Another Katrina, or Worse?

“Another Katrina, or Worse?”

By Jim Mullen

The recent statement by over 190 FEMA employees that another “Katrina moment” might be pending triggered some unhappy memories for this old-timer. By 2005, I had already spent several years decrying reductions in FEMA’s capability, first as a city EM director, then as Washington State’s Director of Emergency Management. Post 9/11 hysteria had prompted abject neglect of the nation’s all – hazards approach, with funds diverted from FEMA by Congress and the Administration somewhat haphazardly and often incompetently to “counterterrorism efforts.” During the Katrina episode, at Washington State’s Emergency Management Division, we spent an inordinate amount of time explaining the basic elements of the Code of Federal Regulations to newly hired, clueless federal contractors. These “newbies” were not suitable replacements for knowledgeable FEMA personnel that had been displaced with little fanfare by the new Department of Homeland Security’s priorities.

The most recent gutting of FEMA is taking place in full public view and is indeed reminiscent of the pre – Katrina efforts: today’s Department of Homeland Security is draining the program budgets (and irreplaceable) talent from FEMA. Officials with zero experience in the emergency management discipline, and apparently less interest in learning about it, are proceeding to abruptly shift the burden of protecting the community to local and state government. Hopefully unlike the Katrina experience, America will escape relatively unscathed, but recent history suggests that may be a faint hope indeed.

Some in our profession may regard the “review” of FEMA ordered by the Trump Administration as a long overdue analysis of the procedures, roles and laws governing the nation’s disaster response and recovery system. But the Executive’s public gutting of FEMA is indeed reminiscent of the pre – Katrina efforts: as before, this version of the Department of Homeland Security is draining the program budgets (and irreplaceable) talent from FEMA with seemingly little or no regard for the short and long-term impacts. We saw how that worked out in 2005!

One marvels at the courage of FEMA employees who have spoken out and warned of the potential threat to public safety the “FEMA Review” poses. It’s no small profile in courage to speak truth to an uncomprehending, demonstrably ignorant power structure. Where does this leave their state and local counterparts? As burdens shift, a more proactive and admittedly politically risky analysis of where local and state investment can best shore up identifiable, fixable vulnerabilities is necessary. That’s easier to say than to do, I admit, but it does appear that it is state and local emergency managers’ time to stand and be counted. And heard!