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¶ … capabilities discussed on page 16 of the Government Accountability Office report from this unit's readings. In your view, why hasn't the federal government been able to fulfill those capabilities after the September 11, 2001 and Hurricane Katrina incidents?
Effective emergency preparedness and response requires coordination across many levels of governmental and nongovernmental institutions. Successful responses to such major disasters, whether the result of natural forces or terrorist acts, necessitate large-scale planning, management and collaboration among well-trained first responder organizations in a wide range of disciplines, including public safety, fire, public health, and social service personnel. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the federal government has endeavored to enhance our ability to handle cataclysmic events by investing at least $11 billion in financial support to state and local authorities for the purpose of improving their emergency preparedness and response systems. In spite of this increased financial investment, the Government Accountability Office has reported that many weakness and areas of improvement remain in the federal government's development and implementation of effective emergency preparedness, response, and recovery capabilities.
The GAO report of February 23, 2006 outlined...
There seems to be an over-emphasis on setting standards, assessments, and strategies for preparation and response to terrorist attacks, and an under-emphasis on such efforts with respect to natural disasters or accidents. Natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornados, fires, floods, and hurricanes have statistically occurred far more frequently and caused significantly more damage than terrorism throughout the past decade. However, when Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8 required DHS to establish goals that measure readiness by appropriately balancing these natural and…
Third, assessments of realistic rehearsals or exercises performed to test response systems revealed that many governmental agencies and personnel were uncertain as to their proper duties in responding to an emergency. For example, an assessment of the response training exercise, Hurricane PAM of 2004, noted that there was confusion regarding the distinct roles and responsibilities of the Principal Federal Officer (PFO) and the Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO). In addition, the response exercise showed a lack of guidance on training and certification standards for PFO support personnel.
Finally, another problem is the federal government's inability to monitor funding for emergency response. Although the federal government has provided at least $11 billion in grants to federal, state, and local authorities to improve their emergency preparedness and response programs, there is no effective data collection system in place that enables the federal government to track who receives grant funds and how those funds are used. The federal government lacks knowledge on how specifically various authorities are actually financing their emergency response efforts, how they have used federal funds, and how they are measuring the effectiveness of their programs. This fragmentation of grants available to multiple levels of first responders makes it more difficult to coordinate various agencies and to achieve goals and objectives.
In conclusion, the federal government has not been able to fulfill the six capabilities for successful emergency preparedness and response due to an overall lack of proper focus and coordination among a wide variety of entities. However, recognition of these problems in the GAO report should lead to improvements in these areas.
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