The origins of FEMA date back to 1950 when President Harry Truman established the Federal Civil Defense Administration. This program was focused on responding to nuclear war rather than the natural disaster relief that we see today. However, the program did not have any real power or a clearly defined end goal. There was very little attention given to the FCDA and it was affiliated with various departments as well as names.
Various other programs were also in place with similar goals as the FCDA. One of their contributions to the government was the establishment of Mount Weather, the primary emergency bunker for the government. This location has been used throughout history for various tasks, such as being used by the Weather Bureau to expand meteorology and a safe house in case of nuclear war.
In 1970, under President Jimmy Carter, the FCDA and these various other programs combined to became what we now know as FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Within this program, similar issues of being shuffled around were still seen as FEMA was reshuffled into the Department of Homeland Safety in 2003. Despite this, FEMA represented a shift from the FCDA as the government realized that there weren't very many nuclear wars for the FCDA to plan responses to. The very measures that had already been put in place were now being used to help respond to natural disasters.
The lack of power once seen in the FCDA was an issue that plagued FEMA and became evident in the program's response to Hurricane Katrina. There were various issues that magnified the impact of Hurricane Katrina, including FEMA's inability to respond properly to the natural disaster. Communication between FEMA and the state level governments was slow and had to bypass various levels before any action could be taken. Actual response wasn't seen from the government until days after the hurricane had occurred, despite the fat that President Bush had requested a disaster declaration and Louisiana's governor had declared a state of emergency while writing a letter to FEMA to request aid. This issue was further aggravated during the actual response from FEMA as there was a lack of leadership by the director of FEMA, Michael Brown and there were reports of the program turning down personnel and supplies offered by local police and emergency crews.
The director was pulled from managing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Brown blamed political interference, stating that every little bit of help they wanted became an issue that needed to be negotiated. Regardless of the cause, it became clear that FEMA was not an efficient program.
After the terrible response, it came to light that little preparation had occurred within the agency regarding natural disasters. Instead, training had been focused on response to terrorist attacks.
The Agency has been able to learn from its mistakes through various reforms that have been put in place. The Post Katrina Reform Act allows FEMA to start preparations for natural disaster relief before storms hit. In doing so, response time has been faster and first responders are ready to help whenever they need to. These changes became invaluable when the organization responded to Superstorm Sandy as they were able to take preventative measures that ensured that the damage did not escalate even further.
However, it is clear that FEMA simply is not enough, as seen by the various hurricanes that have happened over the past year. There are limits to what FEMA can do, and to a point, it simply does not have the funding or ability to react to natural disaster after natural disaster. Many people forget that FEMA is not actually an entity that actually responds to natural disasters; it is a contractor that organizes response. This crucial detail is what prevents FEMA from truly being an effective program. As the next hurricane season approaches the United States, it is important that we re-evaluate the programs we have in place for response and determine whether or not we're ready to face what comes next.
SOURCES :
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/storm/etc/femahist.html
https://www.wired.com/story/the-secret-history-of-fema/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/government_programs-july-dec05-fema_09-09
http://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/Sandy-Response-Shows-How-FEMA-has-Changed.html
This was a really thorough explanation of the history, capabilities, functions, and limitations of FEMA! Another interesting piece of information I found about FEMA from that Wired article is that they developed the first chat system in those bunkers in the 1970s. This system was a precursor to modern chat systems such as Slack, Facebook Messenger, and AIM. It is interesting how organizations, agencies, and projects in general can go on useful and sometimes revolutionary tangents!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wired.com/story/the-secret-history-of-fema/