The video and photos of Hurricane Helene show devastating damage. As usual, there are reports of federal officials not responding sufficiently and FEMA not being prepared. Several reports are highlighting the published goals of FEMA. I went to the FEMA site to check.
Goal 1 – Instill Equity as a Foundation of Emergency Management
- Objective 1.1 – Cultivate a FEMA that Prioritizes and Harnesses a Diverse Workforce
- Objective 1.2 – Remove Barriers to FEMA Programs Through a “People First” Approach
- Objective 1.3 – Achieve Equitable Outcomes for Those We Serve
Those are FEMA’s highest priorities. Equity, environmental justice and disparities of outcome sound reasonable enough, but words like that represent concepts that direct FEMA to pursue a partisan agenda to rectify the failure of America.
The result is an organization that isn’t geared toward mitigating disasters, but favoring specific groups.
Goal 2 – Lead Whole of Community in Climate Resilience
- Objective 2.1 – Increase Climate Literacy Among the Emergency Management Community
- Objective 2.2 – Build a Climate Resilient Nation
- Objective 2.3 – Empower Risk-Informed Decision Making
The climate is changing, and always has been. There may be flat-Earthers who doubt that, but I’ve never met an actual human who doesn’t understand that glaciers once covered Ohio. It’s appropriate for FEMA to have an interest in weather, and climate for long-term planning.
Increasing literacy, building and empowering aren’t actions related to emergency management. FEMA should be an information resource, but putting this as there second objective means they will get very involved in these vaguely related tasks.
In the text for Goal 2, FEMA does talk about resistance quite a bit. That makes sense. Rather than attempting to predict what the climate will be in a century, the nation, states, communities and people should harden infrastructure and improve the ability to take a hit.
Goal 3 – Promote and Sustain a Ready FEMA and Prepared Nation
- Objective 3.1 – Strengthen the Emergency Management Workforce
- Objective 3.2 – Posture FEMA to Meet Current and Emergent Threats
- Objective 3.3 – Unify Coordination and Delivery of Federal Assistance
This is most of what Americans think FEMA should be doing, but it’s FEMA’s third priority.
In the body of the text, there are a few items that seem questionable.
As the scope of FEMA’s mission expands, the agency must envision, plan, and prepare for incidents that do not fall into typical Stafford Act disaster categories.
According to FEMA, the Stafford Act constitutes the legal authority for FEMA operations. It isn’t clear while FEMA would envision, plan and prepare to act outside of their legal authority.
When individuals and communities can easily navigate federal disaster programs, the burden on those individuals and communities is greatly reduced.
Federal bureaucracy should be easy to navigate, but disaster programs become relevant after the immediate recovery from an event. Even Goal 3 doesn’t spend enough time addressing the FEMA response planning while an emergency is occurring along with the immediate response.
I have a favorable opinion of FEMA, but any large organization can be pulled away from it’s core function. Federal, state and local governments should spend more time talking about long-term planning for disasters and resilience, and less time talking about climate change, diversity or other attempts to restructure our society.
FEMA should be focused on helping communities prepare for disasters, and make it’s own preparations to roll into town as soon as the immediate danger has abated.
It is always gratifying to see regular Americans snap into action to help everyone survive.