[House Hearing, 110 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
EMPOWERING STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS THROUGH ENHANCED FEMA REGIONAL
OFFICES
=======================================================================
JOINT HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON MANAGEMENT,
INVESTIGATIONS, AND OVERSIGHT,
with the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EMERGENCY
COMMUNICATIONS, PREPAREDNESS,
AND RESPONSE
of the
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
JUNE 4, 2007
__________
Serial No. 110-43
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/
index.html
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
48-918 PDF WASHINGTON : 2009
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800;
DC area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC,
Washington, DC 20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY
BENNIE G. THOMPSON, Mississippi, Chairman
LORETTA SANCHEZ, California, PETER T. KING, New York
EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts LAMAR SMITH, Texas
NORMAN D. DICKS, Washington CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut
JANE HARMAN, California MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana
PETER A. DeFAZIO, Oregon TOM DAVIS, Virginia
NITA M. LOWEY, New York DANIEL E. LUNGREN, California
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of MIKE ROGERS, Alabama
Columbia BOBBY JINDAL, Louisiana
ZOE LOFGREN, California DAVID G. REICHERT, Washington
SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas
DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN, U.S. Virgin CHARLES W. DENT, Pennsylvania
Islands GINNY BROWN-WAITE, Florida
BOB ETHERIDGE, North Carolina MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee
JAMES R. LANGEVIN, Rhode Island GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida
HENRY CUELLAR, Texas DAVID DAVIS, Tennessee
CHRISTOPHER P. CARNEY, Pennsylvania
YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York
AL GREEN, Texas
ED PERLMUTTER, Colorado
VACANCY
Jessica Herra-Flanigan, Staff Director & General Counsel
Rosaline Cohen, Chief Counsel
Michael Twinchek, Chief Clerk
Robert O'Connor, Minority Staff Director
______
SUBCOMMITTEE ON MANAGEMENT, INVESTIGATIONS, AND OVERSIGHT
CHRISTOPHER P. CARNEY, Pennsylvania, Chairman
PETER A. DeFAZIO, Oregon MIKE ROGERS, Alabama
YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York TOM DAVIS, Virginia
ED PERLMUTTER, Colorado MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas
VACANCY PETER T. KING, New York (Ex
BENNIE G. THOMPSON, Mississippi (Ex Officio)
Officio)
Jeff Greene, Director & Counsel
Brian Turbyfill, Clerk
Michael Russell, Senior Counsel
(ii)
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS, PREPAREDNESS, AND RESPONSE
HENRY CUELLAR, Texas, Chairman
LORETTA SANCHEZ, California CHARLES W. DENT, Pennsylvania
NORMAN D. DICKS, Washington MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana
NITA M. LOWEY, New York MIKE ROGERS, Alabama
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of BOBBY JINDAL, Louisiana
Columbia DAVID DAVIS, Tennessee
DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN, U.S. Virgin PETER T. KING, New York (Ex
Islands Officio)
BOB ETHERIDGE, North Carolina
BENNIE G. THOMPSON, Mississippi (Ex
Officio)
Craig Sharman, Director
Nichole Francis, Counsel
Brian Turbyfill, Clerk
Heather Hogg, Minority Senior Professional Staff Member
(iii)
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
STATEMENTS
The Honorable Christopher P. Carney, a Representative in Congress
From the State of Pennsylvania, and Chairman, Subcommittee on
Management, Investigations, and Oversight...................... 1
The Honorable Rogers, a Representative in Congress From the State
of Alabama, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Management,
Investigations, and Oversight.................................. 2
The Honorable Henry Cuellar, a Representative in Congress From
the State of Texas, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Emergency
Communications, Preparedness, and Response:
Oral Statement................................................. 4
Prepared Statement............................................. 4
The Honorable Charles W. Dent, a Representative in Congress From
the State of Pennsylvania, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on
Emergency Communications, Preparedness, and Response
Oral Statement................................................. 5
Prepared Statement............................................. 5
The Honorable Bennie G. Thompson, a Representative in Congress
From the State of Mississippi, and Chairman, Committee on
Homeland Security.............................................. 6
The Honorable Ed Perlmutter, a Representative in Congress From
the State of Colorado.......................................... 36
The Honorable Loretta Sanchez, a Representative in Congress From
the State of California........................................ 34
The Honorable Gene Taylor, a Representative in Congress From the
State of Mississippi........................................... 38
Witnesses
Mr. Bruce Baughman, Director, Alabama Emergency Management
Agency:
Oral Statement................................................. 13
Prepared Statement............................................. 16
Mr. Steve Delahousey, National Vice President, Emergency
Preparedness, Emergency Preparedness, Emergency Medical
Services Corporation:
Oral Statement................................................. 17
Prepared Statement............................................. 19
Major Phil May, Regional Administrator, FEMA Region IV:
Oral Statement................................................. 7
Prepared Statement............................................. 9
Mr. Brien C. Ruiz, President, St. Bernard Parish Fire Fighters
Association (IAFF Local 1468):
Oral Statement................................................. 21
Prepared Statement............................................. 23
For the Record
The Honorable Bobby Jindal, a Representative in Congress From the
State of Louisiana, Prepared Statement......................... 3
EMPOWERING STATE AND LOCAL
OFFICIALS THROUGH ENHANCED
FEMA REGIONAL OFFICES
----------
Monday, June 4, 2007
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Homeland Security,
Subcommittee on Management, Investigations,
and Oversight,
with the
Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness, and
Response,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:00 p.m., 228
South Beach Boulevard, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Hon.
Christopher P. Carney [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Carney, Dent, Rogers, Cuellar,
Thompson, Sanchez, and Perlmutter.
Also Present: Representative Taylor.
Mr. Carney. The subcommittee will come to order. The
subcommittees are meeting today to receive testimony on the
Empowering State and Local Officials Through Enhanced FEMA
Regional Offices.
I welcome Mr. Taylor and ask unanimous consent that he join
us today. Hearing no objections so ordered.
I now recognize myself for an opening statement. First I
would like to thank the City and the people for being so kind
as to host us here today. I know you've been through a lot and
I hope hosting this hearing hasn't been too much of a burden.
I would also like to take a second to thank Mr. Taylor for
joining us. Every time I see him in the halls at the capital or
on the floor of the house I'm reminded of the catastrophe you
all endured, not that Gene's a catastrophe by any stretch, he
has represented you very, very well.
Finally, I would like to thank the mayors who took us on an
amazing tour this afternoon. He chauffeured us around to visit
this morning, and he shared many of the stories with us.
They're very touching, but they didn't really paint the picture
of what has happened down here and how far you've come and how
far you really need to go.
This is my first trip down here since the storm. I spent
time in the gulf region, navy training at Pensacola, and I
spent time in Houston as an educator.
But today we're hoping to have some candid conversations,
and we're here today to access how well FEMA has been working
with state and local officials in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina.
I ran for congress because I was frustrated with what I saw
was a lack of good government. FEMA's poor responses to major
disasters such as flooding in northeast Pennsylvania where I'm
from, and Hurricane Katrina are prime examples.
I understand the severe devastating impact a flood can have
on a community. Pennsylvania has seen several of it's 100 year
floods in the last few years, which has destroyed lives and
towns and houses. This was about the significant winds of your
hurricane, so I have some small empathy for what you have gone
through.
But our flooding season in Pennsylvania is coming up and
June is the official time when it begins. And we are not rest
assured unfortunately that FEMA will be able to respond. We
need accountability for FEMA so that we can better prepare
ourselves for the future. I think we're all interested in
hearing how, if at all, cooperation between local and state
entities has improved with FEMA since congress enacted FEMA
reform. So, please speak freely. We are here to listen. I thank
you and I look forward to your thoughts.
I now recognize the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee of
Management Investigations and Oversight, the gentleman from
Alabama, Mr. Rogers, for an opening statement.
Mr. Rogers. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I'm proud to be back in
the south and here in our neighboring state of Mississippi, and
I want to thank all the witnesses for being here. I
particularly want to take note of Bruce Baughman from the
Alabama Department of Emergency Management. We are very
fortunate to have him. Mr. Baughman was one of the highest
ranking officials at FEMA before he left and came to Alabama,
and he's also a past president of the National Emergency
Management Association and a real pro.
The folks in Alabama and Mississippi are lucky to have
strong leadership for emergency management, and like Governor
Riley and the folks in Alabama impacted by Hurricane Katrina,
Mississippi has shown great resolve in leadership to build
back. Under the strong leadership of Governor Barbour new
programs have been rolled out that have allowed the folks in
Mississippi to get back on their feet and begin rebuilding
their state. As the Governor said, Mississippi will rebuild
bigger and better than ever.
One aspect of the Mississippi experience we will explore
today is the interaction between state and FEMA regional
offices. In the wake of hurricane Katrina Congress passed
sweeping legislation to reform FEMA last year, and on January
18, of 1907 Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff announced the
reorganization plan for FEMA, which took effect March 31st.
This is our committee's first field hearing after the
reorganization of FEMA to hear firsthand from those involved in
the process at the state and local levels. We will examine
today how things have improved, if they've improved, in FEMA's
regional structure, and whether additional steps may need to be
taken to ensure states have the support they need from FEMA
when disaster strikes.
One of the first needs that's being faced after a disaster
is to restore electrical power and key facilities such as water
plants and secure drinking water for the residents. Therefore,
one area we will explore is the extent to which FEMA has pre-
positioned bottled supplies, specifically water and generators,
in states such as Mississippi and Alabama that are in the
direct path of Gulf Coast storms.
Another area we will explore is the extent to which FEMA
works with states and localities to support prenegotiation of
contracts for emergency goods and services. The ability of
state and local agencies to negotiate contracts before disaster
strikes is important to ensure emergency goods and services
will be available when needed and to ensure localities are not
victims of price gouging. To help states and localities in this
area Congress included a provision in the FEMA reform
legislation that provides for advanced contracting.
Specifically, this provision requires FEMA to establish a
process to ensure Federal prenegotiated contracts are
coordinated with state and local governments. The provision
also requires FEMA to encourage state and local governments to
negotiate contracts for goods and services before a natural
disaster or terrorist strike. This approach increases the
safety of local residents while safeguarding taxpayer dollars
in the future.
We look forward to hearing from our witnesses about the
extent to which this approach has been implemented and what can
be done to encourage more prenegotiation of these contracts.
And, Mr. Chairman, before I yield back I would like to note
that Representative Bobby Jindal could not be here today, so I
would ask that his statement be included in the record.
Mr. Carney. Without objection, so ordered.
[The information follows:]
For the Record
Prepared Statement of the Honorable Bobby Jindal, a Representative in
Congress From the State of Louisiana
On May 22, 2007, the National Hurricane Center predicted a very
active hurricane season, with 13--17 named storms, 7--10 hurricanes,
and 3--5 major hurricanes. The prediction signifies an expected
increase in storm activity in comparison to last year's hurricane
season.
As we enter this year's hurricane season, it is critical for all
levels of government to have an established posture of hurricane
preparedness. This should entail a unified partnership of operational
capability too provide effective response and recovery.
Federal and State governments were overwhelmed on the onset in the
aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Over 90,000 square miles of
Gulf Coast land was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, 650,000 people
were displaced, 275,000 homes were completely destroyed. In Louisiana
alone, a quarter of a million jobs were lost and 20,000 businesses were
destroyed. Over $590 million in agriculture damages occurred in
Louisiana resulting from Hurricane Rita devastation.
Last year's Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006
included provisions to provide grants to State and local governments to
develop mass evacuation plans and to help stockpile commodities and
shelters. The Act also required FEMA to enhance its regional offices
through stronger coordination between federal, state, local, and
private sector emergency response principals.
Better planning at a regional level should not just consist of
forward leaning coordination between the different levels of
government, but an integrated partnership fostering clear communication
through a defined point of contact for the Department of Homeland
Security, the Department of Defense, and other states for joint
contingency planning and response.
When Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, the
response was uncoordinated and unorganized. The White House issued its
assessment of the response in The Federal Response to Hurricane
Katrina: Lessons Learned, identifying critical flaws in national
preparedness, including an absence of regional planning and
coordination. According to the report, the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) did not maintain the needed personnel or resources in
its regional offices. This led to reduced communications and
understanding of on-sit needs, further delaying an effective response.
The report recommended an increase in regional response
capabilities. It specifically called on DHS to build its regional
structures to integrate state and local strategies with response
capabilities and to ``encourage and facilitate'' regional partnerships.
In the Homeland Security Act of 2002, Congress mandated that DHS set up
a regional structure. In an April 18, 2005 letter, four months prior to
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita striking the Gulf Coast, I called on
Secretary Chertoff to follow through with a regional framework in which
Louisiana would have been equipped to facilitate a regional response.
In a May 15, 2007 statement before the House Committee on Homeland
Security, FEMA Administrator David Paulison recognized Louisiana's
fragile state of recovery by indicating that FEMA is collaboratively
assessing the state's capabilities and potential need for further
federal assistance. By June 1, 2007, data were scheduled to have been
compiled and reviewed for Louisiana to help local officials understand
potential disaster response gaps in critical areas of debris removal,
evacuation, sheltering, interim housing, healthcare facilities,
commodity distribution, communications, and fuel. We are now four days
into the hurricane season, and this analysis has not yet been
completed.
We need to build upon lessons learned and correct mistakes at all
levels of government, ensuring that response authorities have the
necessary resources and capabilities to provide a unified response. A
DHS regional office structure should be implemented to strengthen state
and local preparedness capabilities, facilitate regional cooperation
among governments and the private sector, and plan and exercise with
first responder entities that support regional disaster response.
The regional structure should maximize the strengths of a region
and work in partnership in identifying critical gaps in preparedness
and infrastructure protection. Through a unified commend structure,
proper training, and open communication, we all can be better prepared
for the hurricane season.
Mr. Rogers. Thank you.
Mr. Carney. The Chair now recognizes the chairman of the
Subcommittee on Emergency Communication Preparedness to
response, the gentleman form Texas, Mr. Henry Cuellar, for any
opening statement.
Mr. Cuellar. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for
allowing us to be here. Again, I apologize, trying to get from
Lorado's small airport to here, and I apologize, but for the
sake of time I would like to go ahead and submit my written
statement, the opening statement, so we can go ahead and
continue and hear from our witnesses.
So, again, we are very interested in finding out the status
of the FEMA reforms and see how that's being done at a
regional, so I will submit my written testimony.
[The statement of Mr. Cuellar follows:]
Prepared Opening Statement of the Honorable Henry Cuellar, Chairman,
Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness, and Response
Good afternoon. First, I would like to welcome our panel.
We're glad that you're here to discuss the status of FEMA reforms at
the regional level.
Hurricane Katrina exposed significant flaws in our
government's ability to prepare for, mitigate against, respond to, and
recover from catastrophic events. It is our duty to ensure that this
never happens again.
The Members of our Committee just finished touring damage
along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and I think we can all agree there is
much work left to be done to bring the coast back to where it was
before Katrina.
