Dismantling of FEMA Partly to Blame for Failed Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina

Interview with Eric Holdeman, director of King County, Washington's Office of Emergency Management, conducted by Scott Harris

A full accounting of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina may not be known for months, but many thousands of people have likely died, hundreds of thousands have been displaced and entire cities, including New Orleans, have been effectively destroyed, requiring billons of dollars to rebuild. Outraged citizens around the country helplessly watched television images of children, the sick and the elderly dying before their eyes owing to the lack of a coordinated effort to supply survivors of the storm with water, food and medical care.
Much of the criticism on the failed response to the storm has centered on the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. FEMA Director Michael Brown, with no experience in disaster planning, was a Bush administration political appointee who had been fired from his previous job with the International Arabian Horse Association. Blame for the severity of the flooding in New Orleans was also directed at White House and congressional cuts in millions of dollars of funds requested by the Army Corps of Engineers over several years to rebuild and strengthen levees protecting New Orleans.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Eric Holdeman, director of King County Washington's Office of Emergency Management, who wrote an Aug. 30 editorial in the Washington Post titled, "Destroying FEMA." Holdeman recounts how the agency was downgraded from a Cabinet level department and defunded, leading to what he believes was the systematic dismantling of FEMA, rendering it unable to adequately respond to the destruction of Hurricane Katrina.

Read Eric Holdeman's Aug. 30th editorial, "Destroying FEMA," online at www.washingtonpost.com

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