Editorial: Senate Report Blasts FEMA On Hurricane Response

After months of studying federal response to Hurricane Katrina, a Senate study group concludes that the U.S. is unready for a new disaster. During the past few days at least one call came for dismantling the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The failure of FEMA to make midstream corrections that would bring order out of chaos indicates that a review of circumstances is in order.

To begin with, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita brought to the Gulf the greatest emergency we have ever experienced. If we question that, we can at least say it is the greatest emergency we have faced since FEMA came into being and thought itself ready to handle the worst. It is therefore safe to conclude that no one had ever been faced with a problem of such magnitude, and the response was in many ways a failure. While it is true that many evacuees found safety, many refused to go, and when it was too late, there was no way to move them.

The involved military, including National Guardsmen, Coast Guard and Corps of Engineers, performed admirably under trying conditions. The Coast Guard rescued some 33,000 people.

Our criticism certainly does not target the hundreds of thousands of volunteers and non-governmental entities who gave and continue to give generously of their time both along the Gulf and in other cities where hurricane-related activities have taken place or where evacuees were welcomed. Their charitable acts were and are profound. But the issue here is failure by government(s).

What has made FEMA’s failure devastating is that no one seemed to know what to do to correct the mistakes that were being made. We don’t know how long truckloads of ice were ferried around the Gulf states before they ever got used. Just in the last few days a congresswoman said that thousands of mobile homes are still parked in Arkansas.

Siting mobile homes and trailers is far more complicated than many realize. Putting them in Florida is easier. Florida has numerous trailer parks, where water, sewage and power are already installed. Moving additional trailer units into those parks is a relatively simple matter. But New Orleans is different. In the first place, the government, at whatever level was involved, did not clear the way for trailers to be moved into the area. The problem still exists.

What is clear is that FEMA has made a passel of mistakes and, as far as we can see, has had no one bright enough to move in and straighten out the mess. Insurance companies are balking at paying money that we feel they owe Katrina victims. The word now is that some companies are pulling out of the business and property owners are opting to join plans that are taxpayer-supported.

“It is an impossible situation,” our observer said. He thinks it is a bigger problem than anyone can handle. And maybe that is the whole crux of the matter.

The levee system was as ready for Katrina as it could have been under the restrictions placed upon the Corps by Congress, local politicians and environmentalists. The system was not ready for a big-time storm, and everyone knew it.

Since Katrina, the Corps has worked diligently to patch up the system, and still it is said that it is not ready for a big storm. Ready? How could it be ready? It takes years just to build one dam and its navigational locks. The Gulf problem is much more of a challenge than a locks and dam facility. (Mel Price Locks and Dam was stalled politically for a decade. We’re still fighting to pass a Water Resources Development Act.)

Our firm conclusion is that the problem has nothing to do with money. It has everything to do with the unskilled labor at work in Washington. Too many there haven’t the practical knowledge of the working world; they have spent most of their lives dealing with their education and politics. Red tape is clogging the entire mechanism, and as a result, nothing gets oiled, nothing gets done to end the misery that exists on the Gulf.

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