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Hurricane Season 2005: Building on Success
FEMA Evolutions for the 2005 Hurricane Season and Beyond

Release Date: April 28, 2005
Release Number: FactSheet-building1

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to the extraordinary series of storms during the 2004 hurricane season was the largest mobilization of emergency response and disaster recovery resources in the history of FEMA – exceeding operational responses to the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks.

The four hurricanes that hammered the eastern United States last year were the most wide-spread and intense series of disasters in FEMA’s 26 years of existence. FEMA responded to a record-setting 27 total major declared disasters for hurricane-related damage in 15 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (an area of more than 600,000 square miles). Florida was hit by four hurricanes and Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia were also declared disasters due to damages from the storms.

FEMA’s response to last year’s hurricanes resulted in the activation of the National Emergency Operations Center and other operations centers for more than 55 days - their longest continuous activation ever. As systems, programs and operations were tested like never before. FEMA will be able to better respond to disasters in the future and better-aid disaster victims for years to come. In addition to program evolutions inspired by the 2004 hurricane season, FEMA is always adopting new technologies and techniques to help communities respond and recover from the devastating effects of hurricanes or any disaster – wherever or whenever they strike.

The following are key elements in FEMA’s “Building on Success” plan for the 2005 hurricane season and any future disasters. They are program evolutions that will better serve disaster victims no matter where or when the next disaster strikes:

Pre-Positioning Disaster Supplies
2004: Before the first hurricane made landfall, FEMA had begun preparations by strategically locating key assets in and around states likely to be impacted. Through the ensuing onslaught of Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne, FEMA pushed supplies into hard-hit areas, working with state and local officials to identify and prioritize their needs.

The Pre-Positioned Disaster Supplies (PPDS) Program was developed to pre-position life-saving/life-sustaining disaster equipment and supplies as close to a potential disaster site as possible. PPDS positions supplies in containers on the ground in a state so they are ready to be mobilized and put to use wherever and whenever disaster strikes. During the 2004 hurricanes, 17 PPDS Containers were provided to support 8,500 disaster victims (each container supported 500 people) in several hurricane-effected states (resources in the containers included cots, blankets, first aid kits, personal hygiene kits, tents, portable toilets, power generators, tool kits and fire extinguishers).

2005: PPDS will continue to be used to quickly mobilize life-sustaining resources to wherever disasters occur – for not only those states that prepare for hurricanes, but those that are often affected by earthquakes, tornadoes and other anticipated disasters.

National Disaster Medical System
2004: During the 2004 hurricanes, the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) teams provided medical treatment for nearly 10,000 patients. Now under the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA was able to better coordinate the deployment of these medical assistance teams to reach into hurricane-effected states and treat thousands of disaster victims. (NDMS includes about 8,000 medical and support personnel from across the country who assist local medical care providers when an emergency exceeds the scope of a community’s hospital and healthcare resources.)

2005: National Disaster Medical System teams will continue to be deployed to disaster situations where state and local officials need coordinated national medical support - during the 2005 hurricane season and beyond.

Web-Based Application Process
2004: On October 5, 2004, between disaster declarations for Tropical Storm Ivan in New York and Tropical Storm Frances in South Carolina, FEMA developed and released its online registration option. Within eight weeks, over 21,000 applicants used FEMA’s web-based registration process to apply for disaster assistance; and to further expedite disaster assistance applications, FEMA loaded the web-based registration to laptop computers, allowing area residents without phone service or utilities to register from FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers.

2005: FEMA will continue to use this successful web-based application process for the 2005 hurricane season and in all future disasters as another tool to speed recovery assistance to impacted individuals and households.

Emergency Group Sites
2004: Due to the severe devastation of four hurricanes hitting back to back, hundreds of area residents were unable to return to their homes last year and many could not even find temporary housing accommodations. Some were forced to sleep in emergency shelters, which are not intended as a viable long-term housing solution. To transition these individuals out of emergency shelters until adequate temporary lodging could be acquired, FEMA introduced Emergency Group Sites (EGS) as an interim sheltering solution. (EGS are clusters of travel trailers that can be set-up in a few days with fully self-contained utility systems.)