Last October, the Post Katrina emergency Management Reform
Act of 2006 was signed into law. The bill made substantial changes to
FEMA and the Department of Homeland security, including making the
Administrator of FEMA responsible for all phases of emergency
management.
It created new leadership positions with clear
requirements, new missions and restored some responsibilities that had
been removed.
Additionally, it called for the enhancement of FEMA's
regional office to allow more decisions during emergencies to be made
by those on the ground and not in Washington.
Efficient, timely and effective implementation of the Act
is critical to homeland security and is a high priority for our
Committee.
While progress is being made by FEMA and the Department of
Homeland Security in reforming their emergency management capabilities,
enormous challenges still remain.
I am specifically interested in hearing from the witnesses
whether they think we are making significant progress in the following
areas: 1) evacuation planning; 2) mass care and housing; 3) emergency
communications; and 4) assisting individuals with special needs.
I also want to discuss how FEMA and the Federal government
can better address the unique challenges local first responders face
when their community is devastated by a catastrophic disaster.
These brave men and women are forced to juggle their sense
of duty with the need to ensure the safety of their families.
I believe we need to better acknowledge their sacrifices
during future disasters and provide expedited assistance to them.
I want to thank the witnesses again for being here today
and I look forward to their testimony.
Mr. Carney. Thank you. The Chair now recognizes the Ranking
Member on the Subcommittee of Emergency Communications
Preparedness and Response, the gentleman from Pennsylvania Mr.
Charles Dent for an opening statement.
Mr. Dent. Thanks, Mr. Chairman, Chairman Carney, and
Chairman Thompson, and also I want to thank our friend Gene
Taylor too for all the hospitality that you've shown here and
to all the people. I've only been here a couple of hours, it's
my first trip to southern Mississippi, but I'm just so amazed
by the spirit of the people I've met. I've only met a few, but
the spirit is remarkable, and obviously there's a tremendous
sense of pride about this community, and a certain toughness
too that I think a lot of us would love to emulate.
Just like Chairman Cuellar, I too will submit my opening
remarks for the record so we can get on with the hearing and
hear from our distinguished panel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Prepared Statement of the Honorable Charles Dent, Ranking Member,
Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness, and Response
I am pleased we're here today to discuss reforms to the Federal
Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Regional offices.
This hearing offers a good opportunity to discuss how State and
local officials--working with the Federal government--are building a
more robust capacity to prepare for and respond to natural disasters or
terrorist attacks.
This hearing will help review the progress that's been made in
improving preparedness while also allowing us to assess the challenges
that remain.
Last year, this Committee was instrumental in the enactment of the
Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006. This legislation
addresses the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina and requires a
number of structural and operational changes.
For instance, the legislation seeks to ensure that a national
system of preparedness is put in place and the Federal resources are
more efficiently and effectivley deployed to assist State and local
officials during catastrophic events like Hurricane Katrina.
I look forward to discussing today how the reforms mandated by last
year's legislation, as well as steps being taken at FEMA's initiative,
are helping build and support strong partnerships for emergency
preparedness and response.
For instance, I understand that through the regional offices, FEMA
is working with the 18 hurricane--impact States to conduct an analysis
of specific vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities are then being used
to develop focused hurricane plans.
Another effort underway is the development of a regional Gulf Coast
Evacuation Plan. I am particularly interested in discussing this
effort, including its coordination and leadership, and the agencies and
organizations involved.
And finally, I look forward to discussing with our witnesses the
steps they are taking this year to better prepare their respective
agencies and their local communities for this year's hurricane season.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Carney. Thank you, Mr. Dent. The Chair now recognizes
the Chairman of the full committee the gentleman from
Mississippi Mr. Bennie Thompson for an opening statement.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you very much, Chairman Carney,
Chairman Cuellar, and other members. I welcome you here to Gene
Taylor's District, but I also welcome you here to my home
state.
This morning the committee had an opportunity, as well as
this afternoon, to see the devastation of what happened with
Hurricane Katrina.
There's no question that we have been adversely impacted.
There's no question that FEMA was not up to the task when
Katrina came, but we want to make sure if another Katrina type
event would occur that with the changes that have gone on
things will be better. Let's talk about a couple of things.
First of all, are insurances companies going to treat
people any better in this community if another hurricane comes,
or are they going to be jacked around like they were before. If
that's the case that's a problem.
Secondly, whether or not FEMA has produced a written
hurricane preparedness plan for this hurricane season. I came
to ask specifically of our Regional Administrator if he has the
plan. We had a hearing two weeks ago, we did not have the plan
for the beginning of this hurricane season. I want to make sure
that we have the plan. If not I want to know how can we fix
anything without a written plan.
In addition to that, the local first responders who have
done a wonderful job, but I'm still hearing that there are a
lot of problems that we're not getting cooperation with. For
instance, there's an issue with formaldehyde in trailers and
whether or not that is being investigated. Congressman Taylor's
office has been intricately involved in that, as well as my
office. I've gotten two answers to the same question. I will
ask the formaldehyde question again today to see if I get a
third answer, or at least will I get one of the two answers
that I've gotten before.
And lastly, let me compliment the committee chairpersons
for coming here. The people in the audience have probably seen
as many congress people as they need. I think what they're
looking for now is how do we fix it to make sure that if
something bad happens, will in fact the cavalry come on time,
can we bring the resources, or whether or not the resources are
available.
We had a hearing, Mr. Carney week before last, we found out
that our guard and reservist most of the equipment is not here.
So, how are we going to get the equipment here if in fact we
have a major problem.
So there are a lot of issues associated with FEMA that I
think are really important, and that's why as Chairman of the
Committee I supported the effort of our two subcommittee
chairpersons to come here, and I look forward to the witnesses
testimony and look forward to the questions after. Thank you,
Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Carney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Other members of the
subcommittees are reminded that under committee rules opening
statements may be submitted for the record. I want to welcome
the witnesses.
Our first witness is Major Phil May, the FEMA Regional
Director from Region 4, which covers Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and
Tennessee.
Our second witness is Bruce Baughman, Director of Alabama
Emergency Management Agency.
Our third witness is Steve Delahousey, Vice President of
Emergency Preparedness for American Medical Response.
Our fourth witness is Brian Ruiz, President of the Saint
Bernard Parish of the Firefighters Association.
Mr. Carney. Without objection the witnesses full statements
will be inserted in the record. I now ask each witness to
summarize his statement for five minutes beginning with Major
May.
STATEMENT OF MAJOR PHIL MAY, REGION 4 ADMINISTRATOR, FEMA
REGIONAL DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Major May. Thank you so much. Thank you, Chairman Carney
and Chairman Thompson, Mr. Taylor. Thank you so much for
inviting me to be here today.
My name is Major Phil May and I am privileged to serve as
the FEMA Regional Administrator for the Department of Homeland
Security FEMA. I oversee FEMA's all hazards efforts to the
southeast.
I am pleased to appear before the committee today to
discuss how Dave Paulison's vision for the new FEMA is being
implemented at the regional level.
As Regional Administrator my goal is to help build a new
FEMA, one that will be a nation's preeminent emergency
management preparedness organization by ensuring that FEMA
Region 4 has a robust infrastructure, and all the appropriate
resources in terms of people, operational systems, planning
assessment tools, training, exercises and equipment.
I know that Administrator Paulison has appeared before this
committee and discussed how FEMA is strengthening it's regions
through improved leadership and enhanced regional coordination.
As Administrator Paulison told you at a hearing back on May
15th, I am but one of 10 full-time administrators currently in
place. This is the first time in recent memory that this has
been achieved.
FEMA learned a number of important lessons from Hurricane
Katrina. One that I believe is most relevant for this hearing
is the importance of close coordination with our partners
before a disaster strikes every level of government. One of the
lessons that Administrator Paulison has repeatedly emphasized
is the breakdown in communications. Not just in a technical
sense, but in the procedural sense. At every level of
government officials were not talking to one another or not
being heard.
That is why one of the hallmarks of the new FEMA is
improved regional coordination. FEMA's Regional Administrators
have been charged to be more active in engaged states than
we've ever been before. We're working to improve the regional
communications performing GAP analysis with each state
undertaking the multi state evacuation planning effort and
supporting regional exercises.
Over the past two years we've taken major steps to make
sure the breakdown in communications that you saw in Katrina do
not happen again. In 2006 we completed the upgrades and
renovations that were needed to create a state of the art
national response coordination center in Washington.
In addition, we're complimenting assets assessments and
upgrading our regional response coordination centers, which are
regionally based multi agency coordination centers that perform
complementary roles to the RCC in Washington.
Operating in each of the 10 FEMA regions the RRCC provides
situational awareness information, identifying and coordinating
response recommendations, to perform capability analysis and
report on the status of Federal disaster response operations.
In addition, each regional administrator will have a
regional emergency communications working group comprised of
representatives from all levels of government, whose primary
objective is to advise the regional leadership on matters
pertaining to emergency communications.
FEMA is employing the GAP Analysis Tool, which is serving
as the basis for the better understanding of the
vulnerabilities in a more consistent manner. This is an
initiative that is a joint effort between the state and FEMA.
The analysis consists of a series of structured discussions
with local jurisdictions to better understand the potential
disaster response asset gaps in critical areas of debris
removal, evacuation, sheltering, interim housing, healthcare
facilities, commodity distribution, communications and fuel.
We're confident that through these structured discussions we
will be better prepared.
FEMA is helping Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama develop
a Gulf Coast Evacuation Plan that extends to adjacent states
which potentially may host Gulf Coast evacuees. The purpose of
a synchronized separate state evacuation plan is to create a
more jointly organized effort. Teams are engaging with each
state, identifying requirements and capabilities, and then will
develop a plan to integrate shelter planning and transportation
planning. The result will be a timelier better organized
coordinated evacuation by those with their own transportation
and for those who may need assistance to evacuate either by bus
or air.
To further strengthen our partnership FEMA is actively
engaging state governments in joint exercises as we prepare for
the 2007 hurricane season. During the first week of May FEMA
tested the national incident management system and its response
operations during an exercise called Ardent Sentry--Northern
Edge, which depicted a Category 3 hurricane that struck
Newport, Rhode Island.
This is just the first of what we will do nationwide
through these exercises testing a variety of scenarios, which
will eventually take place in all the FEMA regions in close
cooperation with all partners.
In conclusion, I believe we've made real progress in
strengthening FEMA's regions as we embark on the new journey
and in a new direction, one that reflects a broader mission
challenge, a wider set of partners, a greater depth of mission
perspective.
The new FEMA will require new skill sets, a greater
investment in our people, new tools to ensure more effective
emergency management at the national and regional level. And
ultimately the new FEMA we're creating will keep the American
people safer than they've ever been before, and make our
services more accessible by having more regional staff and
resources available in the field.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to your questions.
Mr. Carney. Thank you for your testimony, Mr. May.
[The statement of Major May follows:]
Prepared Statement for the Record of Major Phil May
Chairman Thompson, Chairman Carney, Chairman Cuellar, and Members
of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to appear before you today
in Mississippi.
My name is Major Phil May and I am privileged to serve as the
Region IV Administrator for the Department of Homeland Security's
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In this role, I oversee
FEMA's all hazards efforts in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky,
Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. As the
primary FEMA representative and coordinator to a disaster prone region,
I oversee the development, implementation and execution of all FEMA
Region IV programs and initiatives, and have planning and operational
oversight of special projects related to building a strong, capable,
and responsive Region. My goal is to help Administrator Paulison build
a new FEMA that will be the Nation's preeminent emergency management
and preparedness organization by ensuring FEMA Region IV has a robust
infrastructure and all the appropriate resources, in terms of people,
operational systems, planning and assessment tools, training,
exercises, and equipment. In addition, I work to foster the necessary
relationships before disasters strike across the full spectrum of
emergency management on all levels of government, the private sector,
nonprofit, and non-governmental entities.
In keeping with the guiding principle of the new FEMA, we are
leaning further forward to deliver more effective disaster assistance
to individuals and communities impacted by a disaster. We call it
``engaged partnership.'' That is the FEMA you saw in the tornadoes that
struck Florida in January and Georgia and Alabama in March tornadoes,
as well as the Nor'easter that flooded areas of the New England States
and last month in Kansas where the community of Greensburg was
devastated by a tornado.
In those disasters you witnessed a FEMA that became an engaged
partner with the State within minutes of the disaster, rapidly
deploying operational and technical experts to the disaster site. You
also witnessed a proactive FEMA that led the charge by ensuring an
effective Unified Command with other Federal agencies, and State and
local officials, working together to help a devastated community.
These actions were taken by a well-led, motivated, and professional
FEMA workforce that has embraced and enhanced the vision and reality of
a new FEMA.
As many of you are aware, on May 22nd, the U.S. National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center
released its 2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook. NOAA scientists
projected a 75 percent chance that the Atlantic hurricane season will
be above normal. This prediction includes 13 to 17 named storms with 7
to 10 becoming hurricanes, of which 3 to 5 could become major
hurricanes of Category 3 strength or higher. NOAA's prediction is in
line with the Colorado State University prediction, which predicted 17
named storms, including 9 hurricanes, of which 5 are expected to be
major hurricanes.
Accordingly, FEMA is leaning forward as we prepare for an active
2007 hurricane season. Engaging our tribal, local, State and Federal
partners in more thorough and informed hurricane planning; building
FEMA's operational capabilities for a more effective response and
recovery; and amplifying our stance on hurricane readiness will put
FEMA in good standing to meet whatever challenges unfold.
BACKGROUND
FEMA has learned much from the 2005 hurricane season and the damage
that was inflicted on the communities and families of the Gulf Coast.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have served as a catalyst for major changes
in federal policy, approaches, and the relationship between DHS-FEMA,
the private sector and at all levels of government.
The Department appreciates the tools given to us in the Post-
Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act (PKEMRA). PKEMRA codifies and
expands FEMA's regional office structure and strengthens our all-
hazards operational framework and coordination capabilities. The ten
Regional Administrators provided for in the Act report directly to the
FEMA Administrator. The statute also provides for the creation of
Regional Advisory Councils and new regional incident management
assistance teams.
The Regional Advisory Councils will provide valuable advice and
recommendations to each
Regional Administrator on regional emergency management issues and
identify weaknesses or deficiencies in preparedness, protection,
operations, assistance, and mitigation for State, local and tribal
governments based on their specialized knowledge of the region. We hope
to make selections for the Regional Advisory Councils later this year.
Additionally, the Act calls for the establishment of regional emergency
communications working groups, which would report to Regional
Administrators and advise them of emergency communications concerns and
issues. This new structure will help to facilitate and further enhance
our national and regional based evacuation and catastrophic planning
efforts.
STRONG REGIONAL LEADERSHIP
As Administrator Paulison previously testified before your
Committee, FEMA has staffed each Region with an Administrator who
possesses an extensive background in emergency management.
Collectively, all ten Regional Administrators possess over 300 years of
experience in preparing for and responding to disasters. Three of the
ten Administrators, including me, are career senior executives. Having
career staff in three of the Regions will ensure continuity of best-
practices from administration to administration. I am pleased to report
that all 10 Regional Administrators are on board and prepared to meet
the needs of their respective regions.
