by Shane Riley

Created on: January 03, 2009

Problems with DHS and FEMA

The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are not very effective or efficient in accomplishing their missions. Although the DHS has done a good job with protecting the United States after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, but FEMA, which now falls under the control of the DHS, has dropped the ball on more than one occasion, especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina was one of the worse and one of the most costly natural disasters in recent history in the Unites States. I can understand the inability to provide assistance to people during the hurricane, but there is no acceptable excuse for not providing assistance to the people immediately before and after the hurricane has passed, after all it is the taxpayer's money that funds these federal organizations to provide the highest quality assistance as possible without wasting time, money and resources. The DHS was created a few years before Hurricane Katrina. FEMA was already merged with the DHS. So one would think that the communication problems between local, state, and federal government agencies, the jurisdiction problems, and many of the other, technical problems between federal and civil authorities would have been somewhat worked out or solved by the time Hurricane Katrina reeked its havoc. Instead, the whole system broke down in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In my opinion, some of the reasons behind the DHS and FEMA's failures and their inability to handle the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina was their failures to act in a timely manner on the planning scenarios and to take action in the areas that were projected to be a major problem. The DHS and FEMA were unable to move at a rapid pace when the disaster was eminent and immediately after the disaster when time and assistance was most critical. The DHS and FEMA let the American people down. All of the already mentioned reasons for the DHS and FEMAS problems and failures played a deadly role in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, most of which, with a little effort, time, and better resource management, could have been avoided.

Some organizational changes that I would make within the DHS and FEMA would be to give each agency the proper resources, money, autonomy, and absolute control over emergency and national security situations, crises, and disasters, without the need for Presidential approval. This is needed in order for the DHS and FEMA to act properly, effectively, and efficiently within a timely manner to help to ease or avoid a disastrous aftermath. I believe this is the only way to assure that the DHS and FEMA can perform the jobs they were both created to do.

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