News Intelligence Analysis
washingtonpost.com
Destroying FEMA
By Eric Holdeman
Tuesday, August 30, 2005; A17
SEATTLE -- In the days to come, as the nation and the people
along the Gulf Coast work to cope with the disastrous aftermath
of Hurricane Katrina, we will be reminded anew, how important
it is to have a federal agency capable of dealing with natural
catastrophes of this sort. This is an immense human tragedy,
one that will work hardship on millions of people. It is beyond
the capabilities of state and local government to deal with.
It requires a national response.
Which makes it all the more difficult to understand why, at
this moment, the country's premier agency for dealing with such
events -- FEMA -- is being, in effect, systematically downgraded
and all but dismantled by the Department of Homeland Security.
Apparently homeland security now consists almost entirely
of protection against terrorist acts. How else to explain why
the Federal Emergency Management Agency will no longer be responsible
for disaster preparedness? Given our country's long record of
natural disasters, how much sense does this make?
What follows is an obituary for what was once considered the
preeminent example of a federal agency doing good for the American
public in times of trouble, such as the present.
FEMA was born in 1979, the offspring of a number of federal
agencies that had been functioning in an independent and uncoordinated
manner to protect the country against natural disasters and nuclear
holocaust. In its early years FEMA grew and matured, with formal
programs being developed to respond to large-scale disasters
and with extensive planning for what is called "continuity
of government."
The creation of the federal agency encouraged states, counties
and cities to convert from their civil defense organizations
and also to establish emergency management agencies to do the
requisite planning for disasters. Over time, a philosophy of
"all-hazards disaster preparedness" was developed that
sought to conserve resources by producing single plans that were
applicable to many types of events.
But it was Hurricane Andrew, which hit Florida in 1992, that
really energized FEMA. The year after that catastrophic storm,
President Bill Clinton appointed James Lee Witt to be director
of the agency. Witt was the first professional emergency manager
to run the agency. Showing a serious regard for the cost of natural
disasters in both economic impact and lives lost or disrupted,
Witt reoriented FEMA from civil defense preparations to a focus
on natural disaster preparedness and disaster mitigation. In
an effort to reduce the repeated loss of property and lives every
time a disaster struck, he started a disaster mitigation effort
called "Project Impact." FEMA was elevated to a Cabinet-level
agency, in recognition of its important responsibilities coordinating
efforts across departmental and governmental lines.
Witt fought for federal funding to support the new program.
At its height, only $20 million was allocated to the national
effort, but it worked wonders. One of the best examples of the
impact the program had here in the central Puget Sound area and
in western Washington state was in protecting people at the time
of the Nisqually earthquake on Feb. 28, 2001. Homes had been
retrofitted for earthquakes and schools were protected from high-impact
structural hazards. Those involved with Project Impact thought
it ironic that the day of that quake was also the day that the
then-new president chose to announce that Project Impact would
be discontinued.
Indeed, the advent of the Bush administration in January 2001
signaled the beginning of the end for FEMA. The newly appointed
leadership of the agency showed little interest in its work or
in the missions pursued by the departed Witt. Then came the Sept.
11 attacks and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.
Soon FEMA was being absorbed into the "homeland security
borg."
This year it was announced that FEMA is to "officially"
lose the disaster preparedness function that it has had since
its creation. The move is a death blow to an agency that was
already on life support. In fact, FEMA employees have been directed
not to become involved in disaster preparedness functions, since
a new directorate (yet to be established) will have that mission.
FEMA will be survived by state and local emergency management
offices, which are confused about how they fit into the national
picture. That's because the focus of the national effort remains
terrorism, even if the Department of Homeland Security still
talks about "all-hazards preparedness." Those of us
in the business of dealing with emergencies find ourselves with
no national leadership and no mentors. We are being forced to
fend for ourselves, making do with the "homeland security"
mission. Our "all-hazards" approaches have been decimated
by the administration's preoccupation with terrorism.
To be sure, America may well be hit by another major terrorist
attack, and we must be prepared for such an event. But I can
guarantee you that hurricanes like the one that ripped into Louisiana
and Mississippi yesterday, along with tornadoes, earthquakes,
volcanoes, tsunamis, floods, windstorms, mudslides, power outages,
fires and perhaps a pandemic flu will have to be dealt with on
a weekly and daily basis throughout this country. They are coming
for sure, sooner or later, even as we are, to an unconscionable
degree, weakening our ability to respond to them.
The writer is director of the King County, Wash., Office of
Emergency Management.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
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