ENHANCED REGIONAL COORDINATION
Regional Advisory Council
FEMA has worked diligently to fine tune the appropriate framework
to establish the Regional Advisory Councils. The charter for the
councils is presently under final review by the FEMA Administrator.
These councils will advise the Regional Administrators on all aspects
of emergency management and will comprise representatives from State,
territorial, local and tribal governments. The councils will also
identify any geographic, demographic, or other characteristics specific
to any State, territorial, local, or tribal government within the
Region that might make preparedness, protection, response, or
mitigation more challenging. Finally, the councils will advise the
Regional Administrators on any weaknesses or deficiencies in
preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation within the
regional area of responsibility that should be addressed. These
Regional Advisory Councils will significantly improve communication
between the multiple levels of government and give Regional
Administrators the critical insights to address the needs of the
communities in which they serve.
Defense Coordinating Officers
FEMA and the Department of Defense (DOD) have taken major strides
to ensure that federal and military response is coordinated and
seamless, especially at the regional level. DOD has assigned Regional
Defense Coordinating Officers (DCO), supported by Defense Coordinating
Elements (DCE), in each of FEMA's Regions to ensure military
coordination at the Regional level. Currently, all 10 FEMA Regions are
staffed by a DCO and support DCE.
Regional Communications
Among the lessons learned after the 2005 hurricane season, none has
been taken more seriously than the breakdown of interagency and intra-
agency communications. Communication between the Federal government and
our partners at the State and local levels is an integral part of
emergency management. Over the past two years we have taken major steps
to make sure this breakdown does not happen again.
In 2006, we completed the upgrades and renovations needed to create
a state of the art National Response Coordination Center (NRCC). The
NRCC is a central location where Federal agencies meet during a
disaster to coordinate national response under the National Response
Plan (NRP). In addition, we are completing assessments and upgrading
our Regional Response Coordination Centers (RRCC), which are the
regionally-based multi-agency coordination centers that perform a
complementary role to the NRCC. Operating in each of the ten FEMA
Regions, the RRCC provides situational awareness information,
identifies and coordinates response requirements, performs capabilities
analysis, and reports on the status of Federal disaster response
operations.
During Katrina, we had a failure in our communications with people
in the field--key element which needed for us to have situational
awareness of what was happening on the ground--coupled with substandard
coordination with our partners across the Federal government. Both the
NRCC and RRCC have a seat at the table for each of the 26 agencies that
have roles under the NRP, as well as secure links to key offices around
the country and the capability to bring State and local officials into
the conversation.
One of the key lessons learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was
the need for a state-of-theart national warning system. In 2006, FEMA's
Office of National Security Coordination (now the Office of National
Continuity Programs) focused on the multi-year task of building an
Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS).Last year, we
successfully completed the Digital Emergency Alert System pilot and
worked with the Association of Public Television Stations deploying the
system to all PBS affiliates around the country. In addition, FEMA
helped in establishing two new Emergency Alert System Primary Entry
Point radio stations--one located here in Mississippi and the other in
Alabama--and 15 hurricane region stations were provided with satellite
links to improve their communications during disasters. When this
project is completed over the next five years, it will greatly enhance
our nation's emergency communications capabilities.
Administrator Paulison has made communications and outreach to
tribal, State and local officials a high priority for the Regional
Administrators. Our expanded role in the regions will help us to build
strong ties on the ground before disasters strike, so that we are not
exchanging business cards in the emergency operations center.
DHS has provided true leadership for FEMA to lay the groundwork to
build a more robust national communication capability. In January 2007,
DHS issued the Tactical Interoperable Communication Scorecards. These
scorecards assessed the maturity of tactical interoperable
communications capabilities in 75 urban/metropolitan areas. They were
developed by subject matter expert panels that reviewed documentation
on current communications plans, exercises, and a self-assessment to
arrive at consensus findings and recommendations for each region on how
to best improve that region's communications capabilities.
Moreover, by November 1, 2007, each State and Territory must submit
a Statewide Communication Interoperability Plan to DHS. The goal of
this plan is to provide a strategic vision for how each State and
Territory will achieve and further invest in statewide interoperability
and communications.
In addition, DHS, in conjunction with the Department of Commerce
National Telecommunications and Information Administration in
consultation with DHS will make nearly $1 billion available to states
and localities later this fiscal year through a Public Safety
Interoperable Communications Grant Program, authorized by the Deficit
Reduction Act of 2005 and amended by the Call Home Act of 2006. Through
FEMA's disaster relief fund, an additional $1.3 million has been made
available for Mississippi for emergency communications equipment in
Pike, Pearl River, Stone, Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson Counties. The
money will be spent to install interoperability equipment, including
repeaters on six South Mississippi communications towers.
Finally, each Regional Administrator has been provided a workgroup
comprising representatives from all levels of government, whose primary
objective is to advise the regional leadership on matters pertaining to
emergency communications. The Regional Emergency Communications Working
Group, referred to as an RECC Working Group reports to the Regional
Administrator and advises him or her on all aspects of emergency
communications. The Regional Managers, in turn, will share this advice
on emergency communications with State and Local emergency managers
within the Region.
HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS
I know that Administrator Paulison has briefed you on FEMA's
readiness for the Hurricane season from the National perspective;
however, please allow me to expand upon a few of its components and
talk briefly about what we are doing here in Region IV to prepare.
Enhanced Response Teams
To further enhance disaster response capabilities and ultimately
provide for the three national-level response teams and regional-level
emergency response ``strike'' teams required in the Post-Katrina Act,
FEMA is developing the next generation of rapidly deployable
interagency emergency response teams, tentatively identified as
Incident Management Assistance Teams, or ``IMATs.'' IMATs are designed
to provide a forward Federal presence to facilitate managing the
national response to catastrophic incidents. The primary mission of a
FEMA IMAT will be to rapidly deploy to an incident or incident-
threatened venue, provide leadership in the identification and
provision of Federal assistance, and coordinate and integrate inter-
jurisdictional response in support of the affected State(s) or U.S.
Territory(s). The IMATs will support efforts to meet the emergent needs
of State and local jurisdictions; possess the capability to provide
initial situational awareness for Federal decision-makers; and support
the initial establishment of a unified command.
The teams are still being designed and decisions on team assets,
equipment, and expected capabilities have not yet been finalized. When
not deployed, the teams will train with Federal partners and provide a
training capability to elevate state and local emergency management
capabilities. The teams will also engage in consistent and coordinated
operational planning and relationship-building with State, local,
tribal, and other stakeholders.
Initially, our goal is to establish interim Regional and National
teams utilizing existing personnel within FEMA. The teams will subsume
the existing mission and capabilities of the Federal Incident Response
Support Teams (or ``FIRSTs'') and Emergency Response Teams (or
``ERTs'').
The mission and capabilities will incorporate similar leadership,
emergency management doctrine, and operational communications concepts.
The national-level and regional-level teams will eventually be staffed
with a core of full-time employees, unlike the ERTs, which are staffed
on a collateral duty basis; will be fully compliant with NIMS and ICS;
and will train and exercise as a unit.
Gap Analysis
FEMA is employing a Gap Analysis Tool, which is serving as the
basis for better understanding vulnerabilities in a more consistent
manner. The Gap Analysis Tool was developed in coordination with the
State of New York Emergency Management Office and the New York City
Office of Emergency Management, and has been implemented to provide
FEMA and its State and local partners in the hurricane prone regions of
the country with a snapshot of asset gaps at the local, State, and
National levels.
This initiative is a joint effort between State Emergency
Management representatives and FEMA Regional representatives. The
analysis consists of a series of structured discussions with local
jurisdictions to better understand potential disaster response asset
gaps in the critical areas of debris removal, evacuation, sheltering,
interim housing, healthcare facilities, commodity distribution,
communications, and fuel. The discussions provide an opportunity for
local jurisdictions to ask specific questions of Federal and State
officials and identify issues of critical concern to help long-term
preparedness programs. We are confident that through these structured
discussions, we will all be better prepared.
Specific gaps are determined by identifying a series of
requirements in each critical area within each location and then
subtracting the corresponding capabilities for meeting those
requirements for each location. Although our initial use of this
concept is being applied for the upcoming hurricane season, this
process is applicable to all hazards and the goal is to build upon
lessons learned and apply the tool to all locations for all hazards on
an ongoing basis.
The new FEMA has made a conscious effort to focus broadly on all 18
hurricane-prone States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and
Territories to prepare for the 2007 Hurricane Season. Today, FEMA is
working closely with each of the 18 state emergency management
communities in hurricane prone states using a consistent set of
measures and tools to evaluate strengths and vulnerabilities. We have
people on the ground at this moment conducting these analyses with
state emergency managers.
Modeling is also an essential element of FEMA's planning efforts
for different circumstances and data sets. FEMA is coordinating with
the DHS Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate to adapt modeling
tools for the specific circumstances of large metropolitan areas. As
the use of the Hurricane Gap Analysis Tool matures, FEMA plans to
incorporate additional modeling capabilities to validate the data
received and forecast needs based on different variables.
Evacuation Planning Initiative and Coordination
FEMA is helping Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama develop a Gulf
Coast Evacuation Plan that extends to adjacent States which host Gulf
Coast evacuees. The purpose is to synchronize separate State evacuation
plans to create a more jointly organized effort. Teams are engaging
with each State, identifying requirements and capabilities, and then
will develop a plan that integrates shelter planning with
transportation planning. The result will be a timelier, better
organized and coordinated evacuation by those with their own
transportation and those who need assistance to evacuate by bus or air.
Catastrophic Disaster Planning Initiatives
Using the Catastrophic Planning funding appropriated in fiscal year
06, Region IV, along with our sister Regions of V, VI, and VII, is
developing scenario-driven workshops with each of the eight New Madrid
Seismic Zone (NMSZ) States. The Workshop Execution Plan uses a bottom-
up approach, where the states will take the lead and FEMA will provide
guidance. The states clearly have taken ownership and are committed to
working with each other, the FEMA regional offices, other Federal
agencies, the private sector, and other stakeholders to create, as one
state director noted, ``the most comprehensive catastrophic response
and recovery plan in our nation's history.''
Over the next 12 months each state will conduct its own state-wide
catastrophic planning workshop, tailored for its individual
catastrophic planning goals and objectives, using a template provided
by Innovative Emergency Management (IEM), our contracting firm. The
Mississippi Emergency Management Planning Staff and the full-time FEMA-
funded contractor are collaborating on developing a Workshop Execution
Plan which will culminate in a Federal, State and local exercise during
the second quarter of fiscal year 2008.
We are also working with 13 southeastern Louisiana parishes
(including the City of New Orleans), which were selected as the initial
geographic focus area for FEMA's ``Catastrophic Planning'' initiative,
because of their vulnerability to hurricane disasters. Substantial
planning activity for the 2007 Hurricane Season continues with the
State of Louisiana and its parishes.
In addition, FEMA is using scenario-driven workshops to enhance the
State of Florida's capability to respond to a Category 5 Hurricane
making landfall in southern Florida. This is a two-phase project. Phase
one focuses on developing regional response and recovery annexes,
including evacuation planning, for the counties and communities
surrounding Lake Okeechobee (in the event of a Herbert Hoover Dike
failure) and will soon be completed. Phase two will address the effects
of a Category 5 hurricane striking south Florida. The end product for
phase two will be to standardize comprehensive catastrophic Category 5
hurricane disaster functional response and recovery plans for the State
of Florida and responding Federal agencies. Phase two will be completed
by September 30, 2008. These plans will also be used as planning
templates for other large urban areas.
Regional Exercises and Training
To further strengthen our partnerships, FEMA is actively engaged
with State governments in joint exercises to prepare for the 2007
Hurricane Season. During the first week in May, FEMA tested the
national incident management system (NIMS) and its response operations
during an exercise called Ardent Sentry--Northern Edge, which depicted
a Category 3 hurricane that struck Newport, R.I.
CONCLUSION
I believe we have made real progress in strengthening FEMA's
Regions as we embark on a new journey and in a new direction; one that
reflects a broader mission challenge, a wider set of partners, and a
greater depth of mission perspective. The new FEMA will require new
skills, a greater investment in our people, and new tools to ensure
more effective emergency management at the national and regional level.
Ultimately, the new FEMA we are creating will keep the American people
safer than they were before and make our services more accessible by
having more Regional staff and resources available in the field.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to answering your
questions.
Mr. Carney. I now recognize Mr. Baughman. Five minutes.
STATEMENT BRUCE BAUGHMAN, DIRECTOR, ALABAMA EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT AGENCY
Mr. Baughman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, I'm
Bruce Baughman Director of the Alabama Emergency Management
Agency. I have got about 36 years experience in emergency
management. At the state level, four at the State of
Mississippi, four for the State of Alabama, and 28 years with
FEMA.
I'm here to talk about FEMA, how FEMA's worked with the
State of Alabama to enhance our capabilities to respond to
disasters, both in our recent tornadoes and in preparation for
hurricanes.
Recently after the passage of the first Katrina Emergency
Reform Act FEMA launched what they called the new FEMA. They
recommitted themselves to establishing stronger regions and
more customer focused organization with regards to working with
the states. I feel that they've done that. In a recent
hurricane after March the 1st a tornado struck at 12:30, and at
3:00 I was on the phone with Director May and he was asking
what type of assistance we need.
Within hours the Transition Recovery Director from the
Alabama Transition Recovery Office was in my office where we
coordinated our activities. The next day the Federal
Coordinating Officer was there, and the next day we had
Presidential Disaster Declaration. Couldn't have asked for any
better response than that.
So, to us the new FEMA slogan it's just a slogan it's an
actual commitment to the people of our state.
In preparation for hurricane season we've been working very
closely with FEMA region and FEMA headquarters to preposition
those commodities that we feel we're going to need in front of
a hurricane, water, ice, cots, pillows, blankets, hygiene kits,
tarps and personal comfort kits. We've worked with FEMA to
establish what we project our first 72-hour consumption rate is
for those commodities. Those have been either pre-positioned or
are in the process of being pre-positioned in our state.
We're currently in the process of negotiating with FEMA for
a 100,000 square foot warehouse to be located in Montgomery to
store these items.
More importantly is exercising. On April the 16th Governor
Bob Riley, myself and other members of the Cabinet, along with
members of private industries in our counties, and FEMA and
their counterparts met in Montgomery to walk through a disaster
scenario.
In that scenario we established our operation priorities,
what we would be looking for from the Federal Government, and
basically turned over that list of requirements that we would
need in a hurricane to them, which is not a large list in our
particular case because we feel that we have done the planning
required to get ourselves prepared for a major hurricane. That
doesn't mean we've addressed everything or we would not need
Federal financial assistance.
Other things that we've done is we're working as Phil
mentioned in conjunction with FEMA headquarters and regions
with a gulf state planning initiative. This planning initiative
was designed to identify gaps that we might have in our
evacuation plans and to look at ways we can enhance that. One
of the things that we're doing right now in the State of
Alabama since we have excess shelter capacity is to provide
additional shelter space to the State of Louisiana.
