Will FEMA Funding Oversight Be In Danger for Hurricane Florence?

Well, here we go again! Another major hurricane is barreling toward the U.S. East Coast, bringing the potential for devastating damage, flooding and overall misery. This time it’s Hurricane Florence, which at presstime was slated to hit somewhere near the North Carolina/South Carolina boarder and move slowly inland.

Ironically, we were planning to publish a story next week based on a recent Government Accountability Office report on funding decisions made by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to states, territories and urban areas under the State Homeland Security Program and the Urban Area Security Initiative, which help grant recipients prevent, protect against, respond to and recover from natural or manmade disasters, including terrorist incidents. Make sure to check out that article.

Still, this brings one question to my mind -- is FEMA ready for Hurricane Florence? According to a blog post in the “Hit and Run” blog by Reason Foundation, the answer doesn’t look very promising. How does the Reason post sum it up? “Right now, it looks like Florence is going to wreak some serious havoc. If the past is any indication, FEMA's response probably won't be up to par.” Hmmm.

So what basis is Reason using in its post? For one, it cites a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit that found that 29 percent of $1.55 billion in FEMA disaster relief expenditures from fiscal year 2015 was spent on questionable costs, including "duplicate payments, unsupported costs, improper contract costs and unauthorized expenditures." In addition, Reason also quoted a December 2017 OIG report that found that FEMA had a "lack of process" when it comes to tracking insurance requirements. "Without a reliable system to track insurance information, FEMA risks providing duplicate assistance," the report stated, meaning that "billions of dollars of taxpayer funds have been and will continue to be at risk of fraud, waste and abuse."

The Reason blog post further cited comments that FEMA’s information technology infrastructure was out of date, noting that a DHS OIG official told Congress in July that FEMA's outdated IT systems are impeding effective disaster response. "Until FEMA provides the IT systems and capabilities needed to meet the demands posed by emergency management, timely response and recovery from disasters will be hindered, increasing the risk of delays in providing disaster assistance and grants," said DHS Acting Inspector General John Kelly.

Good luck to everyone on the East Coast once this huge storm arrives. One can hope FEMA's response to this hurricane is more positive than past disasters. However, we wouldn’t want to bet on it.