From Politico, this interview with FEMA Director: Debrief: FEMA Chief Craig Fugate. Ten years after Katrina, what keeps the nation’s top emergency responder up at night?
Interview with FEMA Director, Craig Fugate
Reply
Category Archives: FEMA
GAO on FEMA Workforce Issues
Federal Emergency Management Agency: Additional Planning and Data Collection Could Help Improve Workforce Management Efforts GAO-15-437; released July 9, 2015.
The Diva has just done a quick reading of this new, 60 page report, and she notices that GAO seems peeved that for 8 years they have been asking FEMA for a strategic plan for their workforce but did not get one.
She welcomes reader comments, especially from those who have been part of the FEMA workforce. In the past, this topic was a hot issue. I am surprised to have so few comments.
Lots of Activity re Pending Rise in Flood Ins. Rates
#1 – See this Wash Post article: Rise in government insurance rates to mirror rising waters, flood debt. Some excerpts from the article:
The government is slowly phasing out subsidized flood insurance for more than a million Americans with houses in flood zones who, in some cases, pay half the true commercial rate.
Some owners say they are angry because their houses near lakes, rivers, bays and oceans were much more affordable with cheap rates that will now increase by as much as 25 percent each year until the premiums equal the full risk of settling down on property mapped as a flood zone.
#2 – Check out the new report on flood insurance from the National Academy of Sciences:
The new report: Affordability of National Flood Insurance Program Premiums: Report 1 (2015)
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Abstract of the report:
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) within the Federal Emergency Management Agency faces dual challenges of maintaining affordable flood insurance premiums for property owners and ensuring that revenues from premiums and fees cover claims and program expenses over time. A new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences, found that these objectives are not always compatible and may, at times, conflict with one another. The report discusses measures that could make insurance more affordable for all policy holders and provides a framework for policymakers to use in designing targeted assistance programs.
Although there are multiple ways to measure the cost burden of flood insurance on property owners and renters, the report found that there are no objective definitions of affordability. Where Congress or FEMA determine insurance premiums to be unaffordable, households paying those premiums might be made eligible for assistance through the NFIP. The report says that it will be up to policymakers to select which households will receive assistance, the form and amount of assistance provided, how it will be provided, who will pay for the assistance, and how an assistance program will be administered.
What Will Happen in States Where Governors are Climate Change Deniers?
See this article from the conservative newspaper, Washington Times: FEMA targets climate change skeptic governors, could withhold funding; New rules put Rick Scott [FL], Bobby Jindal [LA], Chris Christie [NJ], Pat McCrory [NC] Greg Abbott[TX] in bind. [The Diva filled in the states for the benefit of readers in other countries. All are coastal states with a history of frequent flooding.]
Excerpts from the article:
The Obama administration has issued new guidelines that could make it harder for governors who deny climate change to obtain federal disaster-preparedness funds.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s new rules could put some Republican governors in a bind. The rules say that states’ risk assessments must include “consideration of changing environmental or climate conditions that may affect and influence the long-term vulnerability from hazards in the state.”
The policy, which goes into effect in March 2016, doesn’t affect federal money for relief after a hurricane, flood, or other natural disaster. But states seeking disaster preparedness money from Washington will be required to assess how climate change threatens their communities, a requirement that wasn’t included in FEMA’s 2008 guidelines.
New Disaster Reform Legislation Pending & Recovery Report re H. Sandy
For those who are interested in the ongoing recovery from H. Sandy, here are three new reports worth reviewing. Once again the Diva would like readers to dig into the two reports mentioned here and do an analysis or review, because she does not have the time presently to read and critique them.
Of special interest to me is the fact that these documents come from a Congressional Committee. It is the first analysis of post-Sandy recovery that I have seen from a congressional office. Also, it is the first time I have seen mention of FEMA’s National Advisory Council See: Pending Disaster Reform Legislation and a Recovery Report re H. Sandy
In the second report, there is mention of a major (140 pp.) report from the Army Corps of Engineers in Jan. of this year. A website that provides a full text copy, as well as graphics and an executive summary, go this this cite: North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study.
New State Mitigation Plan Guide
Newly issued guidance on mitigation from FEMA.
FEMA Will Review All Flood Claims From H. Sandy
From the NYT on March 13, FEMA to Review All H. Sandy Flood Claims.
As noted by reader, James Fossett:
* * * this story from the New York Times which reports on an on-going dispute where it’s been alleged that engineering reports of flood damage were doctored to minimize federal flood insurance payouts. While disputes over what’s flood damage and what’s not seem endemic to recovery programs—they crop up in FEMA’s Public Assistance program as well—the fact that they’re still going on more than two years after Sandy doesn’t speak well for our ability to manage the recovery process.
See comments below.
Update on March 16: As many as 147,000 claims have to be reviewed!
Effects on FEMA of a DHS Shutdown – Comments by Fugate
FEMA head outlines what exactly will happen if DHS shuts down
Updates:
From the New Yorker: Threats to Homeland Security. Best quote I have seen lately:
You can’t spend decades encouraging irrationality and ignorance, then declare a return to sanity when it’s convenient. The price lasts longer than an election cycle.
CBS news had this account today: 5 things that will happen if Congress doesn’t fund Homeland Security
FEMA employees will mostly report for duty: Johnson said in the same CNN interview that “something like 80 percent” of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) “permanent appropriated workers” would stay home. That statement ignores the fact that many of the agency’s workers aren’t funded through the annual appropriations process, according to a Factcheck.org review. The 2013 DHS report found that that 78 percent of FEMA’s 14,729 employees would stay on the job if the agency went unfunded. Plus, more than one-third of FEMA’s disaster workforce comes from reservists, according to a Government Accountability Office report, and they aren’t reliant on annual funding from Congress
Here is the NYTimes’ version of the story: Holding DHS Hostage.
Funding for DHS and Therefore FEMA Is In Jeopardy
Fugate: FEMA mission compromised by fight over budget
A congressional standoff over funding the Department of Homeland Security is making it difficult for the department’s small agencies to operate, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said Friday,
“Our ability to execute the mission is being compromised,” Fugate told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview.
FEMA Reform Brief – from the Heritage Foundation
Issue Brief on FEMA Reforms from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, DC. – FEMA Reform Needed: Congress Must Act.
Update: Here is Eric Holdeman’s take on the matter.
Recovery Diva 