On May 17th, as I mentioned, we did in fact do a lot of
exercises. We activated our emergency operations center,
brought all the state and Federal responders together and
walked through a disaster scenario so that people actually
engaged in a disaster operation and had some hands-on
experience in working together.
What we do in responding to disaster is we choreograph it,
so at 96 hours out we activate our emergency operations center,
we are on the phone twice a day with FEMA and the hurricane
center and with the adjacent states looking at what their
requirements are. We begin a volunteer evacuation at that time.
We also understand the importance that the media plays in this
in getting the word out to the public, so twice a day we are
holding briefings with our Federal counterparts and with the
various state agencies.
We start opening shelters at 96 hours. We're making sure
that the shelters have emergency power. If we cannot provide
it, FEMA's working with us to provide that emergency power.
We also have used Homeland Security dollars to create the
Alabama Mutual Aid System. That system has 54 search and rescue
teams, emergency medical teams and law enforcement teams to
communities response. 5,200 members of that system responded to
both Louisiana and Mississippi during Hurricane Katrina. These
teams can help in search and rescue, traffic control, debris
movement and other emergency response issues.
At 72 hours out we have FEMA emergency response teams in
our emergency operations center. We are doing a unified command
at that time so that they are looking at our operational
priorities and filling in the requirements that we're relying
on for additional supplemental assistance.
At 48 hours out the Governor issues an emergency
proclamation, FEMA's hopefully moving in additional pre-
positioned commodities. We are doing a mandatory evacuation at
that time in Mobile and Baldwin Counties, and at that time the
Governor would ask for an emergency declaration from the
President.
And at 24 hours out our evacuations are complete. Over 130
shelters should have been opened housing more than 44,000
evacuees.
Let me in conclusion, I want to make some specific
recommendations. One, I think that FEMA's regional role in
preparedness needs to be strengthened. That's one of the things
we tried to work on in the FEMA format. I think that needs to
happen. They need to work closer with the state day in and day
out. Prior to this the only time we saw FEMA was when a
disaster occurred. Now we're working with Phil May and his
staff day in and day out to make sure our emergency
preparedness requirements are met.
In addition to that, the regions need additional staff.
Right now the regions are woefully understaffed to carry out
the missions of preparedness response and recovery. The
regional staff needs to be bumped up.
And in addition to that additional funds need to be
provided for training. But if we're ever going to get any
better and FEMA is going to be able to carry out it's mission,
additionally states have got to have additional dollars to
prepare themselves because they are the first line responders
along with local government in any disasters out there. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Carney. I thank you, Mr. Baughman.
[The statement of Mr. Baughman follows:]
Prepared Statement of Bruce Baughman
Good Morning Chairman Thompson and Ranking Member King. I am the
Director of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, I have over 36
years experience in Emergency Management over four in my current job,
twenty-nine with FEMA and the federal government and four with the
Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. I am here to talk to you today
about how FEMA has worked with Alabama during both recent declared
disasters and in the preparation of the upcoming hurricane season.
Earlier this year as a result of the Post Katrina Emergency Management
Reform Act FEMA launched what they are calling ``new'' FEMA, and they
re-committed to establishing stronger regions and a more customer-
focused organization in regards to working with states impacted by
disasters. I feel they have upheld their commitment. My staff and the
people of Alabama saw it first hand immediately following the March 1st
tornadoes. The first tornado struck at 12:30pm and by 3:00pm that same
day, FEMA Region IV Administrator Phil May was on the phone asking what
type assistance we might need. Administrator May has a Southern Linc
radio provided to him by our office to make sure we are in constant
contact, and not just during times of disasters, but on a day to day
basis. Transitional Recovery Officer Robert Ives was also dispatched to
our EOC just hours after the storm devastated Alabama. I also worked
with Alabama's Federal Coordinating Officer, Gracia Szczech in the
recovery phase, and she and her staff vowed to stay in our state until
the survivors of the devastating storm got the assistance they needed.
FEMA's quick response proves the term ``new'' FEMA isn't a slogan, but
an actual commitment to the people in our state.
Alabama/ FEMA Preparation for Hurricane Season
Based on Colorado State University hurricane predictions there is a
74% chance a hurricane will make landfall on the U.S coastline and a
49% chance a major hurricane will make landfall on the Gulf Coast.
Governor Riley asked FEMA Administrator David Paulison to preposition
much needed emergency commodities in our state such as water, food,
ice, cots, blankets, pillows, hygiene kits, tarps and personal comfort
kits. We worked with FEMA to establish our projected 72 hour
consumption rate for the above mentioned commodities. Not only did FEMA
listen to our request, but they responded by making sure we have what
we need in Alabama, or either committing to getting it here in a timely
manner, as it's needed. FEMA is currently in the process of negotiating
a 100,000sq foot warehouse in Montgomery that will store some of the
pre-positioned items. On April 16, 2007, Alabama Governor Bob Riley,
his cabinet members and private industry representatives participated
in Governor's annual Hurricane Workshop. FEMA Region IV Administrator
Phil May along with predesignated EMA response and recovery staff also
attended to see what the state has established as our operational
priorities for a landfall event. This was our opportunity to discuss
the operational requirements of a major hurricane prior to and after it
makes landfall, as well as the preparation that takes place throughout
the year at our agency. We are also working with FEMA Region IV on
identifying gaps in our evacuation plans. We have had a series of
meetings between FEMA, state, and local agencies to pre-identify what
the locals will need from the state and in turn what the state will in
need in the way of support from FEMA to successfully evacuate the
citizens of the coast of Alabama and other impacted states. We are also
working in conjunction with FEMA Region IV to identify other
operational gaps that might exist such as communications and emergency
power. We are a participating state in FEMA's Gulf Coast Mass
Evacuation planning initative. This is an initiative to better
coordinate a mass multi state evacuation. Alabama continues to work
closely with FEMA Region IV in preparing for the 2007 hurricane season.
AEMA Preparedness and Hurricane Timeline
On May 17, 2007 we conducted a working level Hurricane exercise in
our EOC, where we bring all the state agency representatives and run
through emergency actions related to a major hurricane. This simulated
event gives us an opportunity to make sure every agency is aware of
their role during and prior to a disaster. My agency also conducts
regional exercises with our coastal region to ensure that preparedness
measures are being met. The state has pre-determined operational
priorities for both post and pre landfall. These priorities are also
shared with FEMA. We are conducting local elected official's briefings
throughout the state to ensure proper interface with local governments
during emergencies.
Our current procedures and priorities begin at 96 hours out from a
potentially dangerous storm in the Gulf, the EOC activates at level 3.
At that time we are activating resource contracts for food, water and
ice. Also at this activation level we are beginning our twice-daily
situation updates. FEMA, the National Hurricane Center and the states
are updating one another on the latest trace of the storm and what
actions are being taken. At this time the counties begin voluntary
evacuation. We understand the important role the media plays in
conveying what's going on to the public, so at this time we hold twice
daily media briefings. We start opening shelters and making sure there
are generators at those facilities. The Alabama Mutual Aid System is
now on alert, and this system consists of 54 teams throughout the
state. About 5,200 members of the mutual aid system responded to
Louisiana, Mississippi and the coast of Alabama during the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina. Recently we dispatched four of these teams and 350
state personnel to assist the stricken communities following our recent
outbreak of tornadoes. They assisted in search and rescue, traffic
control, debris removal and other emergency measures.
At 72 hours out, the EOC is activated at level 2 and we receive our
FEMA Emergency Response Team, and establish a unified command and begin
joint action planning. County liaisons are deployed and back-up
communications are on stand-by and ready to be deployed as needed.
At 48 hours from the hurricanes' anticipated landfall, the EOC is
fully activated and staffed. The Governor will issue an Emergency
Proclamation, pre-positioned commodities are also being moved, and our
mandatory evacuation plan is implemented, which includes four zones in
Mobile County and Baldwin Counties. 24 hours from land fall the
evacuation should be complete. More than 130 shelters have been
identified with a capacity of more than 44, 000. That number includes
23 two-year community colleges identified throughout the state.
The Conclusion
In closing, I understand the Department of Homeland Security and
FEMA reorganized as a way to better serve the communities not only in
Alabama, but across the United States, but I feel that FEMA must
strengthen its regions and equip them with the tools to do the job.
What I have found in all my years in emergency management, it's not so
much how you organize but, it's the people you have in your
organization, and FEMA has good people; and that makes the difference
if you are successful in the time of a disaster.
Mr. Carney. I now recognize Mr. Delahousey for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF STEVEN DELAHOUSEY, VICE PRESIDENT, EMERGENCY
PREPAREDNESS FOR AMERICAN MEDICAL SERVICES CORPORATION
Mr. Delahousey. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me to
testify at this hearing. My name is Steve Delahousey, I'm a
registered nurse and registered paramedic. I'm currently
National Vice President of Emergency Preparedness or Emergency
Medical Services Corporation, which through it's operating
subsidiaries, American Medical Response and EmCare serves
approximately 10 million patients each year. AMR is a leading
provider of emergency and nonemergency ambulance service in the
Nation with operations in 36 states and the District of
Columbia.
EmCare is a leading provider of outsourced emergency
department staffing and related management services contracting
with more than 350 hospitals nationwide.
My testimony today to primarily related to my experiences
and observations as the AMR Medical Disaster Officer during
Hurricane Katrina.
Today's topic, Empowering State and Local Officials Through
Enhanced FEMA Regional Offices, is timely and appropriate given
the prediction for a very active 1907 hurricane season.
In August of 2005, prior to Katrina, there were
approximately 5,000 patients in healthcare facilities, and
another 45,000 noninstitutionalized individuals with severe
disabilities in the three Mississippi coastal counties. Many of
them required assistance with evacuation. Katrina made landfall
in Mississippi on Monday, August 29th. We began requesting
state and Federal assistance for medical evacuation two days
prior to landfall. State agencies responded promptly, but their
limited resources were quickly depleted. There was no Federal
ambulance evacuation plan in place at the time. We therefore
had to rely upon our internal resources within the private
sector. Private ambulances from nearby states were deployed to
south Mississippi to complete the evacuation prior to Katrina's
landfall.
We are pleased to say that there were no deaths or no
significant untoward effects that resulted from this massive
medical evacuation effort in Mississippi.
26 days after Katrina wreaked havoc in Mississippi,
Louisiana and Alabama hurricane Rita set it's sights on Texas
and Louisiana. This time the Federal Government was ready. FEMA
authorized hundreds of Federal contracted ambulances to be
deployed to Houston, Texas to assist with the medical
evacuation there.
We are thankful to congress for passing the post Katrina
Emergency Management Reform Act, which reorganizes the
Department of Homeland Security by reconfiguring FEMA and
including national preparedness functions. We agree with FEMA's
Administrator's policies when he said that the new FEMA
reflects the expanded scope of FEMA's responsibility that
supports a more nimble, flexible use of resources. It will
deliver enhanced capabilities to partners at the state and
local level with emergency management and preparedness
organizations and to engage the capabilities of the private
sector.
The post Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act expands
FEMA's regional office structure. It provides for the creation
of Regional Advisory Councils to give advice and
recommendations to the Regional Administrators on emergency
management issues. We totally agree with Secretary Chertoff
when he stated, ``one of the greatest lessons from Katrina that
we learned is you just can't show up and introduce yourself
when the emergency is underway.''
Mississippi is often recognized for its efficient post
Katrina recovery efforts. There are many reasons for this
success, but I believe these to be the most significant:
We utilized a unified command structure here in
Mississippi.
We had strong leadership from the Governor's office.
We had a competent state emergency management agency.
Some of FEMA's best response personnel were sent to
Mississippi.
And lastly, the resilience of Mississippians.
I have witnessed firsthand what a positive difference
experienced leaders can make during disasters. FEMA appointed
James Russo as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Mississippi
post Katrina to work hand in hand with the Governor and senior
leaders at the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
Hopefully, empowering FEMA regional offices will allow
experienced field commanders like Mr. Russo to carry out their
job even more efficiently.
The creation of the Office of Health Affairs, led by Chief
Medical Officer Dr. Jeff Runge, has also had a positive impact
and we look forward to working with Dr. Runge and his team of
experts.
Finally, I'd like to comment on the need for additional DHS
funding for EMS providers. Along with fire and police, EMS
providers are one of three primary first responder groups. The
vast majority of EMS providers, however, lack sufficient access
to Federal funding and are therefore under equipped and need
additional training to effectively respond to a terrorist
attack or natural disaster.
Chairman Thompson, you may recall in 2003 Congress asked
the DHS Office of Domestic Preparedness to clarify whether
ambulance providers are eligible for grant funds awarded the
states. ODP provided a written opinion which states, ``in
recognition that in many communities private EMS providers are
the sole providers of EMS, ODP determined that both public and
private EMS providers are eligible for funding under the State
Homeland Security Grant Program as long as it is consistent
with the state's Homeland Security strategy, and the private
EMS providers are components of the local or state response
plans.''
Despite this opinion, in fiscal year 04 and fiscal year 05,
DHS reported that less than 4 percent of first responder grant
money was awarded to EMS providers. EMS providers, however,
represent a full one third of the first responder work force,
and are the primary first responders for medical assistance as
evidenced by the response during Hurricane Katrina.
For the past two years Congress has included conference
report language to Homeland Security Appropriations Bills
noting their concern over the lack of funding for EMS
providers. You recommended a minimum of 10 percent of Homeland
Security funding for EMS providers in the House Report for both
of those years. We urge you to act on those recommendations.
It would also appear that perhaps an amendment to the
Stafford Act is needed to resolve EMS funding inequities.
Currently the Stafford Act makes no mention of funding
eligibility for EMS providers or ambulance services. This
explicit omission creates confusion to Federal, state and local
government officials resulting in disparity for EMS providers
to receive DHS or FEMA grant funds and reimbursement for
services rendered during times of disasters. Your assistance in
passing a simple amendment to the Stafford Act recognizing EMS
as emergency work, and EMS providers as public safety personnel
along with fire and police is requested. Thank you for your
time and I look forward to answering your questions.
Mr. Carney. Thank you, Mr. Delahousey.
[The statement of Mr. Delahousey follows:]
Prepared Statement for the Record of Steven J. Delahousey
Chairman Thompson, Chairman Cuellar, Chairman Carney and Members of
the Subcommittees:
Thank you for inviting me to testify at this hearing. My name is
Steven J. Delahousey. I am a registered nurse and a registered
paramedic. I am currently the National Vice President of Emergency
Preparedness for Emergency Medical Services Corporation (EMSC) which
through its operating subsidiaries, American Medical Response, Inc.
(AMR) and EmCare, Inc. (EmCare), serves approximately ten million
patients each year.. AMR is a leading provider of emergency and
nonemergency ambulance service in the nation with operations in thirty-
six (36) states and the District of Columbia. EmCare is a leading
provider of outsourced emergency department staffing and related
management services, contracting with more than 350 hospitals
nationwide.
My testimony today is primarily related to my experiences and
observations as the AMR Medical Disaster Officer in Mississippi during
Hurricane Katrina. Today's topic, ``Empowering State and Local
Officials Through Enhanced FEMA Regional Offices'', is timely and
appropriate given the predictions for a very active 2007 hurricane
season.
