Fix FEMA before next disaster

Charlotte Observer: No doubt the finger-pointing and blame-gaming about the woeful preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina will persist for a while. It's easier -- and cheaper -- to keep those spin cycles going than to fix the problems that led to the disastrous outcome.
Let's stop the buck-passing. Lots of things went wrong with the preparation for and response to Katrina. Local, state and federal officials share the blame. So do Gulf Coast residents who could have evacuated and didn't. Yet, one problem clearly emerges from the Katrina tragedy that can and must be fixed -- FEMA.
Last week, even former director Michael Brown, who resigned in the fallout from the Katrina response, noted problems with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. At a hearing, he told Congress FEMA had been emaciated. "It has been a struggle over the past two or three years to keep the place together because of this resource problem," he said.
Critics say resources shrunk when FEMA became part of the Department of Homeland Security, where funding is geared primarily to battle terrorism. After 9-11, terrorism is a fearsome possibility, but natural disasters are facts of life. If FEMA is too focused on terrorism that may occur to deal with floods and storms that are sure to occur, that focus needs correcting immediately.
It's clear FEMA's ability to respond to natural disasters has eroded. Staff has been cut, funding has been erratic and, as was starkly illustrated in New Orleans after Katrina, communication and coordination between federal and local officials have been weakened or severed.
Fraud and waste
The evisceration of FEMA may have contributed to fraud and waste in the agency in other disasters.
In the Gulf Coast, FEMA is ripe for more fraud. The Washington Post has reported the agency awarded its largest contract for hurricane recovery to a company that has no license to build manufactured housing in its home state and has been the subject of dealer and buyer complaints.
After Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989, FEMA came under attack for inefficiency, bloated bureaucracy and waste. President Clinton tackled the problems, put in a strong leader and strengthened the agency. Eventually it began winning praise for its coordinated, effective response to everything from earthquakes to hurricanes.