Senator Ernst F. Hollings (D-S.C.) once described FEMA's staff as "as sorry a bunch of bureaucratic jackasses as I've worked with in my life". It was September 1989, in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo, which struck the Carolinas during George HW Bush's administration. FEMA had apparently taken ten days to respond.
Three years later, Hugo survivors had a sense of deja-vu as they watched FEMA's response to Hurricane Andrew, which struck Miami-Dade county the morning of August 24, 1992.
FEMA is now the butt of criticism in the wake of Katrina and remarkably, despite the differences in the scopes of the disasters, once again there are similarities between the Federal response to Hurricane Andrew which George HW. Bush (Sr). presided over, and the Federal response to Hurricane Katrina by the younger George Bush thirteen years later.
In 1992, mere hours before Andrew hit, Michele Baker, Miami-Dade's chief hurricane coordinator at the time, "took panicked calls from elderly residents", who weren't physically capable of evacuating. Baker had to respond by informing them that no one could help them. (The Seattle-Times, May 28, 2000)
Thousands of people were stranded without food or water and finally, following three days long days with no federal response, Dade county emergency management director Kate Hale lost her patience in a nationally televised news conference: "Where in the hell is the cavalry on this one...They keep saying we're going to get supplies. For God's sake, where are they?" (St. Petersburg Times, August 28, 1992)
"WE NEED HELP," a front-page Miami Herald headline implored August 28th. Stranded homeless survivors scrawled signs begging the president to do something and some took up arms to protect themselves. The Washington Post reported that food and water delivery was stalled:
"Roadblocks set up to stop looters continued to hamper delivery of emergency food supplies. Truckers with emergency food aid were forced to wait for police escorts after reports that some drivers had been shot and beaten by thugs. State troopers...began stopping all trucks entering the state, demanding that the drivers show that they and their cargo had been officially requested" (August 28, 1992)
FEMA didn't move supplies to Florida ahead of time because no official disaster had been declared wrote the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "While thousands of southern Floridians remained without adequate food or shelter, state and federal officials bickered...people waited in line: for food stamps, for mail, for Red Cross vouchers...[for] the Federal Emergency Management Agency." (September 1, 1992)
Pressured in a re-election year, Bush Sr. postponed his Kennebunkport vacation and repeatedly toured the area, offering sympathy to the citizens and TV cameras. He insisted angrily that his concern was not politically motivated and that it was no time for "finger pointing" and assigning blame.
At the time, congress was vitriolic in its criticism of FEMA's hurricane response. The FEMA leader, Wallace E. Stickney, was a protege of former White House chief of staff John H. Sununu and roundly criticized for his inabilities. Chauffeured cars and long lunches were routine and an audit showed that a majority of FEMA's budget was still dedicated to preparing for nuclear war response. People lobbied to have the agency disbanded altogether. Some thought that the military was the only agency that was capable of taking over disaster response. A House Appropriations Committee issued a report in 1992 that apparently said about FEMA:
"is widely viewed as a political dumping ground, 'a turkey farm'...where large numbers of positions exist that can be conveniently and quietly filled by political appointment." (Washington Post)
So is FEMA the same entrenched bureaucratic agency unchanged except for the name of the hurricane, the name of the leader and the decade? FEMA director Michael Brown - "Brownie" to his homies, has the been the recipient of sharp criticism for his lack of diplomacy skills and his stated ignorance of the facts of the ground. The media, politicians, and citizens alike percieve ineptitude and have reveled in verbal flogging of the FEMA leader, as FEMA slowly and haltingly responds to the Katrina disaster. No self respecting journalist has failed to hammer home the fact that Brown's previous post was with an equine association - IAHA. Even that position proved challenging apparently ("he was not a horse guy").
No, this is a 'same but different' FEMA. Bush Sr. lost the electon and Clinton was elected. Polls showed that vast numbers of FEMA employees at the time wanted to leave- four-fifths of the employees polled in a survey thought FEMA was badly managed. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said: "I feel sorry for whomever heads this agency. The way it is structured, FEMA's role is to fail...I don't think FEMA can be a paper-pushing agency and a rapid response force at the same time." (Washington Post, January 28, 1993).
However despite the qualms, the Clinton administration named James E. Witt to lead FEMA. Witt was an Arkansas native, a "country boy" with *merely* a high school diploma. Skeptics doubted his ability to lead such a large organization and questioned whether a "local official" with only four years of state-level emergency management experience and no college education could be effective. According to the Washington Post, Leo Bosner, FEMA union president at the time retorted: "Look at Stickney. He had tons of government experience and all kinds of college degrees, but he was a disaster." (April 1, 1993)
The old FEMA was completely revamped under Witt. Stickney was ousted but not before he held an award ceremony where he gave medals and cash awards to staff, aides, a firehouse in his hometown, and to Marilyn Quayle - because she had worked "in a dirty T-shirt and dungarees", during Hurricane Andrew (Washington Post Feb 17, 1993). Under Witt, the new agency had a place in the Cabinet and the ear of the administration.
Witt recieved kudos from congress, from local officials and citizens alike for his leadership in the agency's turn-around. He oversaw federal relief efforts for hundreds of disasters - including the $ 5.5 billion Northridge, Calif., earthquake and the 1993 Midwest floods. A FEMA official said to the Christian Science Monitor (April 6, 1998): "After Witt, I don't think you'll see any other FEMA director come in who doesn't already have an emergency response background,". The Washington Post reported glowingly August 23, 1998 in; "It Took a County Judge to Bail Out FEMA; James Lee Witt's Arkansas Experience Reshaped Agency and Its Approach to Disaster": "Today, state officials who deal directly with the agency are virtually unanimous in their praise for the agency." Lee Helms, director of the Emergency Management Agency for Alabama, which had recently been through devastating tornadoes told the paper:
"I think there has been a total restoration of FEMA...Witt has cut out the red tape; there's much less bureaucratic nonsense and much more responsiveness to the state's needs. As we say in the South, he's got a head full of sense."
Jane Bullock, Witt's chief of staff who had worked at FEMA since 1980 when the agency was established under Carter, also praised Witt's accomplishments in the Post article. Not only were people not embarrassed to work for FEMA she said, but "we will never be the FEMA we were before".
Not so fast cowboy. In 1994, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), in putting forth a proposal to legislate changes in the agency, praised Witt, but said she was worried that if Witt left:
"that response to major disasters will fall apart...We may go right back to political hacks who don't know the difference between responding to a flood versus an earthquake."
Senator Feinstein came to the defense of the organization, saying, "I really think FEMA is a new agency...it is the difference between day and night". (Washington Post).
Flash forward ten years to today. George Bush Jr. has been in office and FEMA has been folded into DHS, subject to multiple changes and re-sizing. Katrina is a monstrosity of a disaster, but so would be another terrorist attack or an earthquake in San Francisco or numerous other unforseen crises. Trouble has been brewing for the agency for a while but perhaps in the aftermath of Katrina people truly suspect that the old FEMA, the "turkey farm" banquished by Witt, has risen again? FEMA again needs triage.