In August of 2005, prior to Katrina, there were approximately 5,000
patients in health care facilities and another 45,000 non-
institutionalized individuals with severe disabilities in the three
Mississippi coastal counties. Many of them required assistance with
evacuation. Katrina made landfall in Mississippi on Monday, August 29.
We began requesting state and federal assistance for medical evacuation
two (2) days prior to landfall. State agencies were quick to respond
but their limited resources were quickly depleted. There was no federal
ambulance evacuation plan in place at the time. We therefore had to
rely upon our internal resources within the private sector. Private
ambulances from nearby states were deployed to south Mississippi to
complete the evacuation prior to Katrina's landfall. We are pleased to
say there were no deaths or significant untoward effects that resulted
from this massive medical evacuation effort.
Twenty-six (26) days after Katrina wreaked havoc on Mississippi,
Louisiana and Alabama, Hurricane Rita set its sights on Texas and
Louisiana. This time the federal government was ready. FEMA authorized
hundreds of federally-contracted ambulances to be deployed to Houston,
Texas to assist with the medical evacuation.
We are thankful to Congress for passing the Post-Katrina Emergency
Management Reform Act which reorganizes the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) by reconfiguring FEMA and including national
preparedness functions. We agree with FEMA Administrator Paulison when
he said that the new FEMA ``reflects the expanded scope of FEMA's
responsibilities. It supports a more nimble, flexible use of resources.
And it will deliver enhanced capabilities to partners at the state and
local level with emergency management and preparedness organizations
and to engage the capabilities of the private sector.'' The Post-
Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act expands FEMA's regional office
structure. It provides for the creation of Regional Advisory Councils
to give advice and recommendations to the Regional Administrators on
emergency management issues. We totally agree with Secretary Chertoff
when he stated ``. . .one of the greatest lessons from Katrina that we
learned is, you can't just show up and introduce yourself when the
emergency is underway.''
Mississippi is often recognized for its efficient post-Katrina
recovery efforts. There are many reasons for this success but I believe
these to be the most significant:
We utilized the Unified Command structure
Strong leadership from the Governor's office
A competent state Emergency Management Agency
Some of FEMA's best response personnel were sent to
Mississippi
And lastly, the resilience of Mississippians
I have witnessed first hand what a positive difference experienced
leaders can make during disasters. FEMA appointed James Russo as the
Federal Coordinating Officer for Mississippi post-Katrina. He worked
hand-in-hand with the Governor and senior leaders at the Mississippi
Emergency Management Agency. Hopefully, empowering FEMA regional
offices will allow experienced field commanders like Mr. Russo to carry
out their jobs even more efficiently.
The creation of the Office of Health Affairs, led by Chief Medical
Officer Dr. Jeff Runge, has also had a positive impact and we look
forward to working with Dr. Runge and his team of experts.
Finally, I would like to comment on the need for additional DHS
funding for emergency medical service (EMS) providers. Along with fire
and police, EMS providers are one of three (3) primary first responder
groups. The vast majority of EMS providers, however, lack sufficient
access to federal funding and are, therefore, under-equipped and need
additional training to effectively respond to a terrorist attack or
natural disaster. Chairman Thompson, you may recall that in 2003
Congress asked the DHS Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP) to clarify
whether ambulance providers are eligible for grant funds awarded to
states. ODP provided a written opinion which states ``. . .in
recognition that in many communities private EMS providers are the sole
providers of emergency medical services, ODP determined that both
public and private EMS providers are eligible for funding under the
(State Homeland Security Grant Program), as long as this is consistent
with the state's homeland security strategy, and the private EMS
providers are components of the local or state response plans.''
Despite this opinion, in fiscal year 04 and fiscal year 05, DHS
reported that less than four percent (4%) of first responder grant
funding was awarded to EMS providers. EMS providers, however, represent
one-third (1/3) of the first responder workforce and are the primary
first responders for medical assistance as evidenced by the response to
Hurricane Katrina. For the past two (2) years, Congress has included
conference report language to the Homeland Security Appropriations
Bills noting their concern over the lack of funding for EMS providers.
They recommended a minimum of 10% of Homeland Security funding for EMS
providers in the House Report for both of those years. We urge you to
act on those recommendations.
It would also appear that perhaps an amendment to the Stafford Act
is needed to resolve EMS funding inequities. Currently, the Stafford
Act makes no mention of funding eligibility for EMS providers or
ambulance services. This explicit omission creates confusion for
federal, state and local government officials resulting in disparity
for EMS providers to receive DHS or FEMA grant funds and reimbursement
for services rendered during times of disasters. Your assistance in
passing a simple amendment to the Stafford Act recognizing emergency
medical services as ``emergency work'' and ambulance providers as
public safety personnel (along with fire and police) is requested.
Thank you for your time today and I look forward to answering your
questions.
Mr. Carney. Mr. Ruiz for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF BRIEN RUIZ, PRESIDENT, SAINT BERNARD PARISH FIRE
FIGHTERS ASSOCIATION
Mr. Ruiz. Thank you, Chairman Carney, Chairman Cuellar and
Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Dent and Ranking Member Mr.
Rogers, and distinguished members of the committee for the
opportunity to testify before you today. My name is Brien Ruiz,
I serve as President of the Saint Bernard Firefighters
Association. I am pleased to appear before you today to discuss
the response and recovery experiences of the St. Bernard Parish
Fire Department in aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Although Hurricane Katrina ravaged the whole Gulf Coast, it
absolutely devastated St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Overnight
a community of 70,000 individuals and 20,000 homes were
completely covered by three to fourteen foot of water. The fire
fighters across the Gulf Coast, like the local fire fighters of
St. Bernard were the first to respond, performing search and
rescue, providing emergency service. Even after their families
and neighbors fled the communities our personnel stayed behind
to do their jobs.
In the ensuing days and weeks the St. Bernard firefighters
worked around the clock with no contact, and no assistance from
FEMA.
We did receive support from our brothers and sisters in
Louisiana and from the Urban Search and Rescue teams dispatched
from Ohio, New Jersey, Georgia and Canada. Additionally, the
International Association of Firefighters provided medical care
and counseling to our responders. However, apart from these
sources of support, for which I am personally grateful, we were
largely left to fend for ourselves. Left without a steady
supply of fuel, we filled our emergency response vehicles from
local refineries. Left without needed supplies, we broke into
hardware stores and grocery stores and obtained supplies. And
post Katrina, FEMA went back on its promise to pay up-front for
the 14 new apparatus to replace our destroyed vehicles,
requiring the Parish to purchase $4.3 million worth of
equipment and resubmit paperwork so they could get reimbursed.
The Federal Government also has a vital role to play in
supporting local emergency response. FEMA should have been an
important resource for the St. Bernard fire fighters to do
their job, but FEMA failed the fire fighters and the citizens
of St. Bernard Parish miserably.
Of the 70,000 persons who once called St. Bernard home,
only 10 to 15,000 have returned. Our friends and neighbors are
now scattered across the country. Our fire department struggles
to protect what's left of our community, and our local
government lacks sufficient funding to even begin the recovery.
Our workload has actually increased since Katrina. Today we
respond to more fires, fed by a large number of abandoned homes
and huge quantities of garbage. The widespread arson that
occurs when some realize that setting abandoned property and
garbage gets rid of the eyesore quicker than the legal
channels.
Almost two years have passed since the disaster of St.
Bernard Parish there has, in essence, been no recovery from
Hurricane Katrina.
I realize I paint a poor picture, but the picture I paint
is reflective of my perspective as a Katrina responder and an
active fire fighter of St. Bernard Parish today.
I understand that Congress has been studying failures in
the Federal response to Hurricane Katrina and taken concrete
steps to improve the response to potential future disasters.
Although I have yet to experience the impact of reform, I am
encouraged that they will aid in the recovery of our community
and help provide a more effective Federal response to future
disasters.
One of the most important FEMA reforms implemented by
Congress was reestablishing and improving the FEMA Regional
Offices. These offices have the potential to help to ensure
better coordination between FEMA, state and local governments.
It is my understanding that others in my department have spoken
to FEMA officials to identify current needs, but much of this
communication has proved to be too little too late.
Relationships built through the Regional Office will give
FEMA an intimate understanding of particular community needs
prior to any disaster and help ensure a cooperative
relationship between the Agency and local responders, providing
more efficient and effective response.
I am also appreciative of legislation passed by the
Congress and signed into law authorizing the President to
establish medical monitoring programs following disasters.
Although we lack comprehensive health monitoring programs for
individuals who responded to Hurricane Katrina, I personally
know several responders who developed unusual medical
conditions in the wake of the initial response. Future
monitoring programs will permit for the treatment of potential
diseases and other health conditions in responders that might
not otherwise be detected.
Perhaps most importantly, I am extremely grateful the
provision included in the recently enacted supplemental funding
bill waiving the FEMA required 10 percent local match of
disaster assistance funds to rebuild our community's
infrastructure. Since the storm, fire fighters have been
working from trailers and working in conditions that would be
considered substandard in any community.
Although 10 percent match of funds seems small by Federal
standards, setting aside this amount has been impossible given
the scope of the disaster. Although vital, the needs of our
community far exceed rebuilding fire houses. You can understand
why this waive is so critical to our rebuilding process. This
waiver will, in large part, make our recovery possible, and for
that, I thank you.
Such efforts notwithstanding, there remain a number of
additional reforms that I believe would further St. Bernard's
recovery and assist in future disasters.
As the Committee well knows, St. Bernard Parish, like many
communities across America, has traditionally struggled to
balance the needs for fire service with the various other needs
of the community.
Although we were lucky in many ways, even pre-Katrina, we
were often forced to do with less. Hurricane Katrina, local
fire fighters were immediately expected to be running calls and
performing search and rescue functions, a difficult task when
your fire house is not constructed to withstand a Category 5
Hurricane.
In today's post-911 world, the Federal Government relies
ever more on local fire fighters to respond to both natural and
man-made disasters in a way local departments were never
intended to function. As the Federal Government relies more and
more on local first responders, it should also take the
responsibility to ensure that in a disaster local responders
have the tools, resources and means to fully function.
second, I would urge the government to establish a health
monitoring and treatment program for those first responders who
responded to Katrina and Rita. Similar monitoring programs
established for 9/11 responders have detected respiratory and
other health problems among fire fighters that would not have
been otherwise detected. The benefits of early detection and
treatment have been well demonstrated though the 9/11 health
programs. Individuals impacted by the response to Katrina would
similarly benefit from the establishment of a comprehensive
monitoring and treatment program.
Lastly, I urge the Congress to consider reforms to lessen
the burdens of the Federal bureaucracy on devastated
communities. I understand that the money is not limitless, and
I understand that the Nation and its citizens have many
conflicting needs. But when a community is completely
destroyed, as St. Bernard was, the last thing local officials
should need to worry about is red tape and bureaucracy.
[The statement of Mr. Ruiz follows:]
Prepared Statement of Brien Ruiz
Thank you Chairman Cuellar, Chairman Carney, Ranking Member Dent,
Ranking Member Rogers, and distinguished members of the Committee for
the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is Brien Ruiz and
I serve as President of the St. Bernard Parish Fire Fighters
Association. I am pleased to appear before you today to discuss the
response and recovery experiences of the St. Bernard Parish Fire
Department in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Although Hurricane Katrina ravaged the whole of the Gulf Coast, it
absolutely devastated St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Overnight, a
community of 70,000 individuals and 29,000 homes was completely covered
by three to fourteen feet of water. Like fire fighters across the Gulf
Coast, the local fire fighters of St. Bernard Parish were the first to
respond, performing search and rescue, providing emergency medical
services, and putting out fires. Even as their families and neighbors
fled the community, the vast majority of our personnel stayed behind to
do their jobs.
In the ensuing days and weeks, St. Bernard fire fighters worked
around the clock with no contact, and no assistance, from FEMA.
We did receive support from our brothers and sisters in Louisiana
and from Urban Search and Rescue Teams dispatched from Ohio, New
Jersey, Georgia, and Canada. Additionally, the International
Association of Fire Fighters provided medical care and counseling to
responders, and housing for our families. However, apart from these
sources of support, for which I am personally grateful, we were largely
left to fend for ourselves. Left without viable fire houses, we
commandeered residences to serve as command centers. Left without a
steady supply of fuel, we filled our emergency response vehicles from
local refineries. Left without needed supplies, we broke into hardware
stores to obtain PVC pipe and generators. And post-Katrina, FEMA went
back on a promise to pay up-front for 14 new apparatus to replace our
destroyed vehicles, requiring the Parish to purchase $4.3 million worth
of equipment and submit paperwork to the Agency for reimbursement.
Although the initial response to Katrina, like any disaster, was
properly at the local level, during the response to a catastrophic
disaster, the federal government absolutely has a vital role to play in
supporting local emergency response efforts. FEMA should have been an
important resource for St. Bernard fire fighters to do their jobs, but
FEMA failed the fire fighters and citizens of St. Bernard Parish
miserably.
It is difficult for me to speak about the recovery of St. Bernard
Parish, because although in some ways we have begun to rebuild our
lives, our community as a whole has not been able to rebuild in any
significant way. Of the 70,000 persons who once called St. Bernard
home, only ten to fifteen thousand have returned. Our former neighbors
are now scattered across the country, our fire department struggles to
protect what is left of our community, and our local government lacks
sufficient funding to even begin the recovery process.
Before the storm, the St. Bernard Parish fire department employed
118 fire fighters at ten fire houses. Today, we are fortunate to have
90 personnel on staff. While this may seem sufficient for a community
with less than a quarter of its original population, our workload has
actually increased since Katrina.
Today, we respond to more fires than ever before, fed by the large
number of abandoned homes and huge quantities of garbage. This
difficult job is significantly complicated by the widespread arson that
occurs when some realize that setting abandoned properties and garbage
ablaze alleviates the eyesore much more quickly than could any legal
channels.
Additionally, St. Bernard boasts thirteen refineries, all of which
present a significant fire and hazardous materials danger, and all
thirteen of which remain in operation today.
Almost two years have passed since the disaster. But for St.
Bernard Parish, there has, in essence, been no recovery from Hurricane
Katrina.
I realize I paint a dour picture, but the picture I paint is
reflective of my perspective as a Katrina responder and an active fire
fighter in St. Bernard today.
I understand that the Congress has been studying failures in the
federal response to Hurricane Katrina and taken concrete steps to
improve the response to potential future disasters. Although I have yet
to experience the impact of recent reforms, I am encouraged that they
will aid in the recovery of our community and help provide a more
effective federal response to future disasters.
One of the most important FEMA reforms implemented by the Congress
was reestablishing and improving the FEMA Regional Offices. These
offices have the potential to help ensure better coordination between
FEMA, state and local governments and local emergency responders. To
this day, I have yet to personally encounter anyone from FEMA in St.
Bernard Parish. It is my understanding that others in my Department
have spoken to FEMA officials to identify current needs, but much of
this communication proved to be too little too late.
