how did fema fail during hurricane katrina

City Council member Craig Marks (right) says the population loss is palpable. FEMA analyzed 4.8 million aid registrations submitted by disaster survivors between 2014 and 2018 and compared applicants' income. You have permission to edit this article. FEMA's failures are particularly worrisome because the agency leads the federal government's response to climate change impacts, they say. . As one long-time FEMA executive remarked to me, If you have disaster experience at FEMA, it's the kiss of death for your career. In January, 2008, I finally called it quits and retired from FEMA after more than 28 years with the agency. I then had him work alongside some of our more experienced people and within a few nights, Phil pretty much had the hang of it. "There is disparity there that's built into the system.". In the twenty-six years before Katrina, it has been charged with providing temporary housing to . We began to gather information on the storm, its likely impacts and the status of operations at the local, state and federal levels. One long-time FEMA manager used computer modeling of previous hurricane tracks to disprove the logic of the one-week plan. The poorest homeowners received about half as much to rebuild their homes compared with higher-income homeowners disparities that researchers say cannot be explained by relative repair costs. But they couldn't afford to fix most of the damage to their home in DeQuincy, La. And those embarrassing NSRs that had given advance warning of Katrina's approach? Interestingly, it seems that the contract employees themselves did not actually receive the higher pay that went to the contracting company in the form of profit.. The letter also suggested that this was due to FEMA's inadequate coordination of the different agencies' rescue abilities and equipment. That can exclude people who didn't have formal rental agreements or were living in houses they didn't own when the disaster happened. Despite these shortcomings, I still have hopes for FEMA. Moving away from a property-centered approach to broader disaster assistance would fix some disparities in who gets FEMA aid, Howell says. "FEMA was supposed to be the 'Plan B,' " Marks says. WASHINGTON D.C. - One hundred percent of evacuees housed in the New Orleans Superdome and Convention Center have been evacuated and more than 30,000 National Guard troops are on the ground in Louisiana and Mississippi to provide help with search, rescue, and security in the disaster-stricken area, Michael D. Brown, Department of Homeland Security's Principal Federal Official for Hurricane Katrina response and head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced earlier today. "While everybody from the Coast Guard to the state Fish & Wildlife, they get the press releases out about how many people they saved, you and I know that most people got saved because a neighbor knocked on a door or showed up in a boat," Fugate said. Friday afternoon, August 26, 2005, was a . By the time Katrina arrived, New Orleans lay at an average of six feet below sea level, with some neighborhoods even lower than that. (Photo by Brett Duke, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune), Misty Bare and Adam Rives work clearing out their flooded home in St. Amant on Saturday, August 20, 2016. But as we were soon to learn, that type of person was now in very short supply. At 5 a.m., an hour before the . But she says that the final months of their 39-year marriage were significantly harder because of the unrepaired damage to their house. FEMA analysts found that the agency was twice as likely to deny assistance to lower-income disaster survivors because of insufficient storm damage to their home. "We have staff that come from communities all across the nation with varying cultural and demographic backgrounds. After striding among piles of broken drywall, soggy carpets, and mud-stained sideboards on a sun-drenched street in Zachary early this week, PresidentBarack Obama did to FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate whatGeorge W. Bush did 11 years ago to his own disaster chief, Michael Brown, in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. How would we make sure that we did not end up sending the same aid to one place three times while ignoring other places in need? Fine, except the Coast Guard didn't send their best officers to FEMA: while a few of the officers they sent seemed well-qualified, in many cases, the Coast Guard simply cleaned house and sent us their failures, officers who had been passed over for promotion or who had other problems. "And so, when you look at 9/11, nobody questioned FEMA's response, from deployment of the Urban Search and Rescue Teams to the recovery. Speight's plight is an example of how inadequate FEMA assistance can push low-income families toward displacement. In this way, there was instant communication across the government and we could ensure that the disaster survivors would quickly receive whatever aid they needed. The only thing was, he had never done this type of work before, so could I please show him the ropes and explain what was needed? Amid Attacks From Right, Racial Justice Curricula Gain Momentum in Blue States, Ralph Yarl Deserves Justice Beyond What the Criminal Legal System Can Offer, The Supreme Court Just Unleashed a Flood of Lawsuits Against Big Oil, How South Carolina Ended Up With an All-Male Supreme Court, Israel Says It Should Mediate Peace in Sudan, the Sudanese People Disagree, Climate Protesters Stage Blockade at White House Correspondents Dinner, Despair and Disparity: The Uneven Burdens of COVID-19, Religions Role in the Struggle for Justice. FEMA also called off its search and rescue just three days after the storm. "It appears that the rich are