In the many reactions to the flooding in Texas I’ve read one with which I agreed wholeheartedly from Tim Palmer in the New York Times. His message is simple: stop building in floodplains.
Most of the rest have been partisan bickering.
Just for the record I think that Federal Emergency Management Agency should continue to exist and has a valuable role to perform. But I have a question. What should FEMA’s role be?
In FEMA’s empowering legislation, the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1988, FEMA role is set out as to provide assistance from the federal government to state and local governments, development mitigation plans as guidelines for how the damage from natural disasters, may be minimized, etc. It doesn’t empower FEMA to take the lead in all disaster situations. That remains the responsibility of state and local governments. I agree with that.
There would appear to be several alternatives:
- FEMA could retain its statutory responsibility and act as a backup to state and local governments.
- It could automatically take the lead in all disaster situations.
- Some hybrid of the two?
What should FEMA’s role be?
I certainly don’t think it should facilitate states maintaining low taxes or allow high-tax states to use their funds for other priorities. The moral hazard of that is obvious.
I dont think we should do away with FEMA as we create a lot fo redundancy and waste if every state has to maintain the ability to respond to every disaster. FEMA should be there for unanticipated disasters a state cant handle. I agree that building in a floodplain, or close to the ocean shore, or in known fireproof areas should not be bailed out except for the rescue of people. People should have insurance to cover those costs and that insurance should be subsidized by states if they decide it needs to be aided, not by the feds.
Steve
I live in Waverly, TN. FEMA was established in response to the Waverly Train Disaster in 1978. In 2021, Waverly was hit by a devastating flood that killed 20 and damaged or destroyed about a third of the homes in Waverly. The headwaters of Trace creek received over 21 inches of rain in 24 hours breaking the previous state record of about 15 inches in 1982 in a different town. I wish I could say that FEMA shined in their response to the flood. They did not. They were a bureaucratic mess that made recovery slower and more difficult. FEMA should be abolished.
FEMA constantly wasted people’s time and put up a lot of barriers and delays in doing recovery work. Businesses that decided to forgo “help” from FEMA or the SBA reopened much quick than those who got “help.” While my home was not flooded, some criminal filed a false business loan application to the SBA in my name. It wasted some of my time to get that mess cleaned up. Many people started to seek help, but simply gave up after a while because of the bureaucracy. This is worse than not helping.
By comparison, individuals, organizations and local governments shined during this time. Joel Boyers owned a helicopter tour company in Nashville. After receiving a call, he flew to Waverly and picked 17 people off rooftops (I know some of these people). The only reason he was able to operate in Waverly during the time was because the weather was too bad for the National Guard to operate so the airspace remained open. A friend and his brother were making water rescues on their jet skis. Others made water rescues in boats.
After the flood, local county governments send fire and rescue people to help with search and recovery efforts. I probably saw 20 different counties represented in town.
Private organizations were an incredible help. Local churches were awesome. Waverly Nazarene had their buildings severely damaged or destroyed in the flood. With no building, they put up a canopy beside the church to coordinate workers to meet cleanup and other immediate needs in the community. The other churches were centers for relief supplies, hosted workers, provided meals, etc.
Private charities like Samaritans Purse, Baptist Global Response and the Appalachian Service Project did a tremendous amount of work. The Appalachian Service Project was in town for several years rebuilding homes.
Businesses jumped in to help. Chemours (my employer) donated $100K to the local United Way, offered people three days off with pay to assist in recovery efforts, and provided a building to store relief supplies and host relief workers. Hood Container set up trailers loaded with cardboard boxes for people recovering their belongings from the flood. The town was filled with food trucks. The food trucks were giving the food away free of charge.
Seeing private help vs. government help in action was an eyeopener. While I understand the intentions of government wanting to help, their execution is simply awful. That is not because the people in FEMA don’t care, it’s just the level of bureaucracy required to prevent fraud and abuse. In the words of Winston Churchill, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”