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By Elizabeth Chuck. He will work to coordinate recovery and rebuilding efforts. The Transportation Department might activate its center to find out which disaster-damaged roads and bridges were in urgent need of repair. These are prefabricated, modular homes with two or three bedrooms and access ramps for those with physical disabilities. Ryan Kellman/NPR But they could also be very expensive employees. He was a Vietnam veteran who had been exposed to Agent Orange during the war and had rapidly advancing diabetes and mobility problems. But FEMA has never systematically tracked the race of aid applicants, which means the agency has never had concrete demographic data about who is receiving help. Yet later investigations revealed that some of the citys levees failed even at water levels far below what they had been built to withstand. Hurricane Katrina, tropical cyclone that struck the southeastern United States in late August 2005. Then the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 changed the world. 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. One problem with FEMA's current approach is that it focuses more on property than on people, says Junia Howell, a sociologist at Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research who studies federal disaster aid. In the middle of the Katrina response, phone calls to the NRCC from these DHS managers would continually interrupt the work of the FEMA employees with a barrage of questions which clearly were not related to the emergency response, but to speechwriting for DHS executives, distracting the FEMA employees from their emergency work. An additional 12,730 Active Duty military personnel have also been deployed. (2006). Fugate credited major overhauls of federal law after Katrina and the Obama administration's willingness to overreact to a potential disaster rather than wait for it to unfold. (Photo by Brett Duke, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune), Homes are being cleaned out in Albany on Saturday, August 20, 2016. The improved system is designed to protect New Orleans from storms that would cause a so-called 100-year flood, or a flood that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in a given year. FEMA Director Mike Brown was replaced by David Paulison, a former fire chief who many hoped would revitalize the agency. (Photo by Brett Duke, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune), Bruce Mitchell throws out wall insulation while helping to clean out A Place of Hope Ministries in Killian on Saturday, August 20, 2016. The poorest renters were 23% less likely than higher-income renters to get housing help. Here is a program (left) from Stephen's funeral. Marks says helping such families is "supposed to be the job of FEMA," but that many uninsured homeowners in Lake Charles have received little or no help from the agency. Hilton Kelley's home in Port Arthur was damaged by Hurricane Harvey. No problem a young lady I'll call Melinda then walked up to me and introduced herself. Yet DOI had hundreds of officers readily deployable, many of whom were in the immediate area.". When someone applies for money, FEMA sends inspectors to verify that the damage was caused by the disaster. (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. Timothy Dominique, 62, lives in a donated RV parked next door to the family home where he was staying when Hurricane Laura hit Lake Charles last year. She's looking for a used mobile home that she can afford, to replace the damaged one. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- FEMA -- was widely blamed for a lack of preparedness and an inadequate response. "Every resource available is being deployed by FEMA and the entire Federal government to rescue, aid in the suffering, and protect and preserve lives. Aid was late or non-existent, locals complained of confusion and obstruction. Other problems continue to fester beneath the surface. While they cost more -- between $59,000 and $69,000 --than the glorified RV trailers that dotted lawns and landscapes after Katrina, they signal FEMA's pivot in philosophy from "What can we afford to do?" 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. At 5 a.m., an hour before the . Hurricane Laura was the strongest storm to make landfall in the U.S. last year. 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. The last one purportedly left New Orleansin February 2012, more than six years into the recovery. "We got through Katrina. The change is also evident in the push, learned during Superstorm Sandy in 2012, to gut homes quickly to reduce the need for temporary housing and preserve stricken communities. 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. With the influx of Coast Guard officers, along with uniformed officers from various branches of the military, experienced disaster managers at FEMA found themselves pushed into the background, and many of them simply left the agency in disgust. Speight's plight is an example of how inadequate FEMA assistance can push low-income families toward displacement. But they couldn't afford to fix most of the damage to their home in DeQuincy, La. We did our best for the victims of Katrina, but it was not nearly good enough and it was not what they, or America, deserved from their government. Ten years ago this week, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast and generated a huge disaster. Once the contract staff had been trained on one job, they could be transferred elsewhere and another novice brought in to help.. The Speights' dogs (right) Goliath and Poppy sleep as rain seeps in nearby. But the cause of damage is not always clear. Hurricane Katrina remains one of the worst hurricanes in U.S. history. hide caption. 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 . I dont think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees, Bush said on September 1, 2005, during an interview with Good Morning America. NIMS focuses on 3 pillars for the foundation . We worked through the night, and at 5:30 AM Saturday, August 27, we sent out our morning NSR to all the agency heads, including the heads of FEMA and DHS. 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. