FEMA Says Weaknesses Remain

(Compiler's note: As bad as it was, this unpreparedness for a national emergency goes way beyond a "Katrina like" event. Wake up America!! rca)

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency is rushing to prepare for what may be its first major test since Hurricane Katrina.

The agency has changed markedly since then, with new management, beefed-up procedures and a heightened sense of the nation's vulnerability to catastrophic natural disasters. But lawmakers and department investigators are warning that the agency's ability to marshal its forces quickly still is lagging. ....

A Department of Homeland Security inspector-general report in March assessed nine key areas at FEMA relating to preparedness and found moderate progress in five and very little progress in one: managing resources and training.

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who is chairman of the committee that oversees homeland security, credited Mr. Paulison and his staff with turning FEMA around. However, he said in a written statement, "FEMA still has a long way to go...before it will be able to respond quickly and effectively to a real catastrophic disaster." ....

Employees in the agency share that concern, said one longtime FEMA staffer. FEMA, for example, has yet to develop all of the "strike teams" Congress required the agency to build in the wake of Katrina.

FEMA's Mr. Johnson said the agency has deployed three such teams to the region but is still short of the 20 teams it needs across the country. He said FEMA still needs to strengthen its cadre of reservists, a top priority for the agency.

When Mr. Paulison took over FEMA from Michael Brown in Katrina's aftermath in 2005, he moved to install experienced professionals to head FEMA's regional offices and to fill other senior posts. Since 2005, FEMA has doubled in size, to 3,400 employees, with reserve forces numbering 8,000 to 10,000, said Mr. Paulison, a former Miami fire chief. "It sent a message to our employees that we're serious; we're not just bringing in political hacks," he said. Mr. Brown, who was widely blamed for the poor handling of Katrina, had no prior experience in emergency management.

Click here for additional information. --- In July — a full year after Congress’s mandated deadline — the Federal Emergency Management Agency produced a skimpy draft proposal. Most of its required topic specialties — including how to house the poor and the disabled, how to house victims close to their jobs and how to manage large camps for evacuees — were left blank. Instead, the proposal called for handing those plans off to a task force of experts. And, oh yes, that task force has yet to be formed.