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ADEM head troubled by possible funding loss Wednesday, Dec 5, 2007 By Aaron Sadler Stephens Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - The Arkansas emergency management director warned lawmakers Tuesday a proposed deep cut in federal homeland security funds could doom emergency response agencies across the country. Federal grants help fund salaries of county emergency managers and pay for some operations at his office, said David Maxwell, head of the state Department of Emergency Management. Arkansas received about $3 million in federal emergency management performance grant (EMPG) money this year. "If you want to do away with the emergency management system in this nation, do away with that grant," Maxwell said at a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee hearing. The Associated Press reported last weekend that the White House plans to reduce homeland security funding for state and local communities by more than half in fiscal 2009. The Bush administration is expected to propose $1.4 billion, compared to the $3.2 billion requested by the Homeland Security Department. In addition to the funding reduction, some local emergency programs would be eliminated, according to reports. If enacted, the cuts would take effect Oct. 1, 2008. The president's budget proposal is due to Congress in February. Lawmakers will resist the cuts, said Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark. Pryor sits on the homeland security committee. "We do not need to see Arkansas' emergency management abilities crippled by losing some federal funding," Pryor said. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Homeland Security grants totaling $23 billion have been distributed to states and local agencies, the AP reported. The Benton County Department of Emergency Management has used its share of federal dollars to pay for day-to-day operations of its four-person agency, said Mike Dixon, the county's deputy emergency management director. Benton County is large enough to keep its emergency response program regardless of federal cutbacks. Other, less-populated counties may be less fortunate. "There are many counties that, if it weren't for EMPG they wouldn't have an emergency management program. They couldn't fund it," Dixon said, adding that Benton county would "handicapped quite a bit. We would have to cut staff, services and things like that." Sebastian County received about $21,000 in grant funding that helped offset the salary of its emergency management director, said County Judge David Hudson. Without that funding, he said the county would be forced to tap into its general revenue to pay for a much-needed department. "Since the Oklahoma City bombing and then 9-11, the role and importance of the county departments of emergency management to coordinate emergency planning and response has become more significant for county governments across the nation," Hudson said. "I hope that would justify continued funding of that program." Meanwhile, Maxwell, on Capitol Hill to testify about the possibility of an earthquake in the state, urged the federal government for better planning and more money to focus on earthquake preparedness. Maxwell said states along the New Madrid fault line are preparing for a full-scale planning exercise in 2011, the 200th anniversary of the massive quakes that rattled the central United States and changed the course of the Mississippi River. The states have yet to secure federal money for the planned exercise, Maxwell said. The New Madrid seismic zone includes part of eight states: Arkansas, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. The earthquake-prone fault runs from Cairo, Ill., to Marked Tree in northeast Arkansas. A scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey said Tuesday there is a 7 to 10 percent chance for a catastrophic earthquake measuring greater than 7.5 on the Richter Scale within the next 50 years. The chance of a quake measuring at magnitude 6 or higher is between 25 and 40 percent. It is likely only eastern Arkansas would suffer damage and loss of life from a major quake, though the entire state would be affected, Maxwell said. Loss of power statewide is possible, and the state's economy would be hit hard, he said. |