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers claimed the massive storm had overwhelmed the levee system, which had been designed to protect the region from a Category 3 storm or below. The NRCC itself was nothing fancy a couple of large, beige-colored rooms filled with desks, phones, computers and a few TV sets tuned in to various news stations. To reflect on what we have and haven't learned since Katrina, Southerly spoke to retired Lieutenant General Russel Honor, the . It is unclear whether this disparity is also present among the agency's home inspectors. The NSR was not classified as secret. That's how 62-year-old Timothy Dominique ended up sleeping on the street for months after Hurricane Laura. Disaster experts and local officials have warned for decades that FEMA's approach to disaster assistance is fundamentally unfair. "Diversity produces equity, because diversity is offering different experiences," she says. August 28, 2005. (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. "We just want what's due to us." 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. The areas in which we focus are . Over 100 million ready meals (MREs) have been shipped by the Department of Defense to shelters and more than 170,000 meals are being served each day in affected areas. President George W. Bush listens to FEMA Director Mike Brown, right, during a briefing on Hurricane Katrina damage in Mobile, Ala., on Friday, Sept. 2, 2005. 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? It was not such a great deal for FEMA. All Rights Reserved. She says many neighbors who had passed down their homes for generations were forced to abandon them because they couldn't afford to fix storm damage. LockA locked padlock 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.'". Donna Murch outlines the historic and ongoing labor struggle at Rutgers University. "We have staff that come from communities all across the nation with varying cultural and demographic backgrounds. A failure of the initiative: Final report of the select . Decisive actions such as evacuating the large numbers of people who did not have cars were simply not being taken. Four hurricanes have hit the city in the last 15 years. 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. If registering by phone, owners of commercial properties and residents with only minor losses are urged to wait a few days before calling so those whose homes were destroyed or heavily damaged can be served first. & Response to Hurricane Katrina. Should housing vouchers have been used earlier and tailored to the disaster event? The agency is up against the clock. But when we reported back in for duty Saturday evening, we were astonished at how little was being done to prepare for the storm. "Because no matter what you say you're doing, the end result is that the poor are being displaced. 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. It was given more autonomy within DHS to manage a response to a disaster. (Photo by Brett Duke, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune), Enid Poche Smith works cleaning out a storage shed at her camp in Killian on Saturday, August 20, 2016. In all, levees and floodwalls in New Orleans and surrounding areas fell in more than 50 locations during Hurricane Katrina, flooding 80 percent of the city and fully 95 percent of St. Bernard Parish. Poor people are less likely to get some type of basic housing assistance from the federal government. In truth, I never even attempted to phone the rescue teams. The Department of Homeland Security, which includes FEMA, acknowledges the failures and says it is conducting its own investigation and evaluation of the rescue efforts. Many survivors of climate-driven disasters, including hurricanes, floods and wildfires, struggle for months or even years to repair their homes or find new stable housing. It seemed that an Atlantic storm had crossed south Florida and entered the Gulf of Mexico, where it could endanger Louisiana, Mississippi, and other states along the Gulf. The house was dangerously hot. Research suggests that implicit bias leads to lower home appraisals for Black homeowners, even when you control for other factors. 10 The drill's purpose By the time Hurricane Katrina made landfall near Buras, Louisiana early on the morning of August 29, 2005, the flooding had already begun. 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. That led to a nearly 40% increase in the bankruptcy rate in neighborhoods where many people of color live. 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? And again, it shouldn't be taken that the RV industry doesn't have a good product, it's just a product that's not designed for long-term housing.". "We do understand our obligation to support disaster survivors in an equitable way; that is a responsibility that we have here at FEMA. Jeb Bush, instead pumped federal funding into Florida's emergency management programs. Ryan Kellman/NPR "I don't know how I was doing it. FEMA was slow to deliver food and . Climate court cases are about to get a lot more interesting. FEMA was rolled into the newly created Department of Homeland Security, and terrorism threats replaced natural disasters as the catastrophes warranting the most attention. Yet due to budget cuts and various delays, the project was only 60-90 percent complete by the time Katrina hit, according to a report by the United States Government Accountability Office. Mario Tama/Getty Images The effects from consecutive hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria were widespread, causing long-lasting damage across the southern continental U.S. and surrounding islands, as well . Postal Service data shows that Lake Charles had the largest outward migration of any city in the United States last year, with about 7% of residents leaving. The storm flooded New Orleans, killed more than 1,800 people, and caused $100 billion in property damage. Once-thriving Black neighborhoods of Port Arthur, Texas, have steadily declined. Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans hadnt experienced a major hurricane for 40 years. "The people who needed it got it. They didn't have the money to fix the damage. Many residents struggled to rebuild. As the disaster unfolded, it was unclear who was in charge of which things at the federal level the FCO or the PFO. "We are going to continue to evaluate the program holistically and ensure that we are delivering assistance equitably," says Turi, the FEMA assistant administrator. His wife, Donnie, says their final months together were more difficult because of unrepaired damage to their home. That was before Hurricane Laura hit in August. If it didn't, the Watch Officer's phone would soon start to ring with callers from Homeland Security, the Defense Department, and other agencies asking: Where is the NSR? It was written as much as possible in plain, non-jargon English, appearing a bit like an in-house newsletter. However, the exercise was unsuccessful because it did not consider the possibility of a breach in the levee system, which caused the majority of the damage during Hurricane Katrina. [U.S. News & World Report, 11/3/05] 10th VICTIMS SUE FEMA FOR AID [New York Times, 11/10/05] Yeah, there are some crazy people out there doing stupid stuff, but we shouldn't use that to then frame the whole thing as 'We shouldn't have engaged the public because there's risk.' It takes less than 30 seconds to give, so if you value a free and independent press, please make a tax-deductible donation today! (Lyons Press, 2017), which chronicles some of history's most famous disappearances. "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. They were only supposed to be in place for up to 18 months. We strive for accuracy and fairness. 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. "One of the best hires I made as president.". . hide caption. Stephen's nickname at work was "Termite" because he was agile enough to crawl into pipes when he was younger. "Through the entire disaster cycle communities that have been underserved stay underserved and thereby suffer needlessly and unjustly," the authors write. With a We need journalists who can investigate, report, and analyze complex issues with honesty and integrity. For example, FEMA could use government records and census data to pinpoint where vulnerable people live and get them money immediately after a disaster, says Beard, the former Port Arthur City Council member. No plan is perfect, but the FRP had served us well in numerous disasters. 93-288, as amended)? The "FEMA trailers" used after Hurricane Katrina were RVs not name for long-term use, prompting complaints of toxic fumes and space limitations. 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. It took everything Donnie had to care for her husband. It was complicated and hard to understand, something you definitely do not want in a disaster. Donnie couldn't use the lift to get Stephen in and out of bed because it needed electricity. The director of FEMA at the time, Joe Allbaugh, ordered an examination of the possibility of a hurricane hitting the city that year (USC Annenberg 2005). I was not going to wake up exhausted rescuers in the middle of the night just to get some numbers for a speechwriter. "Those who have more wealth and have more income [could] get less of the federal aid because they need it less," she says. Our report once again seemed to fall on deaf ears. When FEMA was still an independent agency, it responded to disasters under the Federal Response Plan, the FRP. The FRP had clear lines of authority and specified exactly what was to be done in a disaster. Massive FEMA supply chain failures have resulted in shortages of bottled water, food, gasoline, shelter,power and clothing across New Jersey and metropolitan New York, where victims of Hurricane Sandy are angrily calling President Obama's response no better-and in some regards worse-than President Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina seven years ago. That would make disaster assistance more like other public financial assistance such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits or Medicaid. The federal government has been blamed for the failure to respond rapidly when the storm hit the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. The concept was this: In a major disaster, federal agencies across the Washington area would begin activating their disaster centers to manage their own particular roles in the response. By 4:30 p.m., the winds were dying down and Thornton and Mouton went outside and surveyed the building. hide caption. Well, as any soldier can tell you, the middle of a battle is not when you want to start giving the troops their basic training, but Phil was there and I needed people, so I spent time with him showing him what was needed, going over his work with him and taking whatever time was needed to bring him up to speed. "I went through some hard times there with Steve," she says, sitting in her kitchen on a rainy May morning, the paper program from his funeral on the table in front of her and water pooling on the floor. The area was hit by two hurricanes last year as abnormally hot water fueled a record number of storms in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean. FEMA prepares the nation for all hazards and manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. Approaching the 11th anniversary of Katrina's landfall Monday (Aug. 29), those two scenes between a president and his emergency manager bookend a startling evolution of a federal agency from maligned incompetence to a well-coordinated disaster response team. Paulison issued a memo absolving Johnson of any wrongdoing, but the FEMA employee who leaked the photo that exposed the phony press conference was fired. As Hurricane Katrina bore down on the Gulf Coast, lines of authority under the NRP were unclear, a sure death blow to any emergency plan. The Department of Fish and Wildlife of Kentucky helped to rescue flooded residents in New Orleans even though FEMA never officially tasked them with the mission. I wish my former colleagues at FEMA the best. Looking back, we can see leadership failures at every possible level: local, state, and federal. Its role as a secondary, support organization was more clearly defined. FEMA did not respond to questions about its response to hurricanes in Port Arthur. And centuries of housing discrimination mean white people are more likely to own homes in general. Most residents have evacuated the city and those left behind do not have transportation or have special needs. One experienced disaster manager went so far as to tell me, Craig Fugate and [Deputy Administrator] Rick Serino are great, but from there on down the system is rotten.. WATCH: Cities of the Underworld: Hurricane Katrina on HISTORY Vault. FEMA's own analyses show that low-income survivors are less likely than more affluent people to get crucial federal emergency assistance, according to internal documents NPR obtained through a public records request. It was slow to provide food, shelter, and supplies to first responders and stranded residents alike. In 2016, that budget was $13.9 billion. Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images In March, Stephen Speight died of pulmonary failure.

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