Northshore Conifer posted on April 21, 2010 15:23
UNO presents findings in Capitol Hill briefing.
WASHINGTON – United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery, today signaled her strong support for long-term recovery recommendations developed by the University of New Orleans (UNO) and North Carolina State University during a briefing with Congressional staff and officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The two universities offered their findings and suggested policy changes based on research and information gathered in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The group is expected to issue a full report on June 30, 2010.
The UNO recommendations focus on five key areas: case management, hazard mitigation, mental health, public assistance, and the role of non-profit organizations.
“On August 29th Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and then just a month later, in September Hurricane Rita came ashore and hit virtually the same part of the Gulf Coast,” said Sen. Landrieu. “There was nothing in the law that contemplated wholesale displacement of major metropolitan areas, and the sad thing is, there’s still not. We have a lot more work to do, as a nation, to respond more quickly—and effectively—to help people regain their economic footing more quickly after a storm. My Disaster Recovery Subcommittee is open to hearing UNO’s recommendations, and this is a very opportune time for some of these ideas to come to the table.”
Major General “Hunt” Downer, Assistant Adjutant General of the Louisiana Army National Guard, participated in the briefing, by telephone, to discuss his experience with the Public Assistance program at Jackson Barracks.
“Jackson barracks had over 200 physical structures damaged or destroyed—we were 100 percent put out of operation,” said Maj. Gen. Downer. “We found that the original FEMA team sent in lacked subject matter expertise, they were not trained in doing analysis, or in doing damage estimates. That caused problems down the line. We had a $9 million project held up over an issue: we had one too many toilets in the building. The building did have one more toilet than was required by code, but code is a minimum. What is needed in the Stafford Act, as far as a law change, would be an escape clause, where certain laws and policies would change when you reach that threshold. After all, what we’ve had, with Katrina and Rita took out 60 percent of the state and all of its critical infrastructure.”
The group’s key recommendations include:
Case Management
- Develop federal policies which limit the staff to case ratio for post-disaster case management services to ensure caseloads are manageable. Currently, the recommended case management ratio is 35 to 1 (ACF disaster case management regulation.)
- Clearly define all roles and responsibilities for case management and accompany with consistent training and technical assistance, building on the strengths of local agencies that have expertise in case management in an area.
Hazard Mitigation
- Add a Mitigation Support Function to the National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF).
- Require States to create their own Interagency Hazard Mitigation Team (IHMT) to allow transparent monitoring of HMGP projects. These teams were established at the Federal level through a 12 agency IAA signed in December 1980.
- Require FEMA to create a permanent Hazard Mitigation Office in localities that experience severe and repetitive disasters.
- In a catastrophe allow all homes in flooded areas to qualify for federal elevation funding, not just those that continue to be owned by the pre-storm owners.
- Require communities to develop post-disaster redevelopment plans pre-disaster in a manner similar to the currently required mitigation plans.
Mental Health
- Amend the Stafford Act to allow states the financial flexibility to allocate SAMHSA and Medicaid funds for continuing treatment of individuals beyond immediate crisis management after a catastrophe.
- Create emergency provisions in Medicaid that provide flexibility and extend Medicaid coverage with federal financing in crisis situations.
- Create provisions within the Stafford Act for catastrophic disasters that allow for longer term outpatient treatment of conditions clearly related to the exposure and recovery issues associated with the catastrophic event.
Public Assistance
- Design a trigger or threshold for the declaration of a catastrophe
- Create an independent appeal process for large projects.
- Use pre-funding and a forgivable loan program for cost-shares to make federal aid available in a form that is easy to access quickly.
- Create intergovernmental training and mission readiness assessments for the PA program.
- Require FEMA to give reasons for denials in writing and tell applicants of any documentation needed.
Role of Nonprofits
- Further clarify and define the role of NGOs as part of coordinated governmental response to catastrophic disasters in the Stafford Act.
- Pre-identify and support NGOs that have existing expertise and legitimacy as advocates of vulnerable populations.
- Identify and build the capacity of ‘bridging’ organizations that will be in the position to link local level efforts to state and national resources.