Where Was the “FEMA Guy” . . . in Washington, in New Orleans, Retired . . . ?

Abstract

Dr. Birdsall’s account of his experience during the Katrina disaster is compelling and telling. The disaster had tremendous human costs and has encouraged a reevaluation of the nation’s approach to catastrophic disasters. Congress responded by passing the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act to help restore the federal government’s capabilities to deal with such events. However, important provisions of the Post-Katrina Reform Act were ignored by the Bush Administration. Critical functions were not restored. Even finding a professional emergency manager willing to accept the position of FEMA administrator was difficult given the poor support given the agency prior to Katrina and the lack of assurance that that situation would improve substantially in the aftermath. The agency is still being rebuilt. Where was the “FEMA guy”? The agency was understaffed, underfunded, and under the direction of officials who knew little about emergency management. Morale was low. Many experienced FEMA employees had already fled the agency (Waugh, 2007b, 2008). The “FEMA guy,” as Dr. Birdsall found out, was likely to be a volunteer firefighter. He or she might also have been a contractor from a large consulting firm hired to fill in. Interestingly, FEMA employees who had historically been permitted to volunteer for disaster operations when their regular duties were not deemed essential to the effort were not given clearance to deploy. FEMA issued calls for trained emergency responders and even Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) members. Temporary disaster assistance employees were activated as well. The lack of attention to natural hazards by Department of Homeland Security officials also had a negative impact on state and local emergency management agencies in terms of reduced funding for capacity building to deal with natural and technological disasters