In the wake of Hurricane Helene, the issue of the response by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) specifically and the Biden administration generally has entered the national presidential debate.
The central question is whether the White House and the national agency move effectively to address the needs of American citizens suffering the ravages of major natural disasters and other emergencies.
FEMA is judged on two levels – preparedness and effective response. Knowing that the forces of nature will create disasters, the agency has a general level of preparedness. It is like a peacetime army being prepared for war.
A second level of preparedness has to do with tactical readiness with looming disasters in sight – such as hurricanes. In fact, of all natural disasters, hurricanes tend to provide the greatest advance warning – the greatest time to prepare.
In the tragic aftermath of Hurricane Helene, it is obvious that FEMA was not prepared to meet the needs of the victims. The response was too slow and grossly insufficient. That was obvious from all the virtually universal comments of the people most impacted by the hurricane and flooding.
Following government practice – and in the face of the experience on the ground — FEMA issued press releases that wallowed in self-praise for the services they were performing. When asked by MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski whether FEMA was meeting “all” the needs of the hurricane and flood victims, the agency administrator, Deanne Criswell, said “absolutely.” That was an audacious lie. Just 15 days after Helene wreaked havoc on Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, the folks in the affected communities were still complaining about a lack of FEMA presence and support.
Even as FEMA was issuing ridiculous self-serving public relations statements, it was conceded that the response was undermined by a lack of funds. This is where the issue stops on President Biden’s desk in the Oval Office.
House Speaker Mike Johnson questioned why Biden had not expeditiously requested additional emergency funding even as Helene was ravaging several states. Johnson said the House was prepared to take up such a request on a moment’s notice. That question was never satisfactorily answered by the White House.
In addition to FEMA’s poor response in terms of on-the-ground rescue and life-support services, the agency had a haphazard program for financial relief – offering some victims sitting in front of their destroyed homes $750 dollars – money they had no place to spend.
The shortage of funding also raised questions about FEMA priorities. It has been reported that the Biden administration used $1.4 billion of FEMA funds to address the growing immigration crisis – to provide welfare assistance to the illegal immigrants in communities across the nation.
(It is no small irony that the use of FEMA money suggests that the explosion of migrants crossing the southern border and relocating throughout the United States is a national emergency – a disaster — contrary to Biden’s contention that it is not even a crisis. But I digress.)
In terms of FEMA’s failure to respond effectively, we have seen this movie before. It was the subject of harsh political criticism of President George W. Bush and the management of Hurricane Katrina. That failure resulted in the ousting of the FEMA director. Given Criswell’s answer on MSNBC, it may be time to find a new administrator for FEMA.
Whatever reasons or excuses that might be offered up, the one thing is clear that America’s disaster preparedness agency was not prepared for Helene. And it is doubtful that it can somehow be prepared for Hurricane Milton – which, as I write this commentary, is 24 hours away from landfall on the western shore of my current home state of Florida. By the time you read this, Milton will be in the history books – and the effectiveness of FEMA will again be the topic of conversation.
So, there ‘tis.