What happened to Emergency Preparedness?

[Larrison]

You know -- what has me bugged about NO and Katrina is, where is the city and state in all this?

I live in Southern California, where we are at risk from substantial earthquakes. For those, which occur without warning, we have substantial emergency preparedness activities, including local, county, state and federal levels. The response is expected to be local first, then county, then state, and finally federal. The reason for that is the local folks are expected to be first on the scene and have the best idea of what is needed now, and what needs to be done first. Then the county comes in bringing in the resources from multiple cities and the county infrastructure (fire, police, sheriff's departments, emergency services, etc.), and then the state (which calls out the National Guard if needed, but also has state fire resources, state highway patrol, etc), and then finally the Feds (Reserves, FEMA, etc.). I know of 3 emergency "command posts" within 5-10 miles of here designed to coordinate emergency response; one a regional state center, and the other two for a larger local city, and for a moderately sized local city.

We practice emergency response (usually Earthquake, but also terrorist response, riot etc.) at least once a year, at both the local and regional (county) level. I support a local Boy Scout troop, and every year we participate in the drills (usually donating boys to act as victims, but also to get the boys and adults trained on what to do..). Every household in the area is recommended to have 72 hours of food and water and other emergency supplies just in case (I do..).

The company I work for has a detailed emergency response plan, including several coordinators on each floor in the building I'm in, runs annual drills, and has stockpiled emergency supplies if needed (first aid, some relief supplies, emergency generators, fuel, etc). The local schools I know have emergency plans and kits for the kids, and annually updates the barrels of supplies, including any personal items for any of the kids (medicines, etc).

Now.. Katrina is something that was predicted as a possibility for the last decade at least. Katrina's path to NO was predicted and the severity of the storm was known for at least several days before landfall. So why wasn't the city and county (parish?) better prepared?

The Feds *must* deferr to the locals, by law. But I haven't seen much happening from the state ... And I've seen pictures of parking lots of school buses half underwater that were obviously just parked before the storm, and could have been used in the evacuation, both before the storm hit, and immediately afterwards before the flooding as the levees gave way.

*Sigh* Frustration anyway... hindsight is 20/20, so how much of this bad response, and how much is that what preparation has been overwhelmed I don't know. But it really BUGS me that the mayor of NO keeps talking about "putting a plan together", when the time for planning was before the @@##$$ storm hit.

[Maeve_Mari]

Seems that they actually did run plans for this specific emergency. Implementation of the plan doesn't seem to be working as required.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/...ion=cnn_latest

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In a five-day, tabletop exercise last summer, emergency preparedness officials faced an imaginary "worst-case scenario" in which a hurricane hit the New Orleans, Louisiana, area.

A fictional Category 3 Hurricane Pam, with "winds of 120 mph, up to 20 inches of rain... and a storm surge that topped the levees," was the picture presented to officials from 50 federal, local and volunteer organizations, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency dispatch from July 23, 2004.

Participants drew up action plans for dealing with the storm's aftermath in which calls for evacuation were partially heeded, water pumps were overwhelmed, corpses floated in the streets and as many as 60,000 people died -- mostly by drowning.

FEMA Director Michael Brown told CNN's Larry King on Wednesday, "When I became the director of FEMA a couple of years ago, I decided it was time we did some really serious catastrophic disaster planning. So the president gave me money through our budget to do that. And we went around the country to figure out what's the best model we can do for a catastrophic disaster in this country? And we picked New Orleans, Louisiana."

Organizers said "Hurricane Pam" was based on weather and damage information developed by the National Weather Service and other agencies.

"Hurricane Katrina caused the same kind of damage that we anticipated," Brown said Wednesday. "So we planned for it two years ago. Last year, we exercised it. And unfortunately this year, we're implementing it."

A Department of Homeland Security document described the resulting action plans from last year's exercise: Participants determined a need for 1,000 shelters for 100 days. They decided they already had 784 and would need to find the remainder.

The state of Louisiana had resources to operate shelters for three to five days, and plans were made for how federal and other sources could replenish those.

The document also lists the allocation of up to 800 searchers for search-and-rescue operations and plans for disposing of more than 30 million cubic yards of debris and hazardous waste. The group of participants also devised plans for immunization against diseases, the re-supplying of hospitals and establishment of triages at university campuses.

