cabinet-level position, as James Lee Witt did when state Sen. Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge) served as one of his three top deputies from 1994 to 1996. “I’m not sure that was the best move,” Moore said during an interview Thursday, referring to the decision to fold FEMA into DHS. “What we should’ve done is make sure we could respond to natural disasters and non-terrorist disasters,” such as chemical spills or liquefied natural gas tanker accidents. Noting that Republicans such as Gov. Mitt Romney and Louisiana Senator David Vitter had also voiced criticism of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of the Gulf Coast, Moore said, “I think we should’ve had our resources pre-positioned within the region. You knew a couple days out that we were going to have a problem with the Gulf.” But the power of a Category 5 storm would have overwhelmed even a tightly-coordinated prevention and response effort, said Moore, a former state representative who won his Senate seat after leaving FEMA. “In fairness, I’m not sure if anyone could’ve been prepared for a disaster of this magnitude,” said Moore. Still, he said, response should have been faster than the days that reportedly elapsed between the time its severity became apparent and the mobilization of full federal assistance. “The feds should not have held back,” Moore said. “They should have gone in sooner.” One of three associate directors, Moore oversaw FEMA’s mitigation efforts during his two-year tenure, and said preventive measures could have helped check the catastrophic fallout from last week’s hurricane damage, which is so widespread that responders 10 days after the storm are still rescuing survivors and expect to turn at some point to recovering thousands of dead bodies. Strengthened building codes, more stringent enforcement of flood-plain construction restrictions, and anchoring buildings to foundation slabs all could have limited the damage, Moore said, ticking off exercises that were included in his FEMA portfolio. “There’s a lot of things you can do ahead of time if you have the time and the money and the willingness,” Moore said. When the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2002, FEMA fell under its umbrella as a purported means of streamlining the new department’s operations. Stripping FEMA of its Cabinet post relegated the agency’s work to a second-tier priority, according to Moore. “Witt always told me that being in the same room, in the Cabinet meetings, knowing the other secretaries put him on an equal footing with all the other secretaries,” Moore said.Current FEMA director Michael Brown serves as an undersecretary below Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Brown has earned both praise and criticism for his job performance. “Whether Brown is the right guy for the job, I don’t know. He might be a very nice person,” Moore said. “The important thing is to build a structure and then find the right people for the job, not build an organization around them.” Now, Moore said, the federal government needs to pursue its recovery of survivors and corpses and re-establish the utilities infrastructure. A bipartisan commission, perhaps helmed by Witt, should examine administrative and practical problems, Moore said, without interference from federal officials. “I think an independent committee would make sense … I think that commission would have greater credibility than a government one, because of the mistrust that seems to be floating around down there, and nationally,” Moore suggested. When damaged areas are rebuilt, states should review building codes, coordinate with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to avoid redevelopment on flood plains, and examine levee regulations, said Moore, “so that when people go back in to build, they build stronger.” |