Disaster victims suffer as FEMA drops ball again

NATURAL DISASTERS LIKE Hurricane Ike, which slammed into the Houston area Friday, cause all sorts of unexpected challenges. The need to bring ice, food and potable water to survivors isn’t among them.

Yet on Sunday – 36 hours after Ike blew through and three years after Hurricane Katrina supposedly prompted a major reorganization of the Federal Emergency Management Agency – residents of the nation’s fourth-largest city were waiting in vain for promised federal relief. Does the “F” in FEMA stand for “feeble”?

When state and local officials publicly complained, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff held a news conference to blame those delays on bad weather and those same state and local officials. “The federal government is leaning forward as far as it can” to provide assistance, he said.

Chertoff said FEMA had been hobbled when state officials handed his agency the “unexpected challenge” of preparing distribution points for the food, water and ice.

State officials said Sunday that they’d been surprised to learn that distribution was supposed to be their responsibility. “If I could have known something 18 hours ago, we could have made plans to pick up something a lot quicker,” said Houston Mayor Bill White.

By Monday morning, distribution centers were open and supplies were being handed out. But the inexcusable delay is clear evidence of yet another planning failure by FEMA.

Overseeing emergency preparations for a natural disaster – even those as serious as hurricanes Katrina and Ike – probably is far less demanding than responding to a bio-terror attack or pandemic illness, in which there are no forecasters to give advance warning and no playbook of past disasters to follow.

FEMA’s continued failures leave no doubt that the agency is unprepared to step up when called upon in a national emergency. Congress should hold hearings on the agency’s readiness as quickly as possible. When disaster strikes, citizens have a right to expect assistance, not excuses.

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FEMA Says No to Ice For Hurricane Survivors

Under New Policy, FEMA Says Ice is Not Its Responsibility

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Besides preserving food when electricity is out, ice is essential in maintaining temperature-sensitive medication and feeding formulas and keeping people cool in the aftermath of disaster, relief and support workers say.

"This isn't for their gin and tonics," said Elise Hough, CEO of the Houston chapter of United Cerebral Palsy, who says she encountered a lot of indifference when she started raising the issue of FEMA's ice policy last month. "This is for people who are extremely sensitive to heat, and ice has a huge impact on their health and safety." ....