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Lawmaker slams FEMA for Arkansas disaster response Friday, Jul 18, 2008 By Aaron Sadler Stephens Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - The Federal Emergency Management Agency drew a rebuke from the head of a Senate panel on Thursday for the agency's sluggish response to Arkansas storms in May. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said too many people left homeless from disasters wait too long for the federal government to decide whether it will offer help to state and local agencies. She cited specifically FEMA's reaction to tornadoes and flooding that hit the state May 2 and May 10. Testifying before Landrieu's subcommittee on disaster recovery, FEMA deputy administrator Harvey Johnson defended the agency's response. He said the cost of the disasters hovered near a threshold for federal help to kick in, meaning FEMA took more time to evaluate damage reports. About 250 homes were damaged in those storms. "I want us to develop a system for when a catastrophe happens, whether it's 50 homes that are destroyed or 100 homes that are destroyed or 250 homes that are destroyed or 250,000 ... where there is immediate action taken and the worries about who's going to reimburse who are settled later by the bureaucracy," Landrieu said. Landrieu has been a vocal critic of FEMA since its botched response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Arkansas first asked for federal help on May 6, just after the first round of storms hit the state, said David Maxwell, director of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. Another request went to FEMA on May 14. Federal help wasn't authorized until May 20, a full two weeks after the initial request, Maxwell told the panel. The occurrence was similar to one in February 2007, when the agency took 12 days before it denied the state's request for federal help after a tornado hit Dumas. At that time, Gov. Mike Beebe said Arkansans were "betrayed" by the agency. FEMA in 2007 said the twisters did not cause enough damage to merit any federal aid. Maxwell said there should have been no question about federal aid for the May storms, especially after Arkansas was already hard hit by tornadoes and flooding on Feb. 5 and another round of intense storms between March 18 and 28. "I thought we had a very clear-cut case," for a federal disaster declaration, Maxwell said. "I felt like that was a major disaster, even if we hadn't had the other two disasters." Maxwell lauded FEMA for its response to the earlier two storms. The agency used helicopters to assess damage from the air, which moved the disaster declaration process more quickly, he said. All-in-all this year, Arkansas has received more than $8 million in federal storm relief. |
