budget

"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 [...]