After the drill, FEMA concluded that progress had been made, and that hurricane planning would continue.

But one of the drill participants, Col. Michael L. Brown, then-deputy director of the Louisiana emergency preparedness department, told the Baton Rouge Advocate newspaper that, in a worst-case scenario, there would be only so much government agencies could do.

"Residents need to know they'll be on their own for several days in a situation like this," Brown, who is not related to the FEMA director, told the paper.

[kalivor]

Originally Posted by Larrison

You know -- what has me bugged about NO and Katrina is, where is the city and state in all this?

I live in Southern California, where we are at risk from substantial earthquakes. For those, which occur without warning, we have substantial emergency preparedness activities, including local, county, state and federal levels. The response is expected to be local first, then county, then state, and finally federal. The reason for that is the local folks are expected to be first on the scene and have the best idea of what is needed now, and what needs to be done first. Then the county comes in bringing in the resources from multiple cities and the county infrastructure (fire, police, sheriff's departments, emergency services, etc.), and then the state (which calls out the National Guard if needed, but also has state fire resources, state highway patrol, etc), and then finally the Feds (Reserves, FEMA, etc.). I know of 3 emergency "command posts" within 5-10 miles of here designed to coordinate emergency response; one a regional state center, and the other two for a larger local city, and for a moderately sized local city.

We practice emergency response (usually Earthquake, but also terrorist response, riot etc.) at least once a year, at both the local and regional (county) level. I support a local Boy Scout troop, and every year we participate in the drills (usually donating boys to act as victims, but also to get the boys and adults trained on what to do..). Every household in the area is recommended to have 72 hours of food and water and other emergency supplies just in case (I do..).

The company I work for has a detailed emergency response plan, including several coordinators on each floor in the building I'm in, runs annual drills, and has stockpiled emergency supplies if needed (first aid, some relief supplies, emergency generators, fuel, etc). The local schools I know have emergency plans and kits for the kids, and annually updates the barrels of supplies, including any personal items for any of the kids (medicines, etc).

Now.. Katrina is something that was predicted as a possibility for the last decade at least. Katrina's path to NO was predicted and the severity of the storm was known for at least several days before landfall. So why wasn't the city and county (parish?) better prepared?

The Feds *must* deferr to the locals, by law. But I haven't seen much happening from the state ... And I've seen pictures of parking lots of school buses half underwater that were obviously just parked before the storm, and could have been used in the evacuation, both before the storm hit, and immediately afterwards before the flooding as the levees gave way.

*Sigh* Frustration anyway... hindsight is 20/20, so how much of this bad response, and how much is that what preparation has been overwhelmed I don't know. But it really BUGS me that the mayor of NO keeps talking about "putting a plan together", when the time for planning was before the @@##$$ storm hit.

Well, let's imagine that New Orleans has a similar system set up. They have three command posts within 5 to 10 miles.

Whoops -- those would've been seriously damaged, if not destroyed by the storm.

How are the locals doing? Whoops, they're in the huge mother of a storm (see images here: http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...ns-katrina.htm ), and are victims themselves.

An earthquake occurs along a faultline -- this storm was something else altogether. This is worse than anybody thought it would be. The responses that would occur at the city and county level were effectively wiped out by the hurricane. Perhaps that at the state level, too.

How would 72 hours worth of food and water help in New Orleans? It would be underwater, most likely, for those in flooded areas. Generators and pumps in NO are underwater now, and can't be used.

Why wasn't the city prepared? Well, to large degree because the feds kept cutting the budget that helped maintain the levees, despite the fact that they had been made aware that they were insufficient in a worst-case scenario. I honestly don't know what anybody local to the situation could do to prepare, other than running away.

I'm not sure that your comments about the school buses are on the mark, either. Are the school bus drivers in California all prepared to gather in the case of an earthquake of unprecedented size, and calmly drive the entire population out of California before it sinks into the sea, should such a thing occur? If not, then by your standards California is unprepared for emergencies. Because it's all in the hands of the school bus drivers.

(Also, I suspect that if they did gather a small army of school bus drivers to help evacuate, they'd have to somehow i. Get them to these parking lots, ii. Maneuver through a city that had just been ravaged by a storm, iii. Load them with panicked, sick, injured, young and old people and iv. Maneuver out of the city before the levees gave way. Easy?)

