Buried Headlines – News Stories You Have To Dig For

Based on reports on how FEMA has been responding to disasters lately, or rather the lack of response, one has to wonder what happened to the once proactive and energetic agency.

You don’t see a story about a disaster, natural or manmade without seeing the letters FEMA somewhere in a picture or in the article. FEMA or the Federal Emergency Management Agency, used to be the bastion of disaster response. Now, people are reporting that there is no response or even worse, that FEMA is actually preventing response from other agencies. How did we get to this point? First, we need to know a little about FEMA.

According to the FEMA history page President Jimmy Carter signed an executive order creating FEMA on April 1, 1979. FEMA was placed in charge of Emergency Management and Civil Defense as the cold war was in full swing. Things moved like typical government things do until Bill Clinton was elected president. Once President Clinton began assigning permanent personnel, he tapped James Lee Witt as the new FEMA Director. Witt had been appointed by then Governor Clinton of Arkansas to oversee the Arkansas Office of Emergency Services. Witt reorganized Arkansas’ entire system with a focus on the emergency management sector and brought the system up to a standard that received national recognition.

With Witt confirmed by the Senate, he became the first person to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency that actually had emergency management experience. Shocking, right? Witt was handed the equivalent of a string of Christmas lights that have been balled up since the previous year. Part of it might work, part of it might not but either way you couldn’t use it properly because it is a tangled mess.

Witt used his experience to actually set FEMA up to be proactive. National Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (referred to as DMAT) were expanded and given equipment and supplies, even though a lot of it was surplus, at least they had something. DMATs consisted of Doctors, PA’s, nurses, paramedics, firefighters, EMT’s, police officers, truck drivers, a labor pool to help with the heavy lifting, literally. Mobile field hospitals could be mobilized within 24 hours to respond to a disaster.

Dr. Lew Stringer who had created the Special Operations Response Team (SORT) in Winston-Salem, NC became the model for all DMATs across the country. SORT was initially created as an extension to Forsyth County EMS for local disasters, college football medical standbys and the like. His teams had responded to Hurricane Andrew in Florida and Hurricane Marilyn in the US Virgin Islands after being accepted into the National Disaster Medical System as a DMAT with the designation NC-1 prior to Witt’s appointment. In the early days, a DMAT arrived with mostly surplus military supplies that had possibly long outlived their usefulness, but in a disaster you would still be glad to see it arrive. Funding was from the local government for local response so donations and fees for standbys built the team’s inventory. Local hospitals sponsored SORT as well which helped tremendously. While the system was limping along, James Lee Witt arrived in Washington and things changed. Changed a lot.

Even newspaper editors took notice of the changes the Witt made within FEMA comparing what one editor called an abysmal agency to the “new” one that actually functioned. Witt stripped political good ole boys of their positions and replaced them with effective personnel. He met with state and local leaders and emergency management officials to get input then used that input to improve the agency. Several of us here at Buried Headlines actually served on a DMAT and saw firsthand the massive improvements. Pre-staging of medical equipment, entire pharmacies, water and other items was the norm for hurricanes, since there was time to prepare. Palletized equipment for the treatment of persons affected by bio-weapons were staged across the country. DMATs had vehicles to carry equipment, arrangements were made for DMAT members to become FEMA employees during deployment and were able to fly on military aircraft further enhancing response times. It truly was the heday of FEMA.

Unfortunately for FEMA and the population of the United States, when George W. Bush took office as president in January of 2001, the good ole boy system was brought back with bells on. President Bush chose Joe Allbaugh as his FEMA director. His qualifications for running FEMA? He was Bush’s campaign manager for Bush’s run for governor of Texas and his presidential campaign. Absolutely no emergency management experience, just a buddy from way back. To make matters worse, the deputy director, who ended up being the director, Michael Brown, was a friend of Allbaughs whose experience was as an Arabian Horse Commissioner. Once the events of 9/11 took place, FEMA was absorbed by Homeland Security and we could see the changes taking place already. Botched responses, delays in funding and equipment. A once decent system was politicized and becoming dysfunctional. FEMA had changed from being proactive to being reactive as seen in Hurricane Katrina. Becoming part of Homeland Security did nothing to help that.

Slowly the funding for DMATs dried up as the government focused on fighting terror instead of helping its citizens. Guess there’s more money in the terror industry. Now the states are responsible for medical response during disasters. Dr. Stringer, who had become a part of FEMA staff, was overseeing mobile field hospitals that would be distributed to the state DMATs as part of the NDMS mission. Funding was immediately halted with the program almost at completion and the decision made to send millions of dollars of disaster response vehicles and equipment to other countries to “dispose” of it. Dr. Stringer lobbied hard and at least got some of the completed equipment for the North Carolina State Medical Assistance Team (SMAT).

Now, we flash forward to today. The wildfires in Maui, specifically the Lahaina region, have shown how much different FEMA is today. Citizen reports of interference by FEMA regarding supply chains are rampant on social media. Most citizens there have been a week or more without medications yet FEMA is reportedly blocking supply chains and intercepting medication deliveries. In the 90’s, the DMATs would have arrived with a full pharmacy and filled prescriptions for life saving medications in addition to being able to provide antibiotics and other medications that were prescribed by the DMAT providers immediately after being seen. All at no charge. Why does our government no longer even attempt to help the people affected by a disaster other than giving you a form for a federal loan? FEMA personnel are staying in $1,000 a night hotel rooms in Maui while the citizens are homeless. Most FEMA representatives on the ground there are volunteers. We used to stay in condemned buildings or tents because that’s what you do when you help others. You are empathetic, you sacrifice. Those are two words that are obviously lost on our politicians today.

Please remember the citizens of Lahaina are still suffering even though the media has moved on to the next disaster. If you are considering donating to help out, it is suggested that you do not give to the American Red Cross or FEMA but to look for gofundme pages or the reputable citizen pages which are available on the Internet or on TikTok. These groups make make sure supplies are actually delivered because they are living there and video what they deliver. While FEMA is reportedly dumping supplies in the landfill, people are literally using boats and jet skis to get food, water and clothing to lines of people that stand in the ocean passing items to shore. It only takes a minute to find real video of what’s actually going on in Lahaina and it’s not what the media is (or actually isn’t) telling you. Stay safe and be prepared because when it hits the fan, you are on your own.