**May 8, 2006 FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project
Activity Report**

\(1\) FEMA:

Baton Rouge Advocate (Editorial). \"Our Views: Decide FEMA\'s Fate in
Pragmatic Manner.\" May 8, 2006. Accessed at:
[[http://www.2theadvocate.com/opinion/2760261.html]{.underline}](http://www.2theadvocate.com/opinion/2760261.html)

\[Excerpt: \"\...we shouldn\'t abolish FEMA just because we\'re mad at
it.\"\]

Charleston Gazette (WV, Editorial). \"FEMA? Disposable Agency?\" May 6,
2006. Accessed at:
[[http://wvgazette.com/section/Editorials/2006050510]{.underline}](http://wvgazette.com/section/Editorials/2006050510)

\[Excerpt: \"The people running Washington seem to have looked at the
Federal Emergency Management Agency and concluded, \'Well, as long as it
is broken, let\'s stomp on it with both feet.\' That\'s the attitude of
some Congress members who want to abolish the whole agency and replace
it with a new one, the National Preparedness and Response Authority.
What good would it do to switch one bureaucracy for another?\.... FEMA
worked fine 10 years ago. It was its own agency. It was run by competent
people. It was not overshadowed by a Department of Homeland Security.
There seemed to be some grown-ups in charge\.... Now, another hurricane
season is fast approaching, and Congress wants to hang a different label
on the FEMA office and announce that the problem is solved. FEMA is
important in states other than those prone to hurricanes. Last year,
Katrina and Rita overshadowed everything else. But in some years, it\'s
mountain flooding, or southern twisters, or Mississippi flooding, or
California mudslides, or Western fires or earthquakes. Shuffling
bureaucracies around may give the appearance of improvement, but it
seldom is. If anything, shuffling bureaucracy makes problems. It takes
time to promulgate rules, rearrange desks and order new stationery.
It\'s much more difficult - and effective - to hire competent public
servants to carry out the laws and rules already in existence. That\'s
how FEMA used to work. Why can\'t the country just return to that
successful formula?\"\]

Davis, Tom, and Bill Shuster. \"Getting FEMA Wrong.\" May 8, 2006.

Accessed at:
[[http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060507-094116-3690r.htm]{.underline}](http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060507-094116-3690r.htm)

\[Excerpt: \"The problem at FEMA is inertia, not initials. Crammed into
a diverse, sprawling and still conflicted mission portfolio at DHS, the
nation\'s emergency response tools fell out of favor as other priorities
drew funding and leadership focus. Hoped-for synergies and efficiencies
between DHS and FEMA proved one-sided, as the agency was steadily bled
to death by its many new siblings in a parent organization focused on
terrorism. Increasingly separated from the preparedness grants and
exercises provided to its state and local partners, FEMA was not able to
follow the DOD maxim to \'train as we fight.\'\.... As many emergency
management professionals warned, it was a mistake to put FEMA into DHS.

National \"all hazard\" preparation and response capabilities constitute
a discreet and perishable asset that has to stand alone to thrive. Like
a home fire extinguisher, it\'s something too easy to forget about until
you need it. Then, when the alarm sounds, you don\'t want to have to
rummage through the back of the linen closet only to find the device is
empty from misuse or neglect\.... Just as we need an organization solely
focuses on preventing a terrorist attack on our homeland, we also need
an organization solely focused on disaster preparedness and response.

Mixing the two creates needless friction between two essential functions
and inevitably denigrates both. FEMA should revert back to a stand-alone
agency, with the dedicated resources, unquestioned clout and
entrepreneurial agility to get the job done.\" Rep. Tom Davis is a
Virginia Republican and Rep. Bill Shuster is a Pennsylvania
Republican.\]

New Orleans Times-Picayune (Editorial). \"What\'s In A Name?\" May 7,
2006. Accessed at:
<http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1146983357259510.xml>

\[Excerpt (referring to Collins/Lieberman Senate Report on Katrina and

FEMA): \"Perhaps those measures would provide sufficient muscle for a
new and improved disaster agency, but making the agency independent
would send a much stronger message of reform, particularly since many of
the other committee recommendations are on target\.... The Senate
committee also wants the new agency to once again have control over key
functions for emergency management: mitigation, preparedness, response
and recovery. That\'s a critical change. After the Sept. 11 attacks,
those functions were dispersed throughout the Department of Homeland
Security, and judging by what happened after Hurricane Katrina, that was
a mistake\.... The report also points out the need for a stronger
commitment to emergency management.\"\]