[L.O.A.S.]

I’m sure after the After Action Report is published for Katrina, a lot of cities will be reassessing their emergency plans to account for a Worst-Worst-Worst case scenario. Although, I’m not sure it would have been possible to have a plan that would have withstood the test of Katrina. I agree with Kalivor, in that you plan for disasters, but it is hard to account for the magnitude and complications brought about by Katrina.
I think most plans address the ability to use existing infrastructure in the recovery process, specifically water and power being able to be restored/repaired in a reasonable amount of time. How do you plan for a whole city losing water and electricity (more so water) indefinitely? Should they have had a plan for “what if the entire city gets covered with water”? Should they have selected a better location than the Superdome as an emergency shelter, foreseeing the loss of water/power, backing up of sewage systems, flooding, etc? Would it have had the required capacity to host thousands and be in reasonably close vicinity? Do you plan for people shooting at your rescue workers just for kicks?
Most people have a plan to get out of their house in case of a fire. They don’t plan for a grizzly to be waiting for them outside, even if they live next to the zoo. Based on Maeve_Mari's last post, I'd be curious to see how the FEMA's worst case plan changes, or if they feel that all would be well had things been implemented.

[keith]

... sorry but a hurricane hitting new orleans does not count as worst-worst-worst case. Katrina wasn't even a 'big' hurricane and it didn't score a direct hit on the city - this falls into the 'well it was going to happen category'. Plenty of stories in the papers as to how the levee failures and (obvious) consequential flooding where all known outcomes.

.... but there are few votes in preparing for disasters that may not happen before the next election.

[jBirch]

Just some musing...

Was voluntarily evacuating the populace the proper thing to do? Is there a role for local individuals to play in the disaster response? The comment about earthquakes and comparison to 9/11 got me thinking about this. In both cases, the locals were the ones who really prevented a lot more catastrophe by simply helping out their neighbours when they could. In New Orleans, there are no locals.

In terms of response plans...New Orleans is a port. Weren't there boats/ships around to pick up people that were waiting on their roofs? Couldn't corpse retrieval have been done by relatives and neighbours and brought to a central mortuary?

Having just gone through some floods here, the first thing to do is get rid of the water. Really nothing to do before that happens and nothing for anyone to help out with until it's done.

Why were all the people waiting for buses? Don't trucks work in that kind of a pinch?

I don't think anyone, ever, has evacuated a million civilians using anything. The usual tactic for evacuating a large number of people is to say BOO really loudly and hope they find their own way to safety.

Where's the navy? That would seem like an ideal place to deploy a couple of fast assault boats/marine LAV's. You could easily retrieve a couple of hundred people per LAV by pulling rafts behind as you literally "troll" through the neighbourhoods. Again, the issue would be "where do you take them?"

How much of the problem is cultural? I know when 9/11 hit and thousands of airline passengers (not the same magnitude, I know) were stranded, Canadians took air travelers into their homes for a warm meal and hot shower. Could the same have been done with outlying areas of Lousianna by the people of Lousianna?

* edit: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9175917/...ne&CE=linkNext

I kind of wonder the same thing about the pilots involved in distributing aid. Why did they ground flights because of a couple of pot-shots?

Where are all of these evacuated people going? A million people is a lot. Where did they go?

Just some musings and questions...

James.

[kalivor]

Just saw this. A high-resolution zoomable sattelite photo of New Orleans, as of Aug 31, 10 am.

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/neworl...ite/index.html

[Inquartata]

One possible answer to the sluggish response: last night Ted Koppel was interviewing a ( Democratic ) Congressman who was complaining bitterly about the lack of federal assistance. Koppel said---and I don't know if this is accurate or not---that before the federal government could take any action the governor of the state involved had to request aid. Federalism states rights and all that.

The Congressman waved that aside, railing about how the observation of bureaucratic niceties ought not come before saving people, helping people, my God people are dying, etc. Koppel averred that if the federal government had moved without state approval there would have been a chorus of complaints about interference and lack of due process; he alleged directly to the Congressman that "your voice would have been one of the loudest" in that regard.

