In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Fema faltered. The answer was slow, political and incoherent. Misbeit by someone without extensive experience in emergency management, FEMA collapsed under the weight of his mission. More than 1,800 American lives were lost when the federal dikes failed and chaos followed. It took us almost two decades to recover, and some communities have never done that.
As a country we sworn that to never happen again. As Bush Administration Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend at the time wrote in its Katrina After-Action Report, “When local and national governments are overwhelmed or are incapacitated for work by an event that has achieved catastrophic proportions, only the federal government has the resources and the possibilities of responding. The Federal Government must therefore the Federal Government to the Federal Government Catastrophic event. ”
For more than ten years, the country has made substantial progress in strengthening federal, national and local coordination and possibilities. We reformed FEMA, required recruitment leaders with experience in emergency management, invested in more resilient infrastructure, have set up stronger standards and financing of dangers that have and have invested a huge advantage and better coordinated with state and local emergency preparation.
FEMA -employees who were placed on leave after they claimed that Trump leadership could cause the next hurricane Katrina
But in just eight months, the Trump administration unravels 20 years of hard-earned progress by switching off FEMA and the ability of the federal government to predict, prepare and then respond to disasters.
Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, Fema’s disaster reaction is another problem. File: Neighborhoods are flooded with oil and water Two weeks after Hurricane Katrina went through New Orleans, 12 September 2005. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)
Since the return to his office, President Donald Trump has set his sights on dismantling the agencies responsible for keeping Americans safe in times of a disaster. He suggested for the first time to eliminate Fema completely. The ends and voluntary divorces of Elon Musk’s Doge Operation reduced FEMA staff with almost a third. Of the people who have left, they recently re -assigned dozens of FEMA employees to immigration and customs enforcement at the height of the hurricane season. Trump even fired the first naming manager because he said he thought FEMA should be stuck, and the current acting manager will not say whether FEMA will continue to exist.
Trump’s FEMA has canceled a program of $ 3.6 billion to build a stronger infrastructure – the type of investment that helps communities to improve drainage, to elevate roads and houses, to harden infrastructure, such as electricity pipes and to prepare for the future before the disasters strike.
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In an agency that is sometimes known for bureaucratic processes, the Minister of Interior Security Kristi calls to demand its personal registration for each FEMA subsidy or contract, which is just about everything in today’s conditions, which causes delays that risked lives.
In July, more than 130 people lost their lives in Kerrville, Texas, after catastrophic floods were swept by the Hill Country region. During those floods in Texas, FEMA could not use urban search and rescue teams on time because they had no approval. There has been no course correction.
What would happen if a large hurricane would go our way? Does anyone really think that the current FEMA administration is ready when we go into the peak of the hurricane season?
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Despite the expressions of national and local officials, experts in the field of emergency preparation and the broader meteorological community, Trump doubles. With a recent Task Force Fema review repeated mention that “Federal Emergency Management is and must be led locally” and that “this entire agency must be eliminated as it exists today and is being re -enacted in a responsive agency.”
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It doesn’t just stop at FEMA. Trump has written the privatization of Noaa and the National Weather Service, so that life -saving public reports are converted into paid services. In the meantime, weather forecast options have been eroding. In the orchane season, 30 of the 122 prediction offices in the US no longer had main meteorologists.
The damage caused by Hurricane Katrina was devastating. Could Fema do better now? File: The hill underneath list on Interstate 10, near the center of New Orleans, is flooded as Hurricane Katrina spends the city with wind and tours in 2005. (AP)
Explaning FEMA and hollowing out the agencies that are responsible for disaster parrility – saying “states can do it” – is not a plan. It is federal abandonment, such as a Deadbeat father. The scope and scale of responding to major disasters requires the power, financial, manpower and equipment of the federal government in particular. Even where constitutional and local authorities can lead, our system is set up to require a strong federal partnership.
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As a state legislator, lieutenant -governor, mayor and official of the White House, I have been part of both good and bad reactions to disasters. If there is one thing that I have learned, it is this: reaction and recovery can only be as strong as the preparation that comes for them. A good response requires clear command and control, communication, coordination, cooperation and cooperation, and especially, an active and justified federal government that acts in collaboration with national and local authorities.
There will be disasters and storms will become more intense. We know this. But how we prepare, how we respond and how we help rebuild communities – that is up to us. On August 29 we have marked 20 years since Hurricane Katrina. We cannot be repeated history. Too many – and too many lives – are at stake.
