**April 30, 2007 FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project
Report**

\(1\) DISASTER RELIEF & RECOVERY:

Los Angeles Times. \"Katrina\'s Red Tape: By Attaching Strings to
Reconstruction Funds, Washington Is Hampering the Reconstruction of New
Orleans\" (Editorial). April 28, 2007. Accessed at:

<http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-katrina28apr28,1,5635260.story>

Paulison, Robert David. \"Effective Aid Takes Time: Scrutiny,
Matching-Funds Requirement ensure Local Stake in Rebuilding.\" USA
Today, April 30, 2007. Accessed at:

[[http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070430/oppose30x.art.htm]{.underline}](http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070430/oppose30x.art.htm)

\[Excerpt: \"Some argue that the federal government should waive the 10%
match that states and local jurisdictions are required to put into
projects. What they do not understand is that a fundamental tenet of the
matching requirement is ensuring that every state and local jurisdiction
has a financial stake in the decision-making process. This means
decisions are scrutinized and prioritized to help those people who need
it most.\"\]

USA Today. \"Gulf Coast Drowns Again, This Time In Red Tape: Communities
Trying to Rebuild Meet Inefficiency and Delays\" (Editorial). April 30,
2007. Accessed at:

[[http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070430/edit30.art.htm]{.underline}](http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070430/edit30.art.htm)

\(2\) EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT:

Selves, Mike. Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Economic Development,
Public Buildings and Emergency Management, Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure, United States House of Representatives, On FEMA\'s
Preparedness and Response to All Hazards.\" Washington, DC: April 26,
2007. Accessed at:

<http://www.iaem.com/committees/GovernmentAffairs/documents/SelvesTestimony042607.pdf>

\(3\) HOMELAND SECURITY:

Tamari, Jonathan. \"Homeland Funds Lost: N.J. Towns Forfeit \$2.78M in
Unused Security Grants.\" Home News Tribune (NJ), April 30, 2007.

Accessed at:

<http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070430/NEWS/704300384/1001>

United Press International. \"UPI Poll: Low Grades for Bush on
Terrorism.\" April 27, 2007. Accessed at:

[[http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20070427-053930-6470]{.underline}](http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20070427-053930-6470)

\[Excerpt: \"Participants in a UPI-Zogby International poll gave Bush
administration officials low grades in their anti-terror efforts in
guarding the United States. U.S. President George Bush, the Department
of Homeland Security and its secretary all received the lowest rating
available by a plurality of the 5,932 respondents to the April 13-16
poll\.... More than half \-- 55.9 percent \-- of those asked rated the
Homeland Security Department either \"poor\" (32.7 percent) or \"fair\"
(23.2 percent) on keeping the country safe. A slight plurality (27.4
percent) chose \"very unfavorable\" opinion of Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff.\"\]

\(4\) MITIGATION:

New York Times. \"Storm Warnings\" (Editorial). April 29, 2007.

Accessed at:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/opinion/nyregionopinions/WEFloods.html?_r=1&oref=slogin>

\[Excerpt: \"Residents who endured this spring\'s flooding in
Westchester are about to witness the follow-up phenomenon: the outbreak
of \"summit meetings,\" op-ed articles and, inevitably, flood-control
studies that gather dust because their remedies are too costly and too
wrenching to enact\.... Nearly 20 years ago, an essay in this section by
William G. Lawyer, then director of the Greenburgh Nature Center, took
note of the drastic changes made to the Mamaroneck River watershed (also
known as New Rochelle, Purchase, Scarsdale, Rye, etc.) An area once
bound tightly to its river with mills and waterworks treated the
ecosystem as an afterthought. Riverbeds shrank as highways widened.
Ponds were drained for houses. Where the river was buried or walled in,
it was forgotten. But some places, like Mamaroneck Village, remained
where they had always been - on low-lying ground. A month ago it would
have been a stretch to mention Mamaroneck and New Orleans in the same
breath. But both communities are victims of foolish planning and
development. Once Mamaroneck\'s paperwork starts flowing, it, too, will
get visitors from the Federal Emergency Management Agency\.... It may be
impossible to dismantle suburbia, but we should be able to improve on
it, even in an area with independent, noncooperating governments.
Restoring wetlands, improving drainage, banning ill-placed development,
curbing sprawl - none of this is profoundly complicated, but it does
require action by leaders more used to short-term fixes and penny-wise
spending. April\'s floods are a regional problem requiring regional
solutions, and it shouldn\'t take any more deadly northeasters to get
officials across Westchester and in Albany to tackle it together.\"\]

\(5\) PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE:

Gilmore, Gerry J. \"Exercise Tests Hurricane-Response Plans in
Northeastern U.S.\" American Forces Press Service, April 30, 2007.

[[http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=32997]{.underline}](http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=32997)

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, K-011

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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