'Disasters' strain FEMA's resources
— -- Months before Tropical Storm Irene soaked Vermont in September, a spring storm flooded part of the state, washing out roads and bridges. The cost of the damage was relatively minor — $794,000, the Federal Emergency Management Agency found.
On July 8, President Obama declared Vermont's situation a "major disaster."
That entitled Vermont to millions of dollars in federal disaster aid at a time when FEMA was warning that its money for such aid was running out. Obama approved Vermont for disaster relief even though federal regulations set "a minimum $1 million threshold" in public damage for states seeking disaster funds.
FEMA says the declaration was allowed because its "threshold" is only a guideline the agency uses in weighing whether aid is merited. FEMA also found 225 homes damaged and 25 destroyed by the flooding.
Obama's action illustrates how the federal government is turning hundreds of relatively low-cost storms into federal disasters — draining billions of dollars in scarce FEMA aid and tying up millions more for years.
Those factors have helped to deplete the federal disaster-relief fund six times since 2003, stopping thousands of reconstruction projects for months until Congress allocated more money.
In addition, former FEMA leaders and government reports say, the soaring number of declared disasters has diverted FEMA from preparing for a Katrina-like catastrophe and has made states overly reliant on the federal government.
"The problem is, nobody ever turns them down," says Joe Allbaugh, FEMA chief from 2001 to 2003, referring to governors who seek disaster aid. "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."
Questions about FEMA spending
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," the inspector general of the Homeland Security Department said last year.
"As more disasters are declared," the report said, "more FEMA staff resources are diverted from planning and preparedness efforts." The inspector general found that FEMA, a part of Homeland Security, had made moderate progress since 2006 in preparing for a catastrophe.
Presidents make all disaster declarations, after governors request them. Most disaster aid helps rebuild infrastructure such as streets and schools. A smaller portion helps people whose homes were damaged.
Obama's Vermont declaration was the 50th declared disaster of 2011 with the year just half over. That's more disasters than were declared in all of 2005, the year of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. There have now been 89 declared disasters in 2011, a single-year record and nearly four times the average annual number in the 1980s.
In late August, FEMA's cash supply fell to such a low level that the agency suspended $550 million in funding for thousands of long-term recovery projects nationwide, threatening to stall rebuilding in parts of Katrina-ravaged Louisiana, in areas of Miami still recovering from a November 2000 storm and in hundreds of other communities.
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