getting more," Marks says. A 12-car Amtrak train making two round trips daily between New Orleans and Lafayette, LA, will evacuate 650 passengers on each train to various destinations. Within four days of Katrina's landfall on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, then-President George W. Bush signed a $10.4 billion aid package and ordered 7,200 National Guard troops to the region. "So I'm of the mind to look at the public as a resource, not a liability. Estimated relocations: During the Hurricane Ivan evacuation 600,000 people failed to evacute the city . The discrepancy was small maybe one report said that 35 people had been rescued and another report said it was 40. Marks is especially concerned about the long-term effects on historically Black neighborhoods. But in the creation of what I like to refer to as an era, when almost everybody went to look at terrorism attacks, I was kind of looking around going, 'Last time I checked, hurricanes didn't stop.'". It was given more autonomy within DHS to manage a response to a disaster. That requirement might seem basic to members of white FEMA staff, Willis says, but a more racially diverse group would be more likely to understand that the policy could lead to lopsided outcomes. ", Page 15 of the Department of the Interior (DOI) letter notes that "the Fish and Wildlife Service was requested by FEMA to assist with search and rescue operations throughout the affected area, but was never formally tasked through a FEMA assignment. By most accounts, Fugate has steered a seamless federal response to the Louisiana flood of 2016, earning Obama's plaudits but also praise from local officials and residents who say the agency has responded quickly to immediate needs. The failure of communications equipment during Ida highlights lessons learned during Hurricane Katrina. The agency initially withheld its internal analyses from NPR and academic researchers. Mold and heat exposure threaten to make everyone sick. Howell says it's likely that implicit bias is leading to disparities about whose damage is deemed "sufficient." The nebulizer that helped him breathe also required power. Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 storm that made landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast in August 2005. "So we're fortunate that President Obama has made it very clear that he'd rather err on getting there and not being needed than not being there at all. During disasters, the Federal government provides law enforcement assistance only when those resources are overwhelmed or depleted. And when the response switched to recovery, there were the infamous FEMA trailers, those glorified recreation vans, hastily built and steeped in toxic resins, that populated yards and vacant lots for years after the storm. Darkness ruled not just night but day, as the electric grid crash darkened shelters and the lights of fiber-optic cable went off in an instant. The deed was never formally transferred to Dominique's name, and he didn't have a lease, so he was ineligible for repair and rental assistance. FEMA Faces Intense Scrutiny. My co-worker Matt picked up on the first ring. In documents released by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, FEMA appears to have mismanaged offers of supplies and personnel from other agencies. Learn More. Congress also put aside a $2 billion disaster relief fund that FEMA can tap to get ready for a disaster, even before an official declaration. As of March, 68% of FEMA supervisors were white, according to the federal Office of Personnel Management. On Saturday night, we did more information gathering for our report. "Through the entire disaster cycle communities that have been underserved stay underserved and thereby suffer needlessly and unjustly," the authors write. By the time Hurricane Katrina made landfall near Buras, Louisiana early on the morning of August 29, 2005, the flooding had already begun. Yet DOI had hundreds of officers readily deployable, many of whom were in the immediate area.". Leo Bosner was an employee of FEMA from 1979 until his retirement in 2008 and at the time of his retirement was President of the FEMA HQ employees' union, AFGE Local 4060. 1st BUSH APPOINTS "KATRINA CZAR": Donald Powell, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., is tapped by President Bush to become the hurricane recovery czar. 1 of 17. August 25, 2017. That wasn't enough to pay for stable shelter. At 7 AM Saturday, we handed things off to the day shift and went home to get some sleep, all of us thinking that the wheels would begin to roll now that we had issued our warning. "Previously, you're always pretty much waiting for the governor to ask before you did it, and the problem with that is you're maybe a day or two or three days into something by the time you get asked, and we're not that nimble," he said. Weekdays, weekends, Christmas morning the report had to go out at 5:30 AM. Residents are bringing their belongings and lining up to get into the Superdome which has been opened as a hurricane shelter in advance of hurricane Katrina. Even without FEMA data about race, evidence points to systemic racism within federal disaster response, according to Willis of the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management. Why was it now so slow? A small air conditioner (right) provides some relief from the Louisiana heat after the home's main AC unit was destroyed. An official website of the United States government. FEMA's internal analyses also point to potential implicit bias built into the agency's decisions about who gets money after disasters and how much. The poorest renters were 23% less likely than higher-income renters to get housing help. In March, Stephen Speight died of pulmonary failure. FEMA did not respond to questions