President Bush declared five Tennessee counties disaster areas Thursday after several tornadoes ripped through them, killing dozens, injuring many more and creating damage that will take months to repair.
“The president’s action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Hardin, Macon, Madison, Shelby and Sumner,” the White House said in a statement.
The tornadoes, in addition to causing damage and killing 32 people in Tennessee, affected places in four other states. Americans in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi were affected by the storms.
Now that the area has received national attention, will the government and the Federal Emergency Management Agency actually do something to help? The dozens of mistakes made by FEMA and the government after Hurricane Katrina demolished New Orleans tarnished both of their reputations and leaves us wondering how effective their disaster relief programs will be this time.
Both Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, whose department manages FEMA, assured local and state authorities that help would come to them soon.
The Red Cross has begun setting up shelters for those afflicted by the storms, and several area churches have begun fundraising activities to help the victims.
And FEMA has issued more than $200,000 to help victims so far, as well as opening two shelters in the hardest- hit Tennessee counties. But the road to recovery will take more effort on FEMA’s part than that. FEMA needs to improve its communication with local authorities and eliminate the yards of bureaucratic tape that hinders the process of giving out aid to disaster victims.
David Paulison, head of FEMA, said in a cnn.com article that FEMA has tried to improve its communication with local authorities since Katrina.
“The difference that we see in the state, local and federal response from what we saw in Katrina is developing that partnership, developing the communication, that unified command system we did not have,” Paulison said.
“And it is working – it worked in California, it worked in Oklahoma a couple of months ago with the ice storms, and it’s going to work here also.”
Of course, the California wildfires also spurred FEMA’s fake news conference, which ended up as a praise of FEMA and its efforts, serving to further taint the public’s view of FEMA.
Just like Katrina, the effects from these tornadoes will continue to linger. And hopefully, FEMA learned from its mistakes and can cut through the bureaucratic tape in time to help the victims of this disaster.
