Is the Government 'Hurricane Ready'?

Aug. 18, 2006 — -- The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said today that the agency is "better prepared" for hurricane season, but he also acknowledged that its hiring needs have still not been met since Hurricane Katrina.

One of the most significant issues facing the agency is its inability to fill all its authorized 2,400 staff positions, said FEMA Director David Paulison. Currently, FEMA has filled 2,000 of 2,400 positions. That's 83 percent of capacity.

At the beginning of June, Paulison told ABCNews' David Kerley that 85 percent of FEMA jobs were filled, and that he wanted "to be at 95 percent before we actually hit our first hurricane."

"We are processing a lot of people and hiring people," Paulison said today.

But he also admitted that staffing at FEMA is "not where I want [it] to be, no question about it. But we're not going to give up working just because hurricane season's here."

Paulison attributed the failure to fill all the positions to a large number of retirements in the agency after Katrina hit. According to Paulison, the agency had 1,700 employees when he became the director after former FEMA director Mike Brown resigned in September 2005. Paulison has continued to hire, but because of the retirees, "it's been almost like a treadmill. We're hiring a lot of people, but overall numbers haven't been increasing."

During Katrina and its aftermath, FEMA hired between 6,000 and 7,000 disaster assistance employees to meet the needs created by the storm. Paulison said that short-term employees could again be hired in the event of another disaster. But in order to deal with long-term needs, Paulison says he is working with Congress and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to increase the number of full-time FEMA staffers beyond the 2,400 currently allotted to the agency.

Since the director of FEMA is a political appointee, another problem is that programs and directives are often interrupted with changes in administrations. To help ease the transition between administrations, Paulison has made three of the 10 regional office directors career positions. In addition, all of his deputy division directors have career positions.

"The career employee system is the way to do it," Paulison said, "to have more career employees at higher levels in our organizations, so they're there from administration to administration."

When hiring, Paulison emphasized that the agency will "not bring people on who do not have experience to deal with disasters in this country."

Paulison said improvements have been made in the agency's ability to register and determine the needs of storm victims. With victims spread out across the Gulf Coast following Katrina, it was difficult for FEMA to locate and register the victims. According to Paulison, the agency is now capable of registering 200,000 victims a day, twice what FEMA could do following Katrina. This additional capability will allow assistance and supplies to reach victims more quickly.

When asked what he needed most to be prepared, Paulison said, "more time and less hurricanes."