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Running Head: FEMA

FEMA and the Faulty Structure of the Government

Haley Gammage

First Colonial High School, Legal Studies Academy

January 4, 2018
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FEMA
Abstract

For years the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has not been providing the

public the supplies they needed during disasters, but little did anyone know...FEMA doesn't even

know what they are doing. When citizens need help during a disaster they think of FEMA,

however FEMA has never been prepared at length to help with those types of disasters. The

comparisons between hurricane Harvey and hurricane Maria is astounding. Obviously there

needs to be changes made to our system in order to efficiently prepare and help during and after

natural disasters.
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FEMA
For 69 years the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been inefficient. From not

knowing what it even is, to billions of people thinking that in an emergency FEMA would be

able to help them, no matter what. If a hurricane like Katrina hit where you live and destroyed

your house, you would expect for FEMA to come and help, right? But what happens when they

run out of money? When they don't have enough supplies? Is that their fault or the governments

fault? However, people expect FEMA to help, and when they don’t people get mad because

that's what FEMA is, right?

In 1950, the Federal Civil Defence Administration was the beginning of FEMA. It was

formed to respond to Nuclear War, not natural disasters. However, they had all these supplies

they weren't using, and natural disasters were happening, so they decided to help out and give

their supplies to those in need. They still were prepared for a nuclear war if one were to happen,

being its original purpose, but they evolved into helping during natural disasters like hurricanes,

floods, tornados, etc.

Over the years they have gotten a lot of backlash for not being prepared or not helping as

needed during disasters. But people don't understand that FEMA can't just do that. First, it

depends on who the president says needs help. Second, it depends on how much money FEMA

has. They are the first company to get a budget cut if need be, and this has happened, multiple

times (and most recently to fund the wall). Third, during hurricane season if they give some

relief to one place, then say another hurricane hits in another place, it's hard to give the same

amount of supplies because they were all used up in the first relief effort. They don't have

endless supplies that go on forever, they have a warehouse, full of supplies and when they give

relief it empties very quickly. And last, no one is being trained professionally to know exactly

what to do, FEMA is loosely managed, and they really don't know what they are doing.
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FEMA
On August 25, 2017 a category 4 hurricane hit Texas. Hurricane Harvey was a

catastrophic storm causing over $125 billion in damages. Almost 135,000 homes were damaged

or destroyed because of the strong winds and the amount of water. The death toll for this

hurricane was 88, but 13 million people were affected. (Staff, 2018). FEMA was in Texas when

the hurricane hit and helped immediately. They had 5.1 million meals, 4.5 million waters

provided and 20,000 tarps within 9 days of the first landfall. (Einbinder, 2018) However, there

was a totally different story for Hurricane Maria and Puerto Rico. On September 16, 2017

Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico as a category 5 hurricane with 175 mph winds. Puerto Rico had

1.6 million meals, 2.8 million waters, and 5,000 tarps provided by FEMA. The governor recently

raised the death toll from 64 to 2,975. (Brindley, 2018). Only 10,000 people from the federal

workforce were deployed to Puerto Rico, compare that to the 30,000 deployed to Texas for

Hurricane Harvey. The comparison is astounding, Hurricane Harvey received way more help

then Hurricane Maria, Texas pulling through while Puerto Rico is still struggling till this day.

With no power and no water Puerto Rico is in shambles, as they were a tourist area but now their

own residents can't even live there. Everyday is a struggle. And FEMA isn’t helping. The

President isn't helping.

This isn't anything new to FEMA. For years, it hasn't been able to carry out all the

necessary needs when a storm hits, or when something happens. They don't know what they are

doing, they may have supplies for one storm and not the next. That’s what happened with Harvey

and Maria, FEMA had supplies for Harvey but by the time Maria came all their supplies were

gone and they had an empty warehouse. People expect FEMA to come during a disaster and

that's when they pop up in the media and always get hammered with “not helping enough”. But,

it's not really their fault, they don't have enough funding and really, can anybody be ready for a
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FEMA
hurricane completely? It takes a lot, and some companies come together to fix things but it takes

tremendous effort for one organization to prepare for every hurricane and disaster there ever can

and will be. How can one organization prepare for that? How can one organization have all the

funds for that when they keep getting money taken away? It's impossible, but people still expect

the impossible from FEMA when in reality FEMA can't do that.

There are two options. Either FEMA figures out what exactly to do, or how much to

spend on one hurricane, or get more money. Or we let organizations like The Red Cross,

Walmart, Home Depot, etc take over and help when disasters happen. FEMA has people with

political and general backgrounds but they need more people that know what they are doing, that

are trained for disasters and know what to do when disaster happen. FEMA needs more structure

and enough money to spend on disaster relief, enough to rebuild people houses and to provide

food for a whole state. The Red Cross served over 4.5 million meals, 414,800 shelters, 1.6

million relief items, and more than $575,000 during Hurricane Harvey. For Hurricane Maria over

12.8 million meals, 5.2 million relief items, 77,000 waters, and 2,700 generators were provided

from the Red Cross. (The Red Cross. 2018). If we take away FEMA and give the funds that

FEMA uses and relocate them to other organizations like the Red Cross they could do alot more.

Their website is way more sophisticated and clear to what their mission is and to how they help

when there is a disaster. They just do their best when there is a disaster. This is what we need, a

structured and clear motive. There can't be any blurry lines when it comes to disaster relief,

because those are people's lives and homes. We need to take it seriously and not stop helping the

people that need help until they are back on their feet again. We often see a hurricane in the

media when it hits but see nothing about it after, we need to make sure that these U.S. citizens

get the help they need and deserve.

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FEMA
This is a major problem in our society at the moment. We should pay more attention to

things that deserve it instead of a wall. Money is being taken away from FEMA to fund this wall,

which is not okay because if we want relief from disasters then we need to fund FEMA

efficiently.

The other option would be to completely get rid of FEMA as a whole. Either way something

needs to happen in order for their to be sufficient help for people affected by natural disasters. If

we want the cycle to stop then we need to take action and own up to our wrongs and fix them for

a better society.
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References

Amadeo, K. (2019, January 20). Hurricane Harvey facts, damage and costs. Retrieved

January 23, 2019, from https://www.thebalance.com/hurricane-harvey-facts-damage-

costs-4150087

Einbinder, N. (2018, May 1). How the response to Hurricane Maria compared to Harvey

and Irma. Retrieved January 23, 2019, from

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-the-response-to-hurricane-maria-

compared-to-harvey-and-irma/

FEMA. (2018, March 26). FEMA. Retrieved January 23, 2019, from

https://www.fema.gov/

Graff, G. M. (2017, September 3). The secret history of FEMA. Retrieved January 23,

2019, from https://www.wired.com/story/the-secret-history-of-fema/

Guzy, C. (2018, August 30). Months after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico still struggling.

Retrieved January 23, 2019, from

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/03/puerto-rico-after-hurricane-

maria-dispatches/

Haugen, H. M. (2009). Disaster relief. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press.

Natural Disasters: International Remediation. (2018). In Global Issues in Context Online

Collection. Retrieved from Global Issues in Context database.