He had no ready answer to that. One suspects that indeed if the governor's request is needed and is not obtained that act would be excoriated to kingdom come.

The question is: did the governor of LA make a formal request for federal assistance?

JBirch, as to boats---unfortunately, large numbers of them were capsized, damaged or flung up onto land by the storm. I saw one piece of footage showing a windrow of cabin cruisers all jumbled together in a parking lot...

[Larrison]

Originally Posted by kalivor

Well, let's imagine that New Orleans has a similar system set up. They have three command posts within 5 to 10 miles.

Whoops -- those would've been seriously damaged, if not destroyed by the storm.?)

I don't know about that -- if flooding was the issue (and the local area here is recognized as having the potential of a very major and significant flood -- we had one before in the 1930's), then you'd think they'd put the emergency command post somewhere above the expected water level and away from the river or a waterway As it is, for NO, I'd put the command post away from the river, and surround it with a secondary levee or put it on an earthen berm (that's cheap, and can be made part of the landscaping for any civic building --- public buildings here, such as schools are typically built on 10-20' of soil berms, since much of the area has a very high water table, or is very near sea level.) The primary issue here is earthquake, so the emergency command centers are put in "seismicly hardened" buildings, with independent power and utilites are much as possible. I'm not sure of the details of the construction in that, but I've noted it is a standard type of civil construction from a friend of mine who works for an architecture firm that designs new schools and civic buildings, among others. (He's ex-Army Corps of Engineers, and his comments about NO are *scathing* about both the city and the ACE)

Originally Posted by kalivor

[ ... ] An earthquake occurs along a faultline -- this storm was something else altogether. This is worse than anybody thought it would be. The responses that would occur at the city and county level were effectively wiped out by the hurricane. Perhaps that at the state level, too.

Again, Flood paths and flood plains have been pretty well identified. Flooding of the Mississippi even without a hurricance is a recognized hazard. The potential of a hurricane hitting NO and causing major flooding has been recognized since the last hurricane caused major flooding there in the 1960's. I believe, a category 5 hurrican hitting NO was recognized as one of the 3 largest realistic disaster scenarios in past surveys of potential problems. And while hindsight is 20/20, you'd think that someone would have had some plans in place for a major public hazard that had been identified multiple times

Originally Posted by kalivor

[ ... ] I'm not sure that your comments about the school buses are on the mark, either. Are the school bus drivers in California all prepared to gather in the case of an earthquake of unprecedented size, and calmly drive the entire population out of California before it sinks into the sea, should such a thing occur? If not, then by your standards California is unprepared for emergencies. Because it's all in the hands of the school bus drivers.

(Also, I suspect that if they did gather a small army of school bus drivers to help evacuate, they'd have to somehow i. Get them to these parking lots, ii. Maneuver through a city that had just been ravaged by a storm, iii. Load them with panicked, sick, injured, young and old people and iv. Maneuver out of the city before the levees gave way. Easy?)

I was particularly reacting to the picture at http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...lpc21109012015 which shows a couple of hundred school buses in a flooded area. My frustation was that given a day or two's warning, why weren't these buses driven to somewhere away from the flood plain? (and yeah I know, maybe that was totally impractical....) But today I noted on www.drudgereport.com supposedly that the
Louisiana disaster plan, pg 13, para 5 , dated 01/00 states :

'The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating'...

Again, if so.. why weren't these buses used to transport people? (And I will note that while the "Drudgereport" has a fairly good record on reporting correctly, gives no sourcing to this document, nor can I verify this is the wording in such a document)

Edit: Found the reference! http://www.ohsep.louisiana.gov/plans...pplement1a.pdf

I've also found additional discussion of this as http://junkyardblog.net/archives/wee...28.html#004752

[daeceg]

Louisiana is a small, poor state that relies on New Orleans to drive most of the economy there. It simply got overwhelmed. Most of the people stranded in the city were those who lacked the means to evacuate-not enough money, no cars, no available public transportation. (and tourists who got stuck when the airport was shut down)

The federal government is a machine that takes time to get in gear. I'm not surprised nothing happened earlier. Inertia is part of the name of the game...look at how long it took our forces to be ready to respond to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

[esskreemr]

Originally Posted by Inquartata

He had no ready answer to that. One suspects that indeed if the governor's request is needed and is not obtained that act would be excoriated to kingdom come.