\(2\) KATRINA:

Minzesheimer, Bob. \"\'Deluge\': A History of Katrina, First Edition.\"

USA Today, May 8, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2006-05-07-brinkley_x.htm]{.underline}](http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2006-05-07-brinkley_x.htm)

\[Excerpt: \"Douglas Brinkley\'s account of the natural and man-made
disasters that were Hurricane Katrina indicts three public officials he
holds most responsible for the chaos that followed the storm. The Great
Deluge blames \'the incompetence of George W. Bush, who acted as though
he were disinterested in a natural disaster in which there was no enemy
to be found.\' It says the inaction of Homeland Security chief Michael
Chertoff \'cost lives\' and holds Chertoff more culpable than the
much-ridiculed Michael Brown, the former FEMA director. And it portrays
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin as gutless, paranoid and \"cracking at the
seams\" when he needed to be decisive.\"\]

\(3\) PANDEMIC:

Saey, Tina Hesman. \"Deadly Virus Is Killing Birds and People Around the
Globe.\" St Louis Post-Dispatch, May 7, 2006. Accessed at:

<http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/sciencemedicine/story/F92519B4EE0291F486257166005738A9?OpenDocument>

\[Excerpt: \"\...last week, one thing did become clear: You better get
ready to save yourself in a pandemic, because the government won\'t be
able to do it, officials said. Government officials say they are
stockpiling antiviral drugs and working to create vaccines to combat a
pandemic, but no one knows whether existing medications will work
against a new virus. \'The take-home message is \'don\'t count on
them.\'

They may not be available and they may not work,\' said Dr. Steven
Lawrence, an infectious disease researcher at Washington University {St.

Louis}.\"\]

\(4\) PREPAREDNESS:

Baldor, Lolita C. \"Military Shores Up Hurricane Response.\" Associated
Press, May 6, 2006. Accessed at:
<http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060506/ap_on_re_us/military_hurricanes;_ylt=AvTNH3Vo8l56lHakkYj6nulvzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA-->

Machalaba, Daniel, and Corey Dade. \"New Orleans, Amtrak Differ on
Evacuation Plan.\" Wall Street Journal, May 6, 2006. Accessed at:

<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114687774775245651.html?mod=todays_us_page_one>

\[Excerpt: \"David Gunn, {ex} president of Amtrak when Katrina hit, says
any evacuation plan that relies heavily on Amtrak trains is \'nonsense.
There is no substance if you don\'t have equipment.\' \.... negotiations
on other key parts of the needed agreement between Amtrak and New
Orleans remain in limbo, partly because Amtrak officials were having
trouble as recently as Wednesday making contact with the New Orleans
Division of Homeland Security and Public Safety {headed by Terry
Ebbert}, according to an Amtrak spokesman.\" Note: Relates to importance
of emergency management principle of \"coordination and cooperation.\"\]

\(5\) WAR ON TERRORISM:

Kamen, Al.. \"The USDA On Iraq: Everything\'s Coming Up Rosy.\"

Washington Post, May 8, 2006. Accessed
at:<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/07/AR2006050700898.html>

Slackman, Michael. \"Out of Desert Poverty, A Caldron of Rage in the
Sinai.\" New York Times, May 7, 2006. Accessed at:
[[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/world/07egypt.html?\_r=1&oref=slogin]{.underline}](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/world/07egypt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)

\[Excerpt: \"Mr. Melahy\'s turn to terrorism is one aspect of the strong
undercurrent of anger and tension roiling the Middle East, where
disillusionment and hostility toward national governments move many
young people to adopt Islam as an identity, supplanting nationality or
ethnicity.\"\]

B. Wayne Blanchard, Ph.D., CEM

Higher Education Project Manager

Emergency Management Institute

National Emergency Training Center

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Department of Homeland Security

16825 S. Seton, N-430

Emmitsburg, MD 21727

\(301\) 447-1262, voice

\(301\) 447-1598, fax

wayne.blanchard@dhs.gov

[[http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu]{.underline}](http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu)

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