about the Speights' case, including about whether NPR's queries to the agency about the situation had anything to do with FEMA's decision to award Donnie Speight additional funds nearly a year after the hurricane. Once the system was activated, once all the disaster specialists from FEMA, Defense, Transportation, the Red Cross, and other sundry agencies got to work, it would be smooth sailing at the NRCC. Now, with a major disaster under way, FEMA was, naturally, short staffed. Ryan Kellman/NPR "I don't know how I was doing it. These problems were not simply the failure of particular places or leaders to be ready for disas- Once the contract staff had been trained on one job, they could be transferred elsewhere and another novice brought in to help.. hide caption. In the confusion of a disaster, such a discrepancy would be normal and it did not really matter. hide caption. Just this spring, a thunderstorm dropped upward of 17 inches of rain in an afternoon. The disparities play out in full view in Lake Charles, La. Ryan Kellman/NPR Fugate carried that fundamental understanding -- that states and local governments are best suited to be the first responders in a disaster -- with him when Obama hired him to run FEMA in May 2009. But under the NRP, while there was still an FCO from FEMA, now there was also a Principal Federal Official (PFO) from DHS, who would do well, no one quite knew what, exactly. These reports, although public documents, would later be removed from public view by FEMA, so it is worth an aside to explain a bit about the NSR. Brown, along with state and federal partners, and voluntary agencies, is holding press briefings twice a day to provide updates on response efforts. 1. The letter, written by Interior Assistant Secretary P. Lynn Scarlett, recounted how different agencies in the department prepared and responded to Hurricane Katrina. [U.S. News & World Report, 11/3/05] 10th VICTIMS SUE FEMA FOR AID [New York Times, 11/10/05] Then came the most destructive . It's that tranche that Fugate tapped to spend $127 million in the immediate wake of this month's floods. How would we prioritize the many requests for help to ensure that the most urgent needs were filled first? 11 years after Katrina, FEMA has learned from its failures. Fears about flooding go all the way back to the founding of New Orleans on land in 1717, by the French-Canadian explorer Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA. FEMA was slow to deliver food and . FEMA says it is actively looking for feedback from local officials about how to make its disaster response more fair and reviewing its overall approach to disaster aid, including the application process. However, during Paulison's tenure as head of FEMA, the agency continued its downhill slide: The message from these incidents was clear to all of us: FEMA's mission was first and foremost PR; emergency management was a distant second, if that. Many people are convinced that Hurricane Katrina should be considered as a prime example of government failure. The exact death toll is still uncertain, but its estimated that more than 1,500 people in Louisiana lost their lives due to Hurricane Katrina, many of them due to drowning. hide caption. We had gone through some tough lessons at FEMA over the years Hurricane Hugo, Hurricane Andrew, the Northridge Earthquake, the Oklahoma City Bombing and they all pointed in the same direction: For a good emergency response, you must maintain the basics: Realistic plans; adequate resources; trained staff; good communications; and, most of all, decisive, knowledgeable leaders at the top. Joe Raedle/Getty Images. Before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, there were roughly 2,000 foster children registered in the state. "You know, I've heard the term climate refugees," says Craig Fugate, who led FEMA between 2009 and 2017. Up to a month after Hurricane Katrina, over 100 children were still unaccounted for, and it took until November to find everyone. But the cause of damage is not always clear. Melinda said she worked for the XXX company that was supporting FEMA in the disaster response and that she would be assigned to work for me. FEMA prepares the nation for all hazards and manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. I was not going to wake up exhausted rescuers in the middle of the night just to get some numbers for a speechwriter. (Photo by Brett Duke, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune), Jennifer Davis dumps wall insulation in a pile as she helps clean out A Place of Hope Ministries in Killian on Saturday, August 20, 2016. Neighborhoods where lower-income residents live are recovering more slowly than more affluent areas. By the time Hurricane Katrina made landfall near Buras, Louisiana early on the morning of August 29, 2005, the flooding had already begun. During Katrina, Brown testified Katrina ran on about $1 billion. In November, official allegations of bias arrived on FEMA's doorstep. Now, the fact is, most of the contract employees with whom I worked were top-notch people who did a wonderful job. So we continued to limp along at FEMA, short-staffed, burdened by poor leadership, confusing plans and, most of all, by the DHS. Ryan Kellman/NPR It's unfair, admittedly, to compare this month's flood to the one that followed Katrina. That manager was immediately transferred to a different office. Another way to achieve fairness could be to change who is eligible for federal disaster assistance altogether, so that funds go to people below a certain income or wealth cutoff. It took everything Donnie had to care for her husband. hurricane striking New Orleans had been long considered, and there was enough warning of the threat of Katrina that declarations of emergency were made days in advance of landfall. We