Bush's post-Katrina FEMA chief cites lessons learned

Natural disasters provide a visible reminder of the horrendous consequences that can occur when we underestimate the awesome force of Mother Nature.

By any measure, Hurricane Katrina was a national catastrophe -- affecting millions of people, the environment, the economy, regional and national infrastructure and our national pride. 

So what went wrong? What lessons did we learn? What actions did we take? Did we learn our lesson? And will a catastrophe such as this not be repeated?  

A system of sequential failure

Our country’s system is set up in two separate ways; by culture and by law. We wait for a city to become overwhelmed before the state steps in to assist. We wait until the state becomes overwhelmed before the federal government steps in to assist. Under the Stafford Act, a presidential disaster declaration must be signed by the president before FEMA can start using the Disaster Relief Fund to assist the state. For the president to sign the declaration, it must be determined that the disaster is beyond the capacity of the state to handle it.

During Hurricane Katrina, the city government in New Orleans did not have the will to call for an early evacuation. It took repeated calls from the Hurricane Center and executives in Washington to convince the mayor to call for an evacuation of the city. By then, it was too late to get everyone out of harm’s way.

What did we do to make sure this does not happen again?

Just as every successful team needs a strong quarterback, the nation needs a strong FEMA. I became the director of FEMA in the middle of the Katrina Response -- a little like taking command of the Titanic after the ship hit the iceberg. 

My initial assessment was somewhat dire. There was a lack of leadership throughout the agency. The entire FEMA organization was understaffed, the workforce was demoralized and business practices were abysmal. FEMA had evacuated more than one million people, but where were they; how many in each state; were they in motels, hotels or shelters?

Here is what we did

We actively recruited experienced senior disaster professionals to take the senior leadership positions. We wanted people who had credibility with not only our employees, but also with the emergency managers throughout the country. We gained strong support from DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff and President George W. Bush in the budget process -- almost one billion dollars over three years -- and we doubled the size of the workforce, going from around 1,500 full- time employees to almost 3,500.

To address the logistics problem, we went to the Defense Logistics Agency and hired one of its senior leaders, giving him staff and budget to establish FEMA as the National Logistics Coordinator -- reaching across all departments and agencies to organize and prioritize logistics support for disasters. 

Looking beyond FEMA

We changed the culture and thought processes for how we should respond to disasters. During Katrina, we watched sequential failure where the city had to fail before asking the state for support and the state had to fail before asking for federal support. Now, as an integrated partnership, we work together from the outset to ensure that no one fails and that we all succeed together. We plan, train, exercise, operate and communicate together -- across federal, state and local governments -- for every disaster. 

We will never forget Hurricane Katrina; nor should we. It touched us profoundly. We learned lessons the hard way.  The scars are still there, and for some, still not healed. But we should also take stock of the progress that we have made. We took care to examine thoroughly the failures and weaknesses that contributed to the catastrophe, and we took decisive action. We revamped both law and policy, and for the first time established doctrine. We invested in people and in systems. We conducted a gap analysis, prepared and exercised plans and made the necessary adjustments.

We worked purposely, but the work continues. The work of an emergency manager is never done. While we can always be better prepared, we still cannot avoid the force of nature. We must be ever-vigilant: Ready to move and eager to serve.