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| robert012 | HOMELAND SECURITY, bah posted on: 9/2/2005 7:47:36 AM Wednesday 31 August 2005 Agency responsible for preparedness absorbed into homeland security. Seattle - In the days to come, as the nation copes with the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we will be reminded how important it is to have a federal agency capable of dealing with natural catastrophes of this sort. This is an immense human tragedy, beyond the capabilities of state and local government to deal with. It requires a national response. Which makes it all the more difficult to understand why the country's premier agency for dealing with such events -- FEMA -- is being, in effect, systematically downgraded and all but dismantled by the Department of Homeland Security. "Apparently homeland security now consists almost entirely of protection against terrorist acts." How else to explain why the Federal Emergency Management Agency will no longer be responsible for disaster preparedness? FEMA was born in 1979, the offspring of a number of federal agencies that had been functioning in an independent and uncoordinated manner to protect the country against natural disasters and nuclear holocaust. All-Hazards Preparedness The creation of the federal agency encouraged states, counties and cities to convert from their civil defense organizations and to establish emergency management agencies to do the requisite planning for disasters. Over time, a philosophy of "all-hazards disaster preparedness" was developed that sought to conserve resources by producing single plans that were applicable to many types of events.But it was Hurricane Andrew, which hit Florida in 1992, that really energized FEMA. The year after that catastrophic storm, President Bill Clinton appointed James Lee Witt to be director of the agency. Witt reoriented FEMA from civil defense preparations to a focus on natural disaster preparedness and disaster mitigation. In an effort to reduce the repeated loss of property and lives every time a disaster struck, he started a disaster mitigation effort called "Project Impact." FEMA was elevated to a Cabinet-level agency, in recognition of its important responsibilities coordinating efforts across departmental and governmental lines. Witt fought for federal funding to support the new program. At its height, only $20 million was allocated to the national effort, but it worked wonders. One example: When the Nisqually earthquake struck the Puget Sound area on Feb. 28, 2001, homes had been retrofitted for earthquakes and schools were protected from high-impact structural hazards. Those involved with Project Impact thought it ironic that the day of that quake was also the day that the then-new president chose to announce that Project Impact would be discontinued. The advent of the Bush administration in January 2001 signaled the beginning of the end for FEMA. The agency's newly appointed leadership showed little interest in its work or in the missions pursued by Witt. Then came the Sept. 11 attacks and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Soon FEMA was being absorbed. Agency's Death Blow This year it was announced that FEMA is to "officially" lose the disaster preparedness function that it has had since its creation. The move is a death blow to an agency that was already on life support. In fact, FEMA employees have been directed not to become involved in disaster preparedness functions, since a new directorate (yet to be established) will have that mission. FEMA will be survived by state and local emergency management offices, which are confused about how they fit into the national picture. That's because the focus of the national effort remains terrorism. Those of us in the business of dealing with emergencies find ourselves with no national leadership. We are being forced to fend for ourselves, making do with the "homeland security" mission. Our "all-hazards" approaches have been decimated by the administration's preoccupation with terrorism. America may well be hit by another major terrorist attack, and we must be prepared for that. But I can guarantee you that hurricanes like Katrina, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods, windstorms, mudslides, power outages, fires and perhaps a pandemic will have to be dealt with. They are coming for sure, sooner or later, even as we are weakening our ability to respond to them. -------- Haskon |
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