Now that the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina has come and gone, we really need to reconsider whether we should rebuild New Orleans--a city that sits below sea level and is sinking.
Not a lot of progress has been made in rebuilding New Orleans as it was. Funding has stalled, and many people from the city have decided to resettle where they are. It's safe to say that the recovery hasn't gone well. And before too much money is spent on the sinkhole, a few design changes should be considered.
There's still 120,000 buildings in New Orleans that have been condemned and need to be taken down. 80% of the city was flooded and mold has a firm foothold in those places. The clean-up should be finished as those buildings are health and safety hazards.
I don't think taxpayer dollars should be used to move people back into the bulls-eye. We'll be right back to two years ago with a flooded sinkhole the next time a major hurricane targets the area.
Showing posts with label katrina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label katrina. Show all posts
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Monday, September 03, 2007
FEMA Should be Separate from Homeland Security; DHS is Too Clunky
This is a return to an old theme, but since it doesn't appear to be happening as some have suggested, I'm going to revisit it.
Two years ago, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I wrote that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) needed to be separated from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as DHS was overbuilt and too unwieldy to move quickly in a disaster. And since that time, Congress has held hearings, FEMA people have resigned, and a lot of window dressing has taken place.
It's not enough.
FEMA should be an independent agency that can move it's assets around at will without going through several layers of DHS bureaucracy to get permission to do so. This was the primary reason for the slowness of FEMA to get into position prior to Katrina and to mobilize once the hurricane roared ashore and swamped New Orleans. The left hand had no idea what the right hand was doing.
The only reason that FEMA should be subordinate to DHS is in the event of a terrorist-related disaster. FEMA needs it's own budget, it's own chain of command, and a direct line to the White House with a cabinet-level secretary.
This needs to happen and soon.
Two years ago, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I wrote that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) needed to be separated from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as DHS was overbuilt and too unwieldy to move quickly in a disaster. And since that time, Congress has held hearings, FEMA people have resigned, and a lot of window dressing has taken place.
It's not enough.
FEMA should be an independent agency that can move it's assets around at will without going through several layers of DHS bureaucracy to get permission to do so. This was the primary reason for the slowness of FEMA to get into position prior to Katrina and to mobilize once the hurricane roared ashore and swamped New Orleans. The left hand had no idea what the right hand was doing.
The only reason that FEMA should be subordinate to DHS is in the event of a terrorist-related disaster. FEMA needs it's own budget, it's own chain of command, and a direct line to the White House with a cabinet-level secretary.
This needs to happen and soon.
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