2005: FEMA is currently refining interim sheltering options and intends to utilize EGS again in future large-scale recovery operations, whether that occurs in 2005 or the more distant future.

Housing Strike Teams
2004: In Florida, FEMA deployed Housing Strike Teams to the state’s 12 hardest-hit counties to work directly with key local officials on expediting the emergency housing program. The teams included representatives from FEMA, HUD, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and highly skilled private sector consultants who worked to identify and resolve large-scale housing issues. Through their efforts, FEMA housed more than 13,000 families in fewer than 90 days.

2005: FEMA is in the process of further developing multiple standing Housing Strike Teams for use in future large-scale recovery operations whether they occur in 2005 or beyond.

Expanded Mutual Aid Assistance
2004: Due to the scope and magnitude of the 2004 hurricanes, FEMA realized the necessity to expand the reimbursement program for costs incurred by local governments who loan their first responders and emergency resources to aid their neighboring cities or counties during a disaster (called “mutual aid assistance”). FEMA expanded the national mutual aid policy to allow local governments to be eligible for mutual aid reimbursement even if a mutual aid agreement was not in place before a disaster declaration. This means that entities that did not have an agreement already set up with their neighbor before a disaster occurred, can request that FEMA reimburse them for eligible costs.

2005: This is now a national policy that will be used in all future disaster declarations to assist state and local governments with disaster recovery.

We Continue to Build on Our Success

Through the efforts of thousands of dedicated disaster workers last year, FEMA delivered aid more quickly and more efficiently than ever before. In every major disaster, the Agency is confronted with new and sometimes recurring circumstances that tax our system in ways that are sometimes unanticipated. By design, FEMA remains flexible and adjusts guidelines during disasters to ensure a quick response, but also conducts thorough systems reviews afterwards, seeking improvements for the future. As FEMA looks ahead to the 2005 hurricane season, we now have the experience gained during an historic 2004 hurricane season to add to our 26 years of disaster experience.

The following is a list of areas where we continue to build on our successes for all future disasters:

More Detailed Documentation: FEMA is working to use new technologies and guidelines to better document damages to homes and personal possessions. More detailed documentation will further ensure that individuals receive necessary funds for eligible disaster expenses in an expeditious manner.

Quality Control of Field Inspections: FEMA is developing new technology and procedures to improve quality control of field inspections. Our ultimate goal is to improve the accuracy of inspections without incurring any delays in providing disaster assistance.

On-site Data Collection: On-site data collection is critical to providing timely and accurate assistance. One of FEMA's long-term goals is to greatly expand innovative field technology to improve disaster registration and temporary housing.

Contract Oversight: FEMA is currently evaluating contract requirements to ensure better training and guidance on the part of our contractors when hiring field inspectors and other individuals working to assist disaster victims.

"Feds' Disaster Planning Shifts Away From Preparedness"

BY BILL WALSH, BRUCE ALPERT And JOHN McQUAID
c.2005 Newhouse News Service

In its budget, the Bush administration had also proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they need.

Some critics said that in a post-Sept. 11 world, when the Department of Homeland Security is focused on preventing another terrorist attack, not enough emphasis is being placed on preparing for natural disasters.

A case in point, they say, is the decision to take away from FEMA its historic responsibility for disaster preparedness. Now the agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, will focus on post-disaster search and rescue.

The Homeland Security agency plans to create a new Directorate of Preparedness, covering planning for both terrorism and natural disasters. But it is still on the drawing board.

Russ Knocke, a Homeland Security spokesman, said the reorganization will lead to better disaster preparation.

"It will let the experts on planning and preparation focus on that and the experts on search and rescue focus on that," Knocke said.

But experts in disaster planning say that it has already sown confusion among those on the front lines of preparing for disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

"It's very confusing to the state and local governments," said James Lee Witt,the FEMA director in the Clinton administration. "Who do they go to and how is it going to be coordinated now? It's really going to be fragmented. I've talked to a lot of the states, and I don't think they're very happy about this."