[StBernard] Landrieu Letter to the Editor Backs Overhauling Inadequate Stafford Act

[Westley Annis]

Landrieu Letter to the Editor Backs Overhauling Inadequate Stafford Act

WASHINGTON - In a letter to the editor published in yesterday's San
Francisco Chronicle, United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La.,
reiterated her call for comprehensive reform of how the federal government
responds to catastrophic disasters. The letter was in support of an op-ed
published December 26 by Mitchell L. Moss, a New York University (NYU)
professor and principal investigator with NYU's Center for Catastrophe
Preparedness and Response. 

Sen. Landrieu's letter concurred with Professor Moss' view that the Stafford
Act was not designed to deal with catastrophes on the scale of Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita and the failure of the federal levees. As Chairman of the
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Disaster Recovery
Subcommittee, Sen. Landrieu held a series of hearings through 2007 to
identify ways to improve the federal government's disaster response system,
and plans to introduce significant reform legislation this year.

"I am committed to completely overhauling this broken system," Sen. Landrieu
wrote. "After a catastrophic disaster, only the federal government is large
and strong enough to manage the recovery effort. We must equip it with the
tools and flexibility to bring local and state governments, nonprofit groups
and the private sector together to successfully bring devastated communities
swiftly back to their feet."

The full text of Sen. Landrieu's letter appears below.

Better Disaster Response

Editor - Regarding "Out of scale - we need a disaster policy sized to our
catastrophes" (Dec. 26): Author Moss is correct that the Stafford Act was
not designed to respond to disasters like Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the
first- and third-worst natural disasters in our nation's history. Such
catastrophe requires unique flexibility to guide initial response and
long-term recovery. Today, Louisiana's recovery continues to be choked by
the stranglehold of this law.

An example is the process localities endure to complete "project worksheets"
- documents required to receive federal funds. Destroyed localities with no
tax base must put up money in advance. Reconstruction work is reviewed not
building by building, but segment by segment of a building and tens of
thousands of documents must be completed for a single project.

Our locals must rejustify their projects because of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency's high employee turnover, and FEMA inspectors
systematically low-ball damage estimates.

FEMA's shortsightedness is evident in St. Bernard Parish, where more than
67,000 hardworking, middle-class people lived pre-Katrina. Completely
destroyed, the parish sought to consolidate its sewer system into one
wastewater plant - a less costly approach than repairing or replacing the
pre-storm system. Through two years of delay, FEMA forced the parish to
redesign the project three different ways, leaving no interim choice but to
vacuum out waste by the truckload at a cost of $1 million a day. Only last
month was a resolution reached.

I am committed to completely overhauling this broken system. After a
catastrophic disaster, only the federal government is large and strong
enough to manage the recovery effort. We must equip it with the tools and
flexibility to bring local and state governments, nonprofit groups and the
private sector together to successfully bring devastated communities swiftly
back to their feet.

 

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