Jul 10, 2006- JUNE FLOODING IN NORTHWEST AND NORTH CENTRAL OHIO

HON. MARCY KAPTUR
 OF OHIO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2006

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to discuss the need for changes atFEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and how our Nation approachesdisaster response in general.

I am one of the Members here that voted not to move FEMAfrom being an independent agency into the new Department of Homeland Security,and every day that goes by and every disaster that happens proves that was thewiser course of action. FEMA should be restored to its former status as animmediate national response, emergency response agency. It should not be buriedfive levels down in the Department of Homeland Security, now the second largestagency in our government after the Department of Defense. It simply is tooburdensome, and the American people are suffering as a result of it. If New Orleans was not alesson, if Katrina was not a lesson, if Rita was not a lesson, then what kindof students are we?

Today, I visited areas in my own congressional district innorthern Ohio that have been declared national disaster areas now because ofthe flooding that occurred June 21 through June 23 in northern Ohio. Water roseas high as 6 to 7 to 8 feet, 25 homes were completely destroyed, 317 receivedmajor damage, 1,064 received minor damage and 3,262 had cosmetic damage; andthat is as of just today.

The local response was rapid and top notch, the best theycould do. FEMA's Federal response has been what I would term somewhat timelyand not overly effective.

As I have visited with elected officials and residentsaffected by flooding over these last few days, outlining key Federal help thatwe can bring to them, I was struck by how disjointed the assistance is and howwe try to help people at the local level to apply for what they are eligiblefor. They simply do not know.

I explained to officials and constituents that Federalassistance might cover losses not addressed with their own personal insuranceand that they had to file an insurance claim form with their private insurancecompany before contacting FEMA. But let me tell you what they require down atthe county level.

If, in Ohio,you were affected by the recent flood, they tell you, Go to the FEMA officethat we have temporarily established in an adjoining county. So people from theaffected county have to go to an adjoining county. When they get to the FEMAoffice, they are told, Oh, we can't help you fill out the application here. Wecan just talk to you about it. You have to go to your local library. They haveto go back into their home county, go to the main library to try to get intothe computer program to apply for the FEMA program.

Well, guess what? The local librarians do not work forFEMA. They do not know all the Federal assistance. I sat with one gentlemantoday at a computer in the library where he tried to get into his password andcode that he had gotten last week, as FEMA had instructed him, and guess what?The password didn't work.

And he was a computer techie. He knew more about computers than I did. Hewas not a senior citizen who was not familiar with computers. We could not getinto his records to find out if FEMA had even received his application from aweek ago when he filed it.

What happens in Ohio is that, assuming you can file, if you can really getit done at the library, which I do not think is right, FEMA ought to have thecomputers right at the temporary FEMA office, then you get an envelope in themail from the Small Business Administration. Well, nobody in my area has gottenthem yet, but the average person says, Well, if I applied at FEMA, why am Igetting a letter from the Small Business Administration?

The reason is because SBA will establish your income eligibility for grants,or for loans if you do not qualify for grants, and if you do not submit the SBApaperwork, you cannot get the FEMA assistance. But the average person who isscraping mud out of their living room and has had their basements totallydestroyed and has had to take time off work in order to try to find a place tolive, how do they have time for all of this?

Twenty-five years ago, FEMA had trailers that were under the purview of theDepartment of Housing and Urban Development. They moved those trailers in. Ifyou lived in a home that was in bad shape and had been damaged, you could golive in a trailer. They had their own generators. You could at least live therewhile you fixed up your other house. FEMA changed all of that back during theReagan administration during the 1980s, and we have created a much less readyFEMA to respond to national disasters.

One of the other things that has happened is that our people, our mayors,our county commissioners, who have spent hundreds of thousands of dollarstrying to help people, that have had to put personnel on overtime, that havehad to use their equipment, that have had to buy fuel that isn't cheap, theyhave now been told by FEMA that that is not covered in the Federal assistanceto local communities. All that is covered is an individual's damage.

What kind of Government of the United Statesis this that we cannot respond to people who are in need, whether it is in thegulf or in northern Ohio?