The question is: did the governor of LA make a formal request for federal assistance?

Inq, I can't find the answer to this. I do know that the Gov declared a state of emergency on Aug 26th.

A section follows:

SECTION 2: The state of Louisiana's emergency response and recovery program is activated under the command of the director of the state office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness to prepare for and provide emergency support services and/or to minimize the effects of the storm's damage.

I'm not sure what paperwork needs to be filled out to get the feds involved. I did read that one of the governors in a surrounding state declared a state or emergency just so he could activate his Nat'l guards troops to help.

[mlr2fence]

In this whole debate lets not overlook individual responsibility. Ever been in Florida during hurricane season? Plastered all over is the warning to have enough food, water, medicine etc to keep yourself self-sufficient for 3-5 (minimum) days without electricity or outside help. How many of those in superdome brought their own supplies? I'm sure they had some type of containers at home they could have filled with water--even at the superdome before power went out. I venture to say that most felt 'everything would be provided so why should I bother'. For those in their homes the water I'm sure rose fast but I'm sure there was still some time to grab it as they ran upstairs--and it doesn't take too much smarts to stash some upstairs or in a bag ready to go, especially when you know you live below sea level and are surrounded by water. Also, how many had a ride out but decided to stay? Granted, most of those left probably had no personal transportation. If even a fraction more had been personally prepared I'm sure it would have helped. There is more than enough blame to go around for everyone to share in it. We're always smarter in retrospect.

[broncofencer]

Originally Posted by mlr2fence

In this whole debate lets not overlook individual responsibility. Ever been in Florida during hurricane season? Plastered all over is the warning to have enough food, water, medicine etc to keep yourself self-sufficient for 3-5 (minimum) days without electricity or outside help.

Since I just move to florida and was in Katrinas original projected path. I can tell you that this is exactly the case. In May they have hurrican prepardness thingys at the malls and such. Plus the state waves sales tax on flashlights coolers and all other hurricane supplies for about 2 weeks to help get folks prepared. They even mail out books to everyone te3lling them how to build a hurrricane kit so you are prepared.

As to NO it needs to be mentioned that this damage occured after not during the hurricane Katrina hit the coast at around 8am the levee broke the next night. and continued to worsen so 5-7 days is inaccurate because they were already 1 day in before NO took any real damge and it didn't get bad until another levee broke later. NO was barely mentioned before the morining of the second day after katrina had hit. Lets also not forget that this is the 4th hurricane to make US land fall since June. All of which have hit the Gulf Coast regions. This was by far the worst but there are others alredy without homes and such from earlier storms.


A further note another 11 storms are predicted to be named this season (Lee has already been named but will not make landfall) Of these 11 storms 3-5 are expected to be major hurricanes. And by the way hurricanes in September and October usually hit the East Coast so how prepared are you.

[Philistine]

Originally Posted by Inquartata

{snip}
The question is: did the governor of LA make a formal request for federal assistance?
{SNIP}

Yes. On August 28 (Sunday before Katrina hit).

Request

The day before (Sat., Aug. 27)--the following press release appeared on the White House's website:

The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the parishes located in the path of Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 26, 2005, and continuing.

The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the parishes of Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn.

Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.

Representing FEMA, Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response, Department of Homeland Security, named William Lokey as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected area.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: FEMA (202) 646-4600.

Release


--Philistine

[Inquartata]

Yes, but did it include specific permission for the military to assist? That's where the real capacity and organization for any major relief effort comes from.

A news story I read this afternoon claimed that the governor was still refusing to turn control of the National Guard over to the feds. If she's hanging onto command of the National Guard so tenaciously, you have to wonder whether she looked askance at the US Army and Navy coming in...

I was listening to Geraldo Rivera today on the radio. Now, I take anything that buffoon says with a shaker of salt, but he claimed that FEMA's performance had been abysmal, and that state and local authorities had been even worse. ( According to him his crew had FEMA people asking them how to get to the Convention Center, and crossing one bridge required going through three different law enforcement agencies---one of which gave permission, while one refused it and another said it would have to check and get back to them. ) Only with the arrival of the Army on Friday, he said, did things start to get done.

