Communications a Severe Deficiency During Katrina, FEMA Report Finds

A report by the Dept. of Homeland Security’s inspector general on how the Federal Emergency Management Agency performed during Hurricane Katrina found that communications was one of several “severe deficiencies” during the storm. But the report also said FEMA provided critical communications support through its mobile teams dispatched to the disaster area before Katrina made landfall.

The DHS report is the latest by the govt. assessing lessons learned from the massive storm. The FCC’s Hurricane Katrina Independent Panel is scheduled to meet today (Tues.) to discuss recommendations the panel will make in a June report to the FCC.

The IG agreed with some of the criticism directed at FEMA since Katrina struck more than 7 months ago. In the aftermath of the storm, FEMA Dir. Michael Brown resigned, congressional calls persist to move FEMA outside DHS, reestablishing it as the independent agency it was until 2003. “The federal government, in particular the Federal Emergency Management Agency, received widespread criticism for a slow and ineffective response to Hurricane Katrina,” the IG found: “Much of the criticism is warranted.”

The report said massive destruction of phone lines, wireless towers and other infrastructure “impacted the ability of emergency responders to get situational and operational information to state or federal personnel outside the affected areas.” As a result, “it took days to establish an accurate picture of the disaster’s magnitude and devastation,” the report said.

With communications otherwise in ruins, satellite and radio communications provided by FEMA mobile emergency response support (MERS) teams proved critical in some areas, the report said. Four of the 5 FEMA MERS teams in the region were deployed before the hurricane made landfall. The report cited southern Ala.: “Emergency responders at some sites did not have sufficient communications during the first critical days after the storm. The state sent a communications vehicle, and FEMA sent a MERS unit to the area to provide communications support and other response assistance.” Likewise, FEMA dispatched a MERS detachment to the Gulfport area of Miss.: “Officials said there would have been no communications in the area without MERS.”

The IG’s report recommended several changes to make FEMA communications support more efficient. For one, FEMA needs money to replace deteriorating 1980s-era communications support equipment and to pay for narrowband radios that comply with FCC rules, it said. FEMA also is looking at a backup for Ku-band satellite communications, the report said: “Ku-band satellite communications were clogged with commercial and first responder traffic during Hurricane Katrina, plus they are vulnerable to weather interference.”

Among its formal recommendations, the IG said the manager of the National Communications System, in cooperation with FEMA, should “determine and fill” requirements to provide emergency responders with communications equipment capable of performing in austere conditions. The IG also recommended that FEMA fully fund and staff the MERS.