use public choice theory to explain the failure of FEMA and other governmental agencies to carry out effective disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. " She sighs. Brown would resign days after accepting his boss' praise. Please give what you can to support Truthout today! Many survivors of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico are still trying to repair homes that were damaged nearly four years ago, and residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota struggled to get federal assistance after a massive storm in 2019. hide caption. (But as mentioned above, I kept copies of the two reports and you can read them for yourself. (Photo by Brett Duke, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune), Mark Jumonville makes his way through the flood waters around his home in St. Amant on Saturday, August 20, 2016. Climate-fueled disasters are accelerating, which means more and more Americans are relying on federal disaster assistance that is inequitable. This May Day, in a moment of resurgent child labor, lets take time to remember and be inspired by Mother Jones. No problem a young lady I'll call Melinda then walked up to me and introduced herself. Mario Tama/Getty Images Aug 27, 2016 Updated Jul 7, 2021. After the emergency of Hurricane Katrina, secondary responders did a lot of work to help the affected populations. Hurricane Katrina was a devastating Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that resulted in 1,392 fatalities and caused damage estimated between $97.4 billion to $145.5 . Indeed, FEMA's own analyses show that low-income homeowners receive less repair assistance. Terence Franklin settled in Houston with his family . AndLouisiana, once the stone on which FEMA stumbled, is now the beneficiary of that transformation as it recovers from a deluge. Decisive actions such as evacuating the large numbers of people who did not have cars were simply not being taken. But they could also be very expensive employees. Mayor Ray Nagin later reported that in New Orleans, "primary and . An interesting fact is that Hurricane Katrina remains the costliest hurricane in U.S. history, causing an estimated $161 billion in damage along the U.S. Gulf Coast. "We don't want a handout," he says. The Speights liked how secluded and quiet it was. But Bush's words in early September 2005, spoken from an airplane hangar in Mobile, Ala. -- "And Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" -- became a sarcastic catchphrase for FEMA's botched response to the costliest hurricane ever to hit the Gulf Coast. A growing body of academic research uses U.S. census and other publicly available data to document racial disparities in who benefits from FEMA assistance. Though thousands of New Orleanians evacuated in the days leading up to Katrina, around 100,000 people remained in the city. If you click this web site today, you can read all of FEMA's daily NSRs going back to 2005 all except for the Hurricane Katrina NSRs. The storm flooded New Orleans, killed more than 1,800 people, and caused $100 billion in . NEW ORLEANS (AP) The levees, floodwalls and floodgates that protect New Orleans held up against Hurricane Ida's fury, passing their toughest test since the federal government spent billions of dollars to upgrade a system that catastrophically failed when Hurricane Katrina struck 16 years ago. "It affects the school system. "Think about the [COVID-19] stimulus package," he says. Craig Marks, a newly elected City Council member and lifelong resident of Lake Charles, says FEMA failed the city's most vulnerable, including older adults, families with young children, veterans and poor people. hide caption. Will Hopkins takes a quick break from helping clear out a family friends home in St. Amant on Saturday, August 20, 2016. The reason why no one knew that the levies would break in a city that was below city level and the . "Those who have more wealth and have more income [could] get less of the federal aid because they need it less," she says. After rescues were well underway, FEMA turned away offers of personnel and supplies from the Department of Interior and denied a request from the state Wildlife & Fisheries agency for 300 rubber boats. St. Bernard Parish and swaths of the North Shore were swamped and flattened. I arrived at the NRCC a little before 7:00 that evening, received my briefing from the day shift and got myself a cup of coffee from the kitchen. 10 The drill's purpose But the citys low elevation, and its position within the different levee systems, creates a so-called bowl effect, meaning that when water gets into the city, it is very difficult to get it out. We need journalists who can investigate, report, and analyze complex issues with honesty and integrity. A FEMA update e-mail sent 3 days after the storm says, "All assets have ceased operations until National Guard can assist (task forces) with security. Every day without stable shelter makes it more likely that the blow dealt by the storm will unleash a cascade of problems. It's in my hands, my arms, my neck, my hips, my knees," Donnie says. FEMA Director Mike Brown was replaced by David Paulison, a former fire chief who many hoped would revitalize the agency. The embarrassing NSRs from Hurricane Katrina have still not been restored to the FEMA web site. August 24, 2011. During the past week, the U.S. Coast Guard saved 15,665 people, which is more than three times the number of lives saved in all of 2004. Today, he lives next to his old house in an RV donated by a local volunteer group. In Puerto Rico, the Category 4 Hurricane Maria knocked out communications and left more than 3.5 million residents without power for months while FEMA scrambled to provide food and water and . With faint understanding of the city's topography, Brown