[esskreemr]

Interesting tidbit from James Lee Witt, appointed by President Clinton to head FEMA. Before being tapped, Witt had served for four years as director of the Arkansas Office of Emergency Services:

This is an excerpt of his testimony March 2004 before two House subbcommittees on DHS's plan to reduce the number of FEMA's regional and field offices:

As you continue to examine DHS and its growth, I want you to know that I and many others in the emergency management community across the country are deeply concerned about the direction FEMA is headed. First, we are greatly concerned that the successful partnership that was built between local/state/federal partners and their ability to communicate, coordinate, train, prepare, and respond has been sharply eroded. Second, FEMA, having lost its status as an independent agency, is being buried beneath a massive bureaucracy whose main and seemingly only focus is fighting terrorism while an all hazards mission is getting lost in the shuffle.

I firmly believe that FEMA should be extracted from the DHS bureaucracy and reestablish it as an independent agency reporting directly to the President, but allowing for the Homeland Security Secretary to task FEMA to coordinate the Federal response following terrorist incidents. Third, the FEMA Director has lost Cabinet status and along with it the close relationship to the President and Cabinet Affairs. I believe we could not have been as responsive as we were during my tenure at FEMA had there had been several levels of Federal bureaucracy between myself and the White House. I am afraid communities across the country are starting to suffer the impact of having FEMA buried within a bureaucracy rather than functioning as a small but agile independent agency that coordinates Federal response effectively and efficiently after a disaster.

FEMA was assembled in 1979 in much the same way that the various agencies of DHS have been put together. Although the reorganization that brought the various agencies together under FEMA was on a much smaller and more manageable scale, it took our country close to 15 years to get it right. When FEMA was formed there were several cultures all being thrown together under one new roof. The dominant "top down" culture within early FEMA traced its roots to the days of civil defense. This culture was probably necessary for those types of national security oriented activities. As a State Director of Emergency Management, I was often on the receiving end of FEMA's "top down," rigid, and sometimes inflexible approach. It is for this reason that I was determined, as FEMA Director, to take the Agency in a new direction. I wanted to move towards becoming an organization where the needs of the stakeholders and employees were valued and heeded. DHS is struggling with growing pains similar to what FEMA struggled with for the first 15 years of its existence.

However, I continue to be concerned about the scope of the task that has been given to Under Secretary Hutchinson and Secretary Ridge. FEMA was an agency of 2,600 permanent employees and 4,000 disaster reservists and it took 15 years to get on the right track. The reorganization taking place with DHS is several scales above the FEMA reorganization and they are being asked to accomplish this massive effort in a world full of uncertainty regarding future terrorist activity and the certainty of future natural disasters. As you may know, I was not in favor of creating such a large Department all at once. I supported the creation of a Department of Homeland Security, but I do not think this was accomplished in the right way. I always thought we should start with the areas that needed the greatest and most immediate attention--specifically those activities involving the gathering, assimilation, and dissemination of terrorist intelligence to state and local officials. Also, I thought it made sense to engage in efforts to improve the security of our most vulnerable critical infrastructure and targeted industries. I felt that many of the pieces in place to manage the consequences of a disaster or terrorist attack were not broken and didn't need "fixing." I saw no need to reinvent the wheel on the consequence management side of emergency management--particularly when there were several other more pressing areas that needed to be addressed regarding counterterrorism efforts.

In an effort to build other Directorates within DHS that need more help, vital pieces of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate--FEMA--are being moved or underfunded to prop up these other very critical areas. Programs--like the very successful Fire Grants--are being moved out of FEMA. And the Emergency Management Performance Grants (EMPG) which provide the backbone to our emergency management systems are being cut and significantly restructured in a very detrimental way. In fact some estimates suggest that the 25-percent cap on personnel costs within the EMPG could result in more than half of the country's 4,000-plus emergency managers losing their jobs. By throwing all of these disparate pieces together in the DHS stew, we have not only diluted the concentration on some of the most critical parts of our counterterrorism efforts, but we are allowing scarce resources to be directed away from consequence management. Our Nation's emergency management system has often been held up as an international model; however, this country's well-oiled emergency management infrastructure--that has been built over many years--is now in great jeopardy as DHS attempts to build capabilities in other areas of the Department.