Relationships built through the Regional Offices will give FEMA an
intimate understanding of a particular community's needs prior to any
disaster and help ensure a cooperative relationship between the Agency
and local responders, providing a more efficient and effective
response.
I am also appreciative of legislation passed by the Congress and
signed into law authorizing the President to establish medical
monitoring programs following disasters. Although we lacked a
comprehensive health monitoring program for individuals who responded
to Hurricane Katrina, I personally know several responders who
developed unusual medical conditions in the wake of the initial
response. Future monitoring programs will permit for the treatment of
potential diseases and other health conditions in responders that might
not otherwise be detected.
Perhaps most importantly, I am extremely grateful for the provision
included in the recently-enacted supplemental funding bill waiving the
FEMA-required ten-percent local match of disaster assistance funds to
rebuild our community's infrastructure. Since the storm, fire fighters
have been working from trailers, purchasing our own supplies and
working in conditions that would be considered substandard in any
community.
Although a ten-percent match may seem small by federal standards,
setting aside even this amount has been impossible given the scope of
the disaster. Although vital, the needs of our community far exceed
rebuilding fire houses. Much of our vital infrastructure remains
unrepaired. For example, it would cost $52 million to rebuild each of
our three sewer plants. Given that this year's budget for the entirety
of St. Bernard Parish is $38 million, you can understand why this
waiver is so critical to our rebuilding process. This waiver will, in
large part, make our recovery possible. And for that, I thank you.
Such efforts notwithstanding, there remain a number of additional
reforms that I believe would further St. Bernard's recovery and assist
in future disaster responses.
As the Committee well knows, St. Bernard Parish, like many
communities across America, has traditionally struggled to balance the
needs of the fire service with the various other needs of the
community. And although we were lucky in many ways, even pre-Katrina,
we were too often forced to do more with less. For example, pre-
Katrina, our Department's fire houses were tin, ground level buildings.
Now most people would realize that, in a zone often hit by hurricanes,
a ground level structure made of tin could not withstand extended
periods of high wind and heavy rain. In the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina, local fire fighters were immediately expected to be running
calls and performing search and rescue functions--a difficult task when
your fire house is not constructed to withstand a Category 5 Hurricane.
In today's post- 9/11 world, the federal government relies ever
more on local fire fighters to respond to both natural and man-made
disasters in a way local departments were never intended to function.
As the federal government relies more and more on local first
responders, it should also take the responsibility to ensure that, in a
disaster, local responders have the tools, resources and the means to
fully function.
Secondly, I would urge the federal government to establish a health
monitoring and treatment program for those responders who responded to
Katrina. Similar monitoring programs established for 9/11 responders
have detected respiratory and other health problems among fire fighters
that would not have been otherwise detected. As I mentioned previously,
a number of Katrina responders have unusual or unexplained symptoms in
the aftermath of the response. The benefits of early detection and
treatment have been well-demonstrated through the 9/11 health programs.
Individuals impacted by the response to Katrina would similarly benefit
from the establishment of a comprehensive monitoring and treatment
program.
Lastly, I urge the Congress to consider reforms to lessen the
burdens of the federal bureaucracy on devastated communities. I
understand that money is not limitless, and I understand that the
nation and its citizens have many conflicting needs. But when a
community is completely destroyed, as was St. Bernard, the last thing
local officials should need to worry is red tape and bureaucracy.
Whenever disaster strikes, no matter its scope, the professional
fire fighters of St. Bernard Parish work tirelessly to do the jobs for
which we were hired: to save lives and protect the public safety.
Whether responding to a house fire or protecting a community of 70,000
in the wake of natural disaster, we have always made due with whatever
scarce resources were available. But we cannot, and no fire fighters
anywhere should be expected to do it alone.
The federal government can do so much more to help the fire service
respond more effectively to future disasters. We've made some very good
initial steps and I look forward to partnering with the members of this
committee and this panel to build upon recent reforms and continue
improving the manner by which our nation responds to large-scale
emergencies.
This concludes my testimony. Thank you for your interest and
attention. I am, of course, happy to answer any questions you may have.
Mr. Carney. Thank you, Mr. Ruiz. I thank all the witnesses
for their testimony, and I will remind each member that he or
she will have 5 minutes to question the panel, and I'll
recognize myself for five minutes.
But first I'd like to remind everyone in the room to please
put your cell phones or your PDA's on vibrate or silence,
please. Thank you very much.
Now, I know the national response plan is in the process of
being rewritten and released, and its release has been delayed.
Major May, what is your involvement in the re-write?
Major May. Pretty extensive. The re-write process is really
probably the largest, collaborative effort I think we've seen
in the country where we actually pushed down to the local level
and asked and solicited information from state and local and
other partners, and globaled those requests and requirements
and suggestions back up to headquarters for their consideration
in incorporating it in the national plan.
Mr. Carney. Mr. Baughman, did you or any other state
emergency managers have input in the process.
MR. Mr. Baughman. As a matter of fact I sat on the steering
committee for the National Response Plan. I had to get off
because of other commitments, but I was on the committee
initially. And it has gone out--I was the representative for
the National Emergency Management Association, so it was my job
to make sure that all the other state agencies got latest
information on the plan.
Mr. Carney. Are you satisfied with how it's coming out with
the process? If not, why; if so, why?
Mr. Baughman. The jury is still out. I think that Director
Paulison has made a good faith effort to include all the
stakeholders. I'm not sure that all the decisions on what is
going to be in the plan is in his hands. I'll just leave it at
that.
Mr. Carney. What do you think should be in there?
Mr. Baughman. I think that there ought to be more focus on
the--if you're going to have a National Response Plan it's got
to be more than the Federal role. It has got to show what state
and local government's role is. That's the reason it was
changed from a Federal response plan to a National Response
Plan, because state and local governments have a role in
carrying out emergency response. And I think that those roles
need to be better reflected in that plan.
Mr. Carney. Thank you. Mr. Ruiz, Mr. Delahousey, if the
worst were to happen again and the coast was struck by another
major hurricane do you think FEMA is better prepared to assist
local governments now.
Mr. Ruiz. I do not. I haven't seen--the first time I spoke
to any FEMA personnel was today. In my department I've seen
FEMA around just looking at our fire stations, but I don't
think so.
Mr. Delahousey. A couple of months ago this committee had
Mr. Paulison testifying in DC, I was there. At that time Mr.
Paulison indicated that there would be the revisions to the
National Response Plan and a Federal ambulance response plan
would be in place by the beginning of hurricane season. That
was last Friday. There was no plan in place. There was supposed
to be and RFP issued on April 30th; that did not happen, it was
delayed.
However, I am pleased to say at the close of business on
Friday we were contacted by FEMA and asked if we would
accompany, because we have vast resources, would be available
until a formal plan could be in place. And we, of course, said,
yes indeed, we would provide those types of resources.
So there are things in the works now, and we were very
pleased to hear that some of the experienced FEMA leaders that
assisted us after Katrina will be here again in Mississippi for
this hurricane season.
Mr. Carney. Thank you very much. I now recognize the
Ranking Member from the subcommittee, the gentleman from
Alabama Mr. Roger for five minutes.
Mr. Rogers. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to go first to
Mr. Baughman and Mr. May. You heard me talk about the concern
for getting water out after one of these disasters,
particularly in Alabama. Do we have enough generators for these
rural water systems assuming the electricity goes out.
Mr. Baughman. What we've done is we've done an assessment
of all of those rural water wells. We are in the process of
purchasing generators using our Hazard Mitigation Grant
Program, monies from FEMA to put generators at those wells. Do
we have all the requirements met, no, sir, we do not.
Mr. Rogers. Well, that's what brought it to my attention. I
understand that Georgia has adequate supply of these rural
generators because the regional office is there. Mississippi
now has them because of Katrina and Rita, but Alabama,
particularly down on the coast, has an inadequate ratio. So I
would ask you to work with the rural water association to make
sure that those associations have these mobile generators that
you can provide them.
Mr. Baughman. I just met with them last Monday. They have
35 generators they can bring there to assist us. I think most
of the rural water wells by here in the next couple of weeks
will be met. The generators in Atlanta though are FEMA
generators, and until an assessment has been done, we have put
our request in for 100 generators, 250 were called, so that is
part of what they will forward and deploy.
Mr. Rogers. Excellent. And I talked a little bit about this
with Mr. May on the bus, I'm interested in canine assets. I saw
post Katrina we had a real problem with search and rescue and
cadaver dogs. Recently with Enterprise where FEMA performed
exceptionally well, we still didn't have these canine assets
come in for search and rescue. The local rescue squads were
using personal dogs for searching for cadavers. Tell me, what
else do y'all use, who do you draw on? FEMA doesn't have these
dogs as I understand it.
Major May. Bruce may want to comment because he set up the
search and rescue program nationally and has more information.
Mr. Rogers. Well, whoever.
Major May. Let me just say, I don't know that we actually
employed the national search and rescue team at Enterprise
because the local and state came.
Mr. Baughman. As a matter of fact what we did is we used
several search and rescue teams. One from Dothan, one from
Mobile, along with the state mortuary assistance team out of
Cullman. But there is a shortage of cadaver dogs.
When I was with FEMA we actually used the search and rescue
system to locate those dogs. We don't have those in the
national system. What we've done though, if we needed
additional cadaver dogs, those are available through the
Emergency National Assistance contact, but that takes hours. So
in a tornado situation you can't get them fast enough. Now, for
a hurricane situation you can ask for those ahead of time and
get those pre-positioned.
Mr. Rogers. That leads me to my next question, and this is
more for Mr. Baughman. When I was in the last go down down the
Gulf Coast with, at that time Speaker Hastert and Ms. Pelosi,
we met with Governor Riley, and one of the things he emphasized
that we need is the ability for these local mayors and county
commissioners to prenegotiate contracts for debris removal and
other services so that we're not getting robbed like we were in
this situation. Have you seen a difference now, is FEMA working
with you to allow local governments to do these kind of
predisaster negotiations?
Mr. Baughman. Well, it's not FEMA, but we are working to
put prenegotiated contracts in place for the southern third of
the state.
Mr. Rogers. Will FEMA pay for those.
Mr. Baughman. If those contracts are activated at the time
of the disaster and they're prenegotiated, yes, FEMA will
reimburse those contracts.
Mr. Rogers. And the last thing I have to talk about is, and
I can't remember which one of y'all brought it up, but it's a
shortage of regional staffing. This is something we've been
finding throughout Homeland Security, particularly FEMA, there
is a problem with recruitment and retention. What is your
regional staffing and at what level is that compared to what it
should be.
Major May. Currently it's about 120 PFT's. We also have a
number of PAD's and what you call core employees. That puts our
numbers up to around 150 as far as people actually working.
And, you know, we have a tremendous heavy workload. I think
that--
Mr. Rogers. What should it be? You've got 150, what should
it be; what's the number?
Major May. I think the department and the agency is talking
about increasing over the next three years by 30 percent.
Mr. Rogers. Three years, is that fast enough?
Major May. Sir, it takes some while to absorb that many
people, and also you have people that leave, so filling
vacancies is sometimes a difficult thing.
Mr. Rogers. Well, retention, is that a problem?
Major May. It can be. We've got a lot of senior staff.
Mr. Rogers. Thank you.
Mr. Carney. Thank you, gentlemen. The Chair now recognizes
the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Emergency Communications
Preparedness and Response, the gentleman from Texas Mr. Henry
Cuellar for five minutes.
Mr. Cuellar. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This question is to
Major May. In the April 26th testimony before congress Deputy
FEMA Director Johnson said that evacuations, mass shelters,
temporary housing were a priority focus for FEMA. How will this
recent change, that is making FEMA better than the Red Cross as
the lead agency for mass care and housing affect the capacity
to provide mass care and the shelter for disaster evacuees?
Major May. Well, I think that what he meant to say that
we're incorporating that working very much with the Red Cross
on the whole shelter issue to make sure they're in lockstep
with us. We are working with, as a matter of fact, the mass
evacuation with the Gulf Coast right now with the partner
states of Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, and also
close states like Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas and Oklahoma
to putting a plan in place so that we can find shelter space
outside of those affected areas.
So we're involved with the transportation of those
individuals, evacuating those individuals and also providing
shelter for them. We're working very closely on this now with
HUD for the long-term HUD housing issue. Those are much longer
than just the shelter operations. But the focus is still to be
involved with the Red Cross.
Mr. Cuellar. All right. Let me just follow up on something.
When you look at FEMA and the Red Cross and other shelter
providers in the gulf states are they prepared to meet the
needs of the special needs population such as those who need
medications and oxygen.
Major May. That's a real challenge and that's why the
relationship with this gentleman down the street here, I mean
down the desk here, is awfully important for us formulating
that because we may have to move people some distance to be
able to provide that. But we're working with the states, the
states are working with the locals to identify those gaps in
medical, special medical needs shelter capability.
Alabama has identified some special shelter capabilities in
some of the junior colleges because you can wrap around
additional services other than just a gym floor to provide
that. And so we're working very hard to identify that
population, find out who needs to be transported and provide
facilities for them and wrap staff around them when they get
there.
Mr. Baughman. I would like to touch on that because that's
not really a Red Cross issue, it's a health and medical issue,
which in our state it falls under the State Health Directors
purview, because we have medical staff nurses. We have 15
shelters in our state with capacity of about 2000. The most
we've had in shelters from our three evacuations during Opal,
Dennis and Katrina was 300. So right now we have enough
capacity, but as additional evacuees come in from Mississippi,
Louisiana and Florida to our state we may not. So we continue
to build capacity, and I think every state continues to build
capacity.
Mr. Cuellar. Mr. Delahousey you're next.
Mr. Delahousey. Well, the answer as to whether or not there
is adequate facilities to prepare for special needs patients I
can tell you, no, there are not. We don't know how many special
needs patients there are out there. There is no comprehensive
national registry. Here in south Mississippi we estimate
45,000. There are not 45,000 places that we can relocate those
people to in this state, so it's a problem.
And the Red Cross does not provide medical care at
shelters. The Red Cross does not man special needs shelters,
it's left up to the state. It's a problem that's been ignored
for years. We saw it surface in Hurricane Katrina. There is a
greater awareness now, but we've got a long was to go before
it's rectified.
Mr. Cuellar. So, Major, what do you think we ought to be
doing.
Major May. Well, we're moving, we're identifying, we're
working very hard to identify that population and then try to
find solutions. We're not there yet.
Mr. Cuellar. On a scope of one to ten where are you,
halfway.
Major May. As far as identifying--meeting the needs that
have been identified to us, about halfway there.
Mr. Cuellar. OK. Identifying one part.
Major May. We're asking the workers in the states to
identify their population for us, and when they present that to
us we try to help them provide solutions. They're not always
successful in identifying the real population exactly so.
Mr. Cuellar. So on the first part, which is the
identification, you're saying that you're about halfway. On the
preparation, and I see--
Major May. I'm talking about numbers, not individual names,
but estimates on what numbers would be like.
Mr. Cuellar. Well, I see you shaking your head.
