more troubling news about fema
The story’s title belies many festering issues for what was the premier federal disaster agency here in the United States. Check out the many troubling aspects for what is going on at FEMA,
There are so many stories within this one article.
Loss of veteran emergency managers at the senior level
Plans being tossed or ignored
Plans to be rewritten and then…not rewritten (I think they found out how hard that would be)
Leadership ignorant of basic emergency management policy matters
The disaster declaration process being shortcut and FEMA out in the dark
The process to assess if a federal disaster declaration is worthy—ignored
While the White House denies it, it appears declarations are made on a whim by the President (He’s a “deal maker” and transactional you know)
Senior leadership ignorant of significant hazards. Will someone ask them what the significant earthquake hazards are in the USA!
We have to wait for the commission that is reviewing FEMA’s mission and functions to make their pronouncements. I will be very disappointed if the “real emergency managers” on the commission don’t disavow what they come up with.
In a conversation with a veteran emergency manager yesterday, his thought was that they will rename FEMA and then declare victory, which in my mind means they will eviscerate all the decades of work to have staff and functional processes in place.
In the future, everything being done today to the federal workforce and to operational planning will take decades to repair.
