Editorial: Another FEMA folly
November 24, 2008
Trailers didn't arrive in the numbers promised. Some that did were padlocked and unusable. But if that's not enough of slap in the face to hurricane victims, FEMA now is trying to dump cleanup costs it should pay onto Texas counties.
Written by Editorial, The Dallas Morning News
Gov. Rick Perry is right to be fed up with the Federal Emergency Management Agency's unfulfilled promises to help clean up the Texas Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Ike.
Trailers didn't arrive in the numbers promised. Some that did were padlocked and unusable. But if that's not enough of slap in the face to hurricane victims, FEMA now is trying to dump cleanup costs it should pay onto Texas counties.
This is reprehensible behavior, and to Mr. Perry's credit, he's not standing idle. Last week, he announced a new commission to oversee rebuilding costs and ordered state transportation officials to haul away debris. It's the right thing for the state government to do because residents are suffering and FEMA seems to be running in the opposite direction.
The federal agency should demonstrate a similar sense of responsibility. If FEMA wins this battle to skirt its obligations, Texas counties would be on the financial hook for about $500 million, or 25 percent of the $2 billion cleanup cost – an amount they can't afford. In Chambers County, for example, the cleanup tab would exceed $10 million, nearly half the county's annual budget. Tapping the state budget surplus and rainy day fund, as the feds want Texas to do, isn't an option either. Although the rainy day fund contains about $6.9 billion, a large portion is committed to state programs.
FEMA seems to be singling out Texas unfairly. The federal agency paid all debris removal costs after Hurricane Katrina swept across Louisiana, and it should do the same for Texas.
The mess is compounded by the lack of straight answers. Gov. Perry's office tells us that President George W. Bush didn't even know of the Texas request for aid when the governor spoke with the president by phone last week.
Meanwhile, Texas coastal communities are waiting for help. Hundreds of residents still live in tents, disabled cars and condemned homes as they await FEMA inspectors, insurance adjusters, mobile homes and utilities. If this is emergency management, we'd hate to see emergency mismanagement.
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