Mr. Baughman. It's because as was mentioned, there is no
registry. We don't know what the universe is of people with
special needs requires. Until that's done we don't know whether
we're 10 percent, 40 percent, 80 percent towards meeting those
requirements. In Alabama, what we're doing is we're simply
basing it upon three evacuations in an 11 month period of time
and the number of people that showed up at shelters. But again,
we don't think that that's a hundred percent of the special
needs shelters in the state. So that's the reason we continue
to build capacity.
Major May. And that is historical data and that's what
we're actually working off of now.
Mr. Cuellar. OK. Let me just--we'll actually I'll go ahead
and let the other gentlemen as questions. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman. Thank you, gentlemen.
Mr. Carney. Thank you, Mr. Cuellar. The Chair now
recognizes the Ranking Member of Subcommittee of Emergency
Communications Preparedness and Response, the gentleman from
Pennsylvania Mr. Charles Dent for questions.
Mr. Dent. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon. For
Major May, my question deals with evacuation plans and the
process that you've employed there. Could you discuss your role
in the development of the Gulf Coast evacuation plan?
Major May. My role in the Gulf Coast evacuation plan.
Mr. Dent. Yes, in developing of the Gulf Coast evacuation
plan.
Major May. Yes, I co-chaired that responsibility with Mr.
Peterson out of Denton, Texas, and I'm working very hard to
provide the framework to gather the information to put that
plan in place.
Mr. Dent. Now, obviously, many of the gulf states have
their own evacuation plans, and how do these, their evacuation
plans, dovetail with this new regional plan that builds on your
efforts?
Major May. Yes. We have teams that have been meeting with
Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, and they're in the
host states this week meeting with Oklahoma and Kentucky and
Arkansas and Tennessee. And they're gathering GAP information,
kind of like a GAP for us to determine what capabilities they
have at the local level to transport people, populations, and
trying to determine what Federal assets maybe be brought to the
table to assist that capability being put in place.
Mr. Dent. And which Federal, State, and local agencies are
currently involved with this evacuation plan process?
Major May. Well, all of the state agencies assume that the
state director brings to a table are involved, and that would
probably require the state director, Mr. Baughman, can tell you
specific to Alabama.
But in the case of the Federal folks that are involved, the
Corp of Engineers are involved, DHS is involved, DOT is
involved. Those are the primary ones that are involved, and
also DMV has some visibility in it.
Mr. Dent. And when do you expect this plan to be completed?
Major May. We hope to have that in place and operational by
the first of July. I'm sorry, middle of July.
Mr. Dent. Have you engaged with various potential host
communities as you develop this plan?
Major May. Yes, we're doing that as we speak today. And I
have also been on the phone to the various governors talking
with them about participating in this.
Mr. Dent. I represent an area of eastern Pennsylvania. I
worry about evacuations of New City and Philadelphia, and it's
a constant concern considering them.
And, Mr. Baughman, I know your office has also been
involved in developing the regional evacuation plan for the
Gulf Coast. What's your assessment of this plan's development,
and do you believe that sufficient progress has been made up to
this point?
Mr. Baughman. Yes. Basically what we're trying to do is to
make sure that when there is a multi state evacuation that when
people cross state lines from Mississippi--for example, when an
evacuation from Louisiana occurs many people go up Interstate
10 over to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. They pick up personnel.
If the storm's moving further to the east we pick up traffic
along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and they end up going up north
on I-65. So we're going to be sheltering those personnel.
Well, what we need to know is when are they doing a
mandatory evacuation, are they reverse lane, how many people
are potentially coming our way because we have limited shelter
capability.
So, yes, it is helping us because we have the capability to
shelter with instate personnel 44,000. Now, we have the
capacity to go up to 90,000 if, in fact, additional personnel
are brought in through FEMA to help staff that additional
shelter capacity. So, yes, we are working very closely with
them on it.
We're working to identify what our emergency transportation
requirements are, what our emergency communication requirements
are.
For example, are we doing an evacuation with school buses.
Do we have communication on those school buses so that we can
get a check as to where that bus is in progress to a particular
shelter.
And just for your interest maybe, the states of North
Carolina, South Carolina, which are closer to Pennsylvania have
indicated as we do this evaluation that they can shelter their
populations in place in the state.
Mr. Dent. Thank you. Mr. Delahousey, on page 3 of your
testimony you mentioned Mississippi is recognized for it's
efficient post-Katrina recovery efforts. You identified a few
reasons for that success--in particular, that you a unified
command structure, strong leadership from the Governor's
office, and a competent State emergency management agency. Do
you believe that those three attributes were lacking in
Louisiana and that this might have contributed to some of the
difficulties we had in responding there?
Mr. Delahousey. There are a lot of things different
statistically between Mississippi and Louisiana, and I'm
hesitant to be critical of the emergency response there. I can
say that from where we sat, the emergency operation center, the
local government officials cooperated with the county
officials, cooperated with the state officials, cooperated with
the Federal officials. And I think that contributed gravely to
the cohesive approach that we had to the disaster management.
Mr. Dent. And I guess my final question would be, do you
believe that all levels of government are prepared to respond
to a category 3 or stronger hurricane if one were to hit the
Gulf Coast region this year?
Mr. Delahousey. Well, we're better prepared than we were in
2005 I can tell you. And, now, one of the things that I have to
comment on for the 1906 hurricane season there was a Federal
plan in place to evacuate the 12 parishes in south Louisiana.
It was not communicated, I don't think, to the people that live
there, but my company was under contract to provide 300
ambulances should this same thing occur so that the people next
time could get out. And those type of plans are ongoing.
And the government doesn't own ambulances, neither does
MDMS, and they recognize that and they're trying to get a plan
in place. It's a slow process, but it's improving.
Mr. Dent. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you all for
your service.
Mr. Carney. Thank you, Mr. Dent. The Chair now recognizes
the chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from
Mississippi, Mr. Bennie Thompson for questions.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I guess I
need to kind of go down the line. The question is, if we have
an existing plan, or a plan that's about to be rewritten, but
we're not sharing the responsibilities of the plan with the
stakeholders we have a problem. Mr. May, can you share with the
committee what your expectations of the present plan in place,
and how that is to be communicated with all the stakeholders?
Major May. I think generally speaking the stakeholders at
stake, most of them, understand what's in the National Response
Plan. And what's holding up the publication of the National
Response Plan are really not items that would over all keep us
from responding adequately, I think, to an event. By using the
instant command system and using MEMS the national, I mean,
national instant management system and that framework we
understand responsibilities of the various levels of government
under our unified command, and we would be, I think, prepared
to respond to those needs at the state level. And I don't think
that's an impediment at this time.
There are various client ops specifically that deal with
hurricane preparedness that have been put together.
But the National Response Plan is an all hazards plan that
deals with all hazards not just hurricane preparedness.
Mr. Thompson. I understand. But for the sake of the
discussion we'll talk about hurricanes.
Major May. OK.
Mr. Thompson. So, how would a local county or parish
official know about this plan? How would you expect that plan
to be communicated all the way down to all the stakeholders.
Major May. It would be the responsibility of the state
government to transmit that plan down to state and local
governments.
Mr. Thompson. Do you require any sign off by any individual
certifying that that plan has in effect been provided to those
individuals.
Major May. The states have to certify that their MEMS is
compliant. That they are, and part of that I think would be the
transmittal of a planning document or understanding that the
planning process down to the local level.
Mr. Thompson. Yes or no.
Major May. Would I expect the states to provide that.
Mr. Thompson. Well, I think there is some question as to
whether or not the stakeholders who are responsible for
carrying out certain aspects of this plan may or may not have
knowledge of it. And I'm saying are you--
Major May. There's no--
Mr. Thompson. Excuse me. Are you requiring them to certify
that they have received the plan.
Major May. No, sir.
Mr. Thompson. Well, I think that would be something that
would help facilitate some of the conflicts. Mr. Baughman made
reference to some generators that are housed in Georgia. For
the sake of the record, how many generators do you have in
Georgia?
Major May. There are not very many. They're in a stockpile.
Most of the generator capacity the agency had is actually in
Forth Worth, Texas. And I think they probably have 100
generators in Atlanta. But that's part of the national
stockpile. And the generators in Texas could be brought to any
place they are needed in the southeast. It just happens to be
where they are today.
Mr. Thompson. Part of the FEMA response deals with the
travel trailers immediately after a hurricane. Now that you've
heard some questions about formaldehyde in trailers, do you
plan to have somebody look at that before any additional travel
trailers are put into an area, or just go ahead and you decide
it from your standpoint.
Major May. My understanding that this is what they're
doing. That's not under my responsibility, but I understand the
agency has identified the fact they have the problem. They've
made recommendations to individuals that are in those trailers,
what they can do to ventilate formaldehyde from those trailers.
They've got a monitoring system in place working with EPA, and
in the construction or ordering of new trailers they're working
with the manufactures to make sure those formaldehyde numbers
are way down, acceptable levels.
Mr. Thompson. So in other words, anyone that's in one has
been told that you need to either vent them or we will vent
them or we will provide a monitor.
Major May. That's my understanding.
Mr. Thompson. So has that been an official FEMA directive,
or where did that come from.
Major May. I will have to get back to you on that.
Mr. Thompson. All right. Can you get it back to the
committee in writing on that.
Major May. Yes, sir.
Mr. Thompson. This Gulf Coast evacuation plan, and I think
Mr. Dent talked about, and I have to apologize I can't hear
from that side of the table for some reason; is that plan
already approved and in writing.
Major May. No, sir, it's in process. We're working now with
the host states that would be receiving evacuees from outside
of the area, the affected area to make sure they can shelter
those people.
Mr. Thompson. So what's the plan now if something were to
happen tomorrow.
Major May. Well, the plan would be to identify the states.
The city of New Orleans has some evacuation capabilities, the
state of Louisiana has some capability, and we'll be working
with them to make sure if they needed to shelter those
populations outside the state that we can provide assistance in
them doing that. Contracts are being put in place as we speak.
Mr. Thompson. So there's no plan.
Major May. There is not a plan that I can tell you
specifically where we're going to be taking certain individuals
from, say Louisiana to a location somewhere outside of the
state of Louisiana. The state of Louisiana has plans to
evacuate their on populations to shelters within the state, and
other states also. Alabama has an agreement with them.
Mr. Thompson. OK. Thank you very much.
Mr. Carney. I thank the Chairman. The Chair now recognizes
other members with questions that they may wish to ask the
witnesses. I'll begin with Ms. Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez from
California.
Ms. Sanchez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you
gentlemen for being before us. I really wanted to ask some
questions with respect to insurance. I don't know if you all
would really be the right witnesses to ask with respect to
that. You're all shaking your heads no.
OK, let me ask an easy one to begin with then. Could you
give me some indication, any of you, or all of you, about the
work that the faith based groups did when they came in, what
they did, how they set up, if they had contact with you or if
they did it on their own? And I'm going back to the fact that I
have a fire fighter, we had many fire fighters come from
California to help in the Katrina situation, and one of them
that talked to me at length about his stay here, which was
many, many months, said he was just amazed at the faith based
organizations and everything that they got done. And
unfortunately he also mentioned that one of faith based
organization I think was the Latter Day Saints sent a whole
bunch of bags or packages all packed up and everything, then
had in there, you know, courtesy of the Latter Day Saints, and
they were asked to take those out and put the Red Cross's
paraphernalia in there. So, can you discuss a little bit about
the faith based organizations and how they handled, and what
they did.
Mr. Baughman. Sure, I can touch on it. There is several
organizations. There is the National Organization of Voluntary
Agencies active in a disaster. Each state has a chapter of
that, which contain most of your faith based organizations.
Ours are coordinated by the Governor's Office of Faith
Based Initiatives, which is part of our plan. And so any
voluntary agency coming into the state working on a disaster is
coordinated by that office, which they work with those
organizations day in and day out.
But there is national organization that takes a look at how
can we maximize the utilization of those faith based
organizations in a disaster? That way you don't have a Red
Cross and a Salvation Army Emergency Response vehicle setting
up next to one another, they're not competing, they're
complimenting one another, and we're utilizing all of their
assets, not just one organization. So, that's what we've done.
Mr. Delahousey. I can tell you from ESFA, which is the
medical section of the disaster plan, a man that, Dr. Robert
Travnicek from the local health department, and we had a lot of
faith based groups that came into the area and did a lot of
good work. Unfortunately they were not coordinated when they
came, they did not check in; some of them did not check in
through the local emergency operations center, so we had no
idea where they were. We could have deployed them to probably
more strategic locations had that happened. But they served a
very valuable purpose.
And it is a problem also when your local health medical
community is trying to get back on its feet, and local doctors
are trying to see patients again. What can you do? Do you ask
the for free faith based groups to leave the area so that the
doctors begin practicing medicine again. There was a lot of
criticism after Katrina for that, and it was a very difficult
situation, but they did tremendous work in south Mississippi.
The coordination of those could have been better.
Mr. Ruiz. We had three or four groups that came into--I can
only speak about St. Bernard Parish, you know, the rest of the
state I really can't speak of. But they came in and we took the
initiative, we coordinated them, the fire department with
Mericarp, and they came in, we coordinated them and they gutted
houses, and they're rebuilding houses today. We've still got
some groups, Catholic Charities, the Billy Graham group, the
Baptists, they are down there building houses for individuals
today. You know, thank God that they came down there and helped
the citizens of St. Bernard.
Ms. Sanchez. My last question is to you, Mr. Ruiz, it's
about when help is the first responders of the fire fighters
and some of the others. Can you elaborate a little on what
you've seen, and what you personally have, of course you
haven't seen the whole school of it, but is this a large
percentage we need to worry about.
Mr. Ruiz. Well, I think it could be a large percentage,
Ma'am. In my department I have five guys that came down with
some types of diseases that it took forever to find out what it
was. One individual, I brought him with me to our state
conventions and they had a doctor from John Hopkins came in,
and he was describing his problems that he had. He told that
they was having the same type of symptoms in post 911 up there.
You know, I first started getting involved with this was
because of medical reasons. I wanted to setup some type of, uh,
to draw more positive, to do more research to monitor us
because our Parish cannot afford it. If we use our health
insurance our health insurance will sky rocket. So we hope the
government will step in and start to monitor us just like we're
doing for 911. You know, four or five years down the road what
type of diseases are we going to have.
You got to understand, me personally, I worked in five
foot, probably four and half foot of water for the first six
days of the storm; human waste, animal waste, the refinery
spills, you know, so what have I absorbed working in this water
for that length of time that's not going to effect me until
years down the lone.
Ms. Sanchez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Carney. Thank you. I now recognize Mr. Perlmutter, Ed
Perlmutter from Colorado, for five minutes.
Mr. Perlmutter. Thanks, Mr. Chairman, and, Mr. May, I will
start with you since you and I were having this conversation at
lunch. But I really want to talk, because it was something that
came up while we were on our tour, about actions that were
taken locally by the school districts, by the cities, by the
parishes, where they had to act because there wasn't anybody
else around to act, and they did the best they could to make
something good out of a terrible situation. How can we in the
Federal arena assist them now that they're making claims to get
repaid for some of the things they did, yet they've got to go
through all sorts of appeal processes when they acted in, and
you used I think the words good faith, and I thought that was
right on the mark. And if you could just say a few things about
that.
