THE PLANK SEPTEMBER 1, 2008
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It was tough for President Bush to find a new FEMA director.
After Michael Brown resigned in 2005 during the disastrous aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina, convincing someone to take the top spot at the Federal
Emergency Management Agency wasn't an easy sell. The New York Times reported in
April 2006 that several people had turned it down, while others had declined
other high-ranking agency jobs. At the time, out of 30 top officials in the
agency, 11 were serving on an acting basis only.
But, someone eventually answered the call to lead. R. David
Paulison, whom Bush had appointed to fill Brown's shoes temporarily in
September 2005, agreed to take on the job permanently seven months later. Here
is a rundown of Paulison's vital statistics.
AGE: 61
HOMETOWN: Miami,
Florida
EDUCATION: B.A. from Florida
Atlantic University;
Completed the Program
for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University's
John F. Kennedy School
of Government
EARLY CAREER: He began in 1971 as a firefighter and
paramedic with the North Miami Beach Fire Department. He later served in
several deputy administrative roles and eventually became chief of the
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department, which had roughly 1,900 members and a
$200-million budget. He is also a past president of the International
Association of Fire Chiefs.
DISASTER EXPERIENCE PRIOR TO FEMA: He became fire chief just
three months before Hurricane Andrew ravaged Florida in 1992. Four years later, he dealt
with response to the ValuJet 592 crash in the Everglades.
During a Senate confirmation hearing in 2001, he also described overseeing responses
to several tornadoes, floods, and hazardous material spills.
FEDERAL CAREER: Since 2001, Paulison has
served in various Department of Homeland Security (DHS) roles, including
director of the U.S. Fire Administration and director of the new Preparedness
Division of the Emergency Preparedness & Response Directorate. And, of
course, for the last three years he's been directing FEMA.
CONTROVERSIES: In February 2003, Paulison issued a now
famous advisory about household materials people should have on hand in the
case of a terrorist attack. (The advisory is often incorrectly attributed to
then Homeland Security Director
Tom Ridge.)
These materials included three days' worth of food and water, as well as duct
tape to seal off doors and windows. The advisory led to a rush
on hardware stores to purchase duct tape. Some comedians and bloggers, among
others, dubbed the situation "duct and cover."
Since Paulison took over the agency, FEMA has faced
criticisms that the emergency trailers it provided to Katrina victims--at a
slower than acceptable pace, according to many--might contain high levels of
formaldehyde, a carcinogen. The agency has been accused of downplaying the
risks of the substance. In late 2007, it announced it would begin testing the
structures--and now, the agency's method of providing mass emergency housing,
should another disaster arise, remains unclear.
--Seyward Darby
5 comments
Having been a South Floridian for five years, and gone through three relatively minor hurricanes and two tropical storms (including Katrina en-route to the Gulf, I have a couple of observations.
First, FEMA is a small agency. There are limits to what it can do and how well it can do it immediately before and after a storm. The agency didn't do particularly well after Hurricane Andrew and the first President Bush took some heat for its performance. Clinton, a very astute politician with lots of disaster response experience at the state level, put in a top notch administrator. Fortunately for him, no major disasters took place during his term. Bush 2 put in a political appointee who was bound to look bad in the face of an epic disaster, and did. The fact is FEMA looks pretty good when a tornado or hurricane strikes a thinly populated area. They don't look so good when tens or hundreds of thousands are impacted.
Second, the first responders to these storms are state and local government. Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco failed New Orleans terribly in Katrina. Nagin has learned; Jindal is competent. Most important, the people got the message and got out this time.
Third, Homeland Security focused on terrorism after 9/11, perhaps inevitably. They will be better focused on their several missions post Katrina, perhaps inevitably.
Fourth, the President took a hit, the governor took a hit and the mayor damned near took a hit from Katrina. The Corps of Engineers came out smelling like roses, as always. Why. Congress, Ds and Rs alike, loves them. They are at the epicenter of the earmarking system.
- lsernoff
September 1, 2008 at 3:02pm
Three relatively minor hurricanes, lsernoff? May I ask which (besides pre-NOLA Katrina)?
- cspencef
September 1, 2008 at 5:22pm
The issue for FEMA may not be withstanding Gustav; it may be withstanding a whole series of body blows. Gustav turned out to be not-Katrina, thankfully, but there will still be hard-hit areas along the Louisiana coast needing FEMA aid.
Then there's Hanna. As I post this it's sitting just the other side of the Bahamas, readying up for a beeline to the southeast US coast. It most likely won't ever get beyond a Category 1, thankfully. But it could be interesting if it somehow manages to hit the Georgia coast. Georgia typically misses out on the hurricane fun, and I'm not sure how some parts of that coast will react even to a minimal hurricane. Still, even if it does the usual trick of veering off towards SC or NC, there will again be damage. Presumably by now FEMA is getting stretched.
But wait, there's more. As of this afternoon Tropical Storm Ike is out there, burbling up in the Atlantic. It's a long way off, which often means it has a good chance to recurve out to sea and bother nobody. But right now, the models and projections suggest it won't do that; it looks like it will head for the northern Lesser Antilles, maybe Hispaniola, which gives it a chance to either slide into the Gulf or make a run at the Atlantic coast after Hanna's already been through. By now FEMA is getting seriously stressed, but on the positive side they should be well-practiced by then.
There isn't a Josephine yet, but there are several good candidates out there. If by some bizarre fluke something named Josephine manages to make it across and threaten the US, what kind of condition is FEMA in by then?
With any luck we don't have to find out if FEMA can handle this worst-case scenario. But isn't the whole point of FEMA to be prepared for the worst that can happen? I don't know who the current equivalent of James Lee Witt would be, but I hope Obama and/or McCain already has this guy on speed dial...
- cspencef
September 1, 2008 at 6:01pm
espencef: The three hurricanes to which I referred were Frances, Jeanne and Wilma.
I am gratified that the Corps' levee and seawall work appears to have stood the test of Gustav. I salute them. But, I will continue to think that to much of their workload is porkbarrel related.
I hope the incumbent in the article above is the equivalent of Witt. He has professional qualifications. Katrina, in my view, was such a disaster that even if Witt had been retained by Bush the agency might well have been overwhelmed in any event. "Brownie" was dumped on as much for his resume as for his performance; and Bush's congratulations to him after a high-stress tour of duty was blown out of proportion by the media.
I never thought I'd find myself putting in a plug for Rep. Ron Klein, but he has had some success in pushing for a federal disaster-relief plan. I was skeptical, but think some properly-crafted legislation could be useful in reinforcing private insurance markets. Lots of potential disasters out there: hurricanes in metropolitan areas (including, shockingly, the NY area, floods, earthquakes. According to an article I read some years ago, I think in National Geograpic, even Seattle could be threatened by an eruption of Mount Rainier.
Love living in Florida in retirement, but I don't need an excess of excitement from Mother Nature. Good luck to all for the balance of the storm season.
- lsernoff
September 1, 2008 at 7:20pm
lsernoff; o.k., I'll take "relatively minor" for Wilma, but Frances and Jeanne rated slightly higher in my experience.
One can hope that Paulison at least learned something from his Andrew experience. But I can't necessarily allow that another FEMA director wouldn't have at least listened to the kind of warnings about Katrina that anybody could have gotten simply by watching the Weather Channel or any number of other publicly accessible sources. Maybe no FEMA director would have been able to plan a perfect response, but it certainly could have been done better.
Is this plan you speak of the proposed national catastrophe plan something along the lines of the national flood insurance program?
- cspencef
September 1, 2008 at 8:34pm