Dependent statesStates over reliant on FEMA aid for small disasters

This year’s unprecedented number of major natural disasters including Hurricane Irene, the record number of tornadoes, and the floods along the entire Mississippi and Missouri rivers strained the Federal Emergency Management’s (FEMA)coffers, but the number of relatively minor disasters that were declared as “major disasters” pushedFEMA resources beyond their limit and some critics say this trend needs to stop.

For instance, earlier this year a spring storm flooded portions of Vermont, washing out roads and bridges. The total cost of damage was relatively minor at $794,000, which was below the $1 million threshold in public damage for states seeking disaster funds, but President Obama still approved the state’s request for federal disaster relief.

According to FEMA, the disaster declaration was allowed because the $1 million threshold rule is only a guideline that is used to weigh decisions.

At the time, the Vermont disaster declaration was the fiftieth of the year, more than the entirety of 2005. So far there have been eighty-nine disaster declarations this year, a record number and nearly four times the annual average of the 1980s.

Critics say that these relatively minor incidents are draining billions of dollars in scarce FEMA resources, hindering the agency’s ability to prepare for large-scale disasters, and allowing states to become overly reliant upon the federal government.

In reference to governor’s seeking disaster aid, Joe Allbaugh, the head of FEMA from 2001 to 2003, said, “The problem is, nobody ever turns them down.”

“We can’t say ‘yes’ all the time. And if we do, we’re just setting ourselves up for no one to take responsibility except FEMA. There is no ability for individual states or local communities to enhance their own capabilities and personnel if you automatically always turn to FEMA,” Allbaugh continued.

Last year a DHS Inspector General’s report found that since 1993, FEMA has “been called upon to support many routine natural disasters that historically would have been handled entirely by state and local governments.”

“As more disasters are declared, more FEMA staff resources are diverted from planning and preparedness efforts,” the report said. As evidence, the Inspector General found that the agency had made little progress in preparing for a catastrophe since 2006.

In addition the federal disaster relief fund has been depleted six times since 2003, resulting in the stoppage of thousands of reconstruction projects for months as Congress debated whether or not to allocate more money.

State officials say the increasing number of disaster aid requests is the result of unusually severe weather, especially this year, and not an overreliance on federal aid.

“We don’t manufacture the disaster,” said Jim Mullen, the head of Washington State’s emergency management agency and the president of the National Emergency Management Association. “I don’t think people just dive into the declaration game. We go into it when we feel we have a justification under (federal law) and we feel we have a need that can’t be filled in any other way.”

While major disasters may cause vast amounts of damages, smaller storms with damages of less than $10 million have actually accounted for roughly half of the disasters declared since October 2007.

“That might seem like a trivial amount and a trivial situation, but that’s on top of the other costs associated with running government,” Mullen said. “We used a very appropriate step to avoid additional strain on our budgets.”