Major May. Well, one of things we need to do a better job
on, and we have been working with the states, is to do training
with them as an applicant and what's eligible and not eligible
for reimbursement. And I know the states in many cases, or
Alabama does a good job, of taking this very training down to
the local level and trainingthis is training that takes place
prior to the event. So, we've got to do a better job of that,
making sure that people at the mayors level and school board
level knows the kinds of things that are eligible for
reimbursement. These prenegotiated, precontracts is good
example of having something in place that increases your
ability to be reimbursed in a timely and accurate way.
There are going to be cases and situations, and I've been
involved with them, and I have seen other people, because
you're in a hurry up, hurry up mode, and then you say the
auditors come in, and a lot of times FEMA may be actually
saying, yeah, this was done in an emergency situation. You need
to really take a look at this. But when the auditors come in
and the dust is settled and they look at it by the book, and
you don't have the flexibility in a lot of cases to do that.
We do have an appeal process in place. It does give the
director, and gives me, the Regional Administrator, myself and
the director some leeway to maybe look at some situations and
have a chance to make sure that's not over burdensome as far as
the appeal process is concerned.
Mr. Perlmutter. I guess what, and it may be that we've got
to change the law, but from the organization standpoint,
especially if it's a governmental entity, a school district or
a city, a town, a county, that they get a presumption in their
favor, you know, of good faith, and not that they have to
continually--I mean, the ordinary citizen is having a tough
enough time out there. We heard from Martha Murphy as we were
coming over here about her belief that just citizens taking the
bull by the horns and acting, you know, save this town from
much more misery than it was going to have, than it could have
had. So, I guess I'm just asking on, you know, as the
Administrator for your region, I'm saying as a panel we need to
take a look at presumption of good faith in terms of these
appeal processes so that the folks here can get on with the
rest of their lives.
Major May. I agree with you. And I always look at things,
did it serve a governmental purpose, did it save lives and
property, is there something that if they had not taken--did it
take the burden off the Federal Government by them doing this
action? So I kind of look at it from both standpoints and try
to push the regulations, but when the IG is there sometimes
they don't see it that way.
Mr. Perlmutter. Changing the subject a little bit,
something we haven't really talked much about; but again, on
the trip over here I asked some questions about the response of
the National Guard to Katrina. And what I was advised is that
much of the Mississippi Guard had been deployed to Iraq at the
time, all of their equipment had been basically had been
deployed to Iraq at the time, and that it was difficult for
them to get themselves into place when they were stretched in
terms of their men and women in the service, but also their
equipment. What, if anything, has been done to remedy that
situation? And maybe Mr. Baughman you want to take that.
Mr. Baughman. Normally FEMA is not responsible for
deployment of the Guard. That's normally done by the Governor.
And if the Governor needs additional help from the Guard, they
do that under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.
What we've done in our state is our Adjutant General has
setup three joint task forces. He knows what the equipment
requirement and the personnel requirement are for each one of
those. If the equipment is overseas, he's now made arrangements
during hurricane season to get that from other states under
that compact agreement.
Mr. Perlmutter. But see, I think what we have is just sort
of a domino effect here, because we did hear from the National
Guard two weeks ago, we had a hearing. And I think I understand
that under this EMAC there is a kind of a pooling process.
Mr. Baughman. Yes.
Mr. Perlmutter. And we did, we heard testimony that the
Guard as a whole was at about 38 to 40 percent of their
equipment needs. We also heard that, you know, especially as
this escalation in troops is taking place in Iraq, more of the
Guard is being redeployed, you know, for the second and third
time back to Iraq, and my question to you is, if you have
another Katrina come through here and you get a Katrina/Rita,
how are you going to deal with that.
Mr. Baughman. Guard assets are a problem. But again, the
way we've dealt with it, and I can only talk specifically for
Alabama, is our Adjutant General has made arrangements with
adjacent Adjutant Generals to bring those equipments that their
Guard pools, from that pool which you were talking about, to
our state to preposition there ahead of time.
Mr. Perlmutter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Carney. Thank you, Mr. Perlmutter. The Chair now
welcomes and recognizes Mr. Taylor from Mississippi for
questions.
Mr. Taylor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, I want to thank
all of my colleagues for coming here today. I would also like
to note the presence of Mayor Favre of Bay St. Louis, Mayor
Longo of Waveland, Mayor Skellie of Long Beach, and Mayor
McDermott of Pass Christian. And with your permission, since
we're not allowed to testify, I would hope the Committee would
give them the normal five legislative days to submit their
thoughts towards this process.
Mr. Carney. No objection. So ordered.
Mr. Taylor. I would like to point out also to the Committee
and account for the heroes, one of them is over there behind
that camera. His name is Al Shows, he was with Channel 13 and
he was one who was there with the first responders as I was
telling you as they kept retreating inland, and ended up at the
Third Emergency Operations Center. Somewhere between the first
and third they actually marked, they wrote on their sleeves
with Marks-A-Lots in case they died. I think he was number 35.
Mr. Shows. 34.
Mr. Taylor. 34, OK. But we appreciate you being here. And
again, I know I keep saying this a lot, but to give you an idea
of the magnitude of what happened here, if you look overhead
and see the rust stains, that's from the salt water spray. The
water was about four feet deep in here and the salt water spray
is what caused that. It's just the unthinkable happened, and
that's what I want to keep emphasizing to the FEMA folks is,
OK, the unthinkable has happened once.
I'm told on the Armed Services Committee by the Generals
and the Admirals that we are due for a weapon of mass
destruction attack on the United States. We know that about
half of all Americans live in a coastal community, and when the
unthinkable happened here our bridge going east, our bridges
going west were destroyed. We were down to one lane of traffic
going north and south for about the next 150 miles, and we saw
how hard it was to get fuel in here for the few vehicles that
could run. The local police, as I have told y'all, actually
broke into the car dealerships and stole vehicles because all
of their vehicles had gone underwater. One of the things that I
have repeatedly asked FEMA is for a water borne strategy for
getting fuel in here. As desperate as we were for fuel here, I
would guarantee you a steak dinner that sitting in the harbor
of Pensacola were barge loads of diesel fuel, and that with the
right contacts and the right calls within 20 hours we could
have had a barge load of fuel here at the Port of Bay St.
Louis. We could have another one in Pass Christian and another
one in Gulfport. And so instead of draining shrimp boats and
draining fuel out of vehicles that had been under water as we
desperately were looking for fuel.
So the question is, what has FEMA done between then and now
to develop a water borne strategy for response?
The second thing I want to point out is because of the good
work of CMO, Admiral Mullen, I was able to get in touch with
him the day after the storm, he had the hospital ship, I'm
sorry, the USS Baton off shore. They flew radios into all the
hospitals that had gone under water. They told them if it gets
beyond what you can handle you call us, we will send a
helicopter in to get your patient and we will take them out to
the hospital and we'll take care of them.
But additionally the Navy sent the hospital ship Comfort
over to Pascagoula, Mississippi. It was at the dock. I would
like Mr. Delahousey to tell me as the head of American Medical
Response, what were his orders from the State Department of
Health as far as taking people to that ship, but I think you
will find that very interesting.
The third thing is the total lack of communications. Major
May, you know, we were down to one satellite phone in this
county for four days, and if it wasn't for the National Guard
we wouldn't have had that. What has changed since then?
And then lastly, since I still have 20,000 families in this
district living in FEMA trailers, and 7,000 are from Purvis,
Mississippi, and I just had a town meeting up there where a lot
of the neighbors adjoining that were pretty upset. Why is it
that two years after the storm, we're still renting property to
house those 7,000 trailers when the Nation owns 100,000 acres
within 10 miles of there at Camp Shelby. And why are we paying
to rent property through FEMA when we could be sticking those
trailers--and I have brought this to you superior's attention,
and I have not been satisfied with the answer. So I'm going to
ask the question again, and I'm going to keep asking the
question, why are you wasting money?
Lastly, I would like to note that we heard from Mr. Mike
Lipski from Congressman Pickering's office with us. And we have
Mr. Scott Walker from Senator Lott's office with us, and I want
to thank them for being here.
But those are the questions, in any particular order. Mr.
Delahousey, why don't you start after seeing the trouble of
bringing in the hospital ship Comfort to a place that had lost
its hospital, what were your instructions as far as bringing
people to that hospital that needed medical care?
Mr. Delahousey. We've never had a level one trauma center
in south Mississippi. We may never, in my lifetime anyway. We
did for about a month period after Katrina, and it was in the
form of the USS Comfort docked at Pascagoula. We were so
pleased to hear that that resource was there, and I was shocked
to receive a phone call indicating that we should not take
patients to the USS Comfort, and I questioned why and I was
told because it was not a state approved resource. That did not
come from MEMA, but from the Department of Health, said it was
not a state approved resource. And I said, well, I think there
is a higher authority that authorized it to come here. You
know, perhaps the Commander in Chief or somebody, but we could
not take advantage of it. And they were relegated to giving
tetanus shots and doing other things. They sent their crews out
to man the hospitals. The hospitals wanted to decompress and
put their patients on board so they could get a break, and they
stayed here for several weeks and then weighed anchor and went
to New Orleans instead.
Mr. Taylor. So again, the point I'm trying to make is, the
sort of thing that we ought to be doing during good times is
having agreements in place between FEMA, between the United
States welfare, between the states to where that doesn't happen
again. I mean, seeing them literally turn that ship around,
brought it up to Mississippi on very short notice, and that
resource was not used. The doctors on the ship, and the medics
on the ship were so frustrated with the situation that they
literally grabbed their medical packs and walked into town.
Again, they didn't have any vehicles with them, and just set up
shop.
Major May, again, if you look behind you about a quarter of
mile you will see a jetty, and at the end of that jetty are
some large posts, and up until the opening of that bridge our
Nation was good enough to provide ferry service to make up for
the fact that the bridge was gone. I have asked the city and
the county and the region, which is traditionally owners of
that property, if they would allow that to remain rather than
being torn up like in the original contract. And the reason for
that is I'm convinced it's going to happen again, and we need a
place where they can either bring in LKA's, amphibious, from
the ships, or for more importantly fuel. I have got to tell you
people were taking it out of their shrimp boats, they were
taking it out of vehicles that had been under water. What is
the plan now? I mean, do you have a list of the fleeting
operations, and have agreements with those people, because we
always know it's the east side of the storm that gets
clobbered; it's the west side of the storm that traditionally
is OK. And so there is always going to be an east side and a
west side along the Gulf Coast. Do you have agreements in
place, now that it's two years after the storm, to bring in
fuel by barge so that we don't have to fight 180 miles of
downed power lines and downed trees next time?
Major May. I'm going to have to get back with you on
specifics, but that contract with FEMA does have a fuel
contract in place. Whether or not it has a sea facet to that I
do not know, but I'll get that to you in writing.
Mr. Taylor. OK.
Major May. Second, you mentioned the housing issues,
clearly FEMA's soft under belly, long term housing really has
never been something FEMA had the depth of experience to be
able to do. FEMA now is partnering with HUD to get them
involved to look at some long term solutions.
FEMA also lead a housing initiative with the states,
various states, Katrina states. Mississippi competed for that
and there is some money available to put some Katrina type
cottages, we call them, together, and the state is working to
establish those sites for those.
But I don't have any good information to give you about how
we can do this quickly. It's going to take some time.
Mr. Taylor. Again, I want to ask specifically the question,
why are we renting land in Purvis, 10 miles from where the
Nation owns Camp Shelby. That just strikes me as insane. I
could see having to do things on the fly right after the storm.
That was 21 months ago, and I think you're wasting my Nations
money, and I will continue to write Mr. Chertoff about this,
Mr. Paulison about this, and I'm going to keep raising the
question until this gets corrected.
The last thing is, I told some of the members of the
Committee, but Mike and Charlie came a little bit late. I
really want to commend Mayor Favre and Mayor Longo. I didn't
get down to Bay St. Louis until the day after the storm. By the
time I did so from the at application EOC that I pointed out to
you, and they had allowed police sanctioned looting of the Wal-
Mart, of the Winn Dixie and the Sav-A-Center. They actually
found a stove in the street and the guy was clever enough to
hook it up to a propane tank and was cooking for the emergency
responders, and that's how we fed the City for the first three
or four days.
Now, Mr. May, I just complimented my Mayor on some heads up
responses to a tragedy that no one could have imagined. But I
do want to remind you that when Michael Brown came before the
Homeland Security Committee last year he made a statement that
really got my ire. He said, ``You are supposed to have three
days worth of food. We ought to have at least three days of
food.'' Well, as you have seen if you drive up and down the
street, there are a lot of people that had a weeks worth of
food in their freezer. The only problem is they don't have the
foggiest idea where their freezer is the next day because their
house is gone. And we as a Nation have to be in a position to
respond to situations like that. Now, these guys made a heads
up call. In a community where everybody knows each other and
therefore was kind of self policing, but that's not going to
happen in New York City. That's not going to happen in Los
Angeles. So, I would really encourage you as a Nation, we've
got to be able to respond quicker than three days.
The other point I want to make is you've now seen this is a
fairly large, not very sparsely populated county. 30 miles, we
are out there about 30 miles. Your local FEMA guy insisted on
one point of delivery for food in a county that 90 percent of
it had gone under water. So no one has got a vehicle. The one's
that do have vehicles don't have fuel. And his answer for that,
his excuse for that was, well, until the National Guard shows
up I'm not going to do it because there will be riots.
Number one, he wasn't aware that the Mississippi Guard was
in Iraq. I had to walk him through that.
But the second part is, he was just totally insensitive to
the fact that there were neither vehicles nor fuel. And we
ended up razooking a couple of vehicles from the National Guard
delivering fuel. But that's got to be a part of your plan,
because the worst is going to happen, and whether it's Los
Angeles, New York City, because of man made terror or a natural
disaster somewhere in coastal America. Your game plan has got
to be better because it's life and death. And what happened
with Katrina is water under the bridge. Don't you know there's
an expression in the country, the dog bites me the first time
it's the dog's fault. That same dog bites me the second time,
it's my fault.
I sure hope your agency has learned from some of these
challenges, and learned from some of the mistakes, and I would
love to hear your response to that, because those were things
that I saw with my eyes that if these local guys had not made
such good, quick, by the seat of their pants calls, a lot of
people would have died.
Major May. The last the thing you mentioned, which is the
distribution of commodities, we're working, we'll be working
with the state, or worked with the state, on points of
distribution, and they will be working with the counties to
determine where those points of distribution should be in the
county so you could get those commodities out and we will be
responding to where those points of distribution have been
identified by county and state officials.
Mr. Taylor. Mr. Chairman, thank all of you again for coming
to south Mississippi.
Mr. Carney. I thank Mr. Taylor for his invitation and for
the witness's testimony. I want to thank the audience for being
attentive and paying attention, it helps us.
Members of the Subcommittees may have additional questions
for the witnesses, and we will submit them in writing and we
would expect an expedient response.
Hearing no further business, the subcommittees stands
adjourned.
[Whereupon, the subcommittee was adjourned.]