and FEMA's top brass weren't aware of the magnitude of the flood. The cost of materials and equipment often spike after disasters, and Speight says the least expensive generator she could find at the time was $900, which used up much of the couple's emergency savings. For example, if inspectors are predisposed to seeing a neighborhood as less desirable or less valuable, those impressions are baked into how they judge the cause and cost of disaster damage there. Willis says the homogeneity of FEMA's leadership makes it all but impossible for the agency to develop systems to distribute assistance equitably. "It validates everything we've been saying for years now," says Chauncia Willis, the former emergency manager for Tampa, Fla., and co-founder of the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management, a nonprofit organization that advocates for equity in disaster response. The $1,200 for the roof was about half what a contractor would charge to do the repair, and the couple didn't have the money to make up the difference. The disparities play out in full view in Lake Charles, La. But as the Katrina tragedy played out in the coming days and weeks, I would come to realize just how badly my agency, FEMA, had been hollowed out in the preceding four years and how much we had lost in that short span of time. Georgia 900 August 23, 2017 - September 15, 2017. Central Louisiana was struck by a massive rain event that forced rivers and bayous over their banks and into towns. FEMA's failures are particularly worrisome because the agency leads the federal government's response to climate change impacts, they say. All you needed then would be top federal officials who knew how to make informed and unified decisions in a disaster. One way to achieve a new version of fairness one that's based more on equal outcomes would be for FEMA to ensure proactively that vulnerable people have stable housing after disasters, rather than relying on survivors to prove eligibility. According to USACE's after action report on Hurricane Betsy She left in her wake a path of devastation unparalleled by any other storm in the recorded history of Louisiana.4 New Orleans sustained extensive damage as Hurricane Katrina passed to its east on the morning of August 29. "We got through Katrina. In many cases, I learned that the contracting companies were billing FEMA for salaries significantly higher than the salaries of FEMA staff who were doing the same work. "Let's not make it worse.". A lock ( From those testimonies grew an eventual overhaul of the way the agency responds to large-scale disasters. She's currently fighting debt collectors who threaten to take her land, and private volunteer groups have been helping her try to repair or replace her house. FEMA does not take savings or income into account when it decides how much housing assistance to award a disaster survivor. Donna Murch outlines the historic and ongoing labor struggle at Rutgers University. The views expressed here are Mr. Bosner's personal views only. At the time of his retirement, he was president of the FEMA Headquarters employees union, AFGE Local 4060. Overall, what I have heard so far from many of my former FEMA colleagues has been along the lines of, well, it seems to be getting better but pretty slowly. Ten years ago this week, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast and generated a huge disaster. Children miss school, adults are unable to work, older adults stop taking lifesaving medication. The National Weather Service writes that Hurricane Katrina is "one of the five deadliest hurricanes to ever strike the United States." Hurricane Katrina caused up to $161 billion worth of damage, largely due to the fact that the breached levees led to flooding in 80% of New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina, its 115-130 mph winds, and the accompanying storm surge it created as high as 27 feet along a stretch of the Northern Gulf Coast from Mobile, Alabama, to New Orleans, impacted . Thirteen people died. Ten months after Hurricane Laura, Donnie Speight is trying to hold together the pieces of her life. hide caption. But who would coordinate the activities among all of these various centers so that the disaster response did not turn into a massive federal government traffic jam? The area around their home is flat and marshy. The views expressed here are Mr. Bosner's personal views only. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. In response to news that regulators had sold the bank to JPMorgan Chase, Warren said system overhaul is long overdue. Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security, by C. Cooper and R. Block, Times Books, 2006. Time will tell as will FEMA's response to the next major emergency or disaster. "It's a 180-degree turn," said Davis, who had testified before Congress after the 2005 storm. Get daily news, in-depth reporting and critical analysis from the journalists, activists and thinkers who are working to improve our world.. We're almost out of time to raise the $5,000 we need for groundbreaking reporting the kind that challenges the forces that prop up capitalism, white supremacy, imperialism, nationalism, and all oppressive structures. In fact, the creation of the National Response plan was aimed at setting the right platform for dealing with emergency disasters in future, whether artificial or natural . (Photo by Brett Duke, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune), Will Hopkins helps clear out a family friends home in St. Amant on Saturday, August 20, 2016. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. But responders failed to convert this information into a level of preparation appropriate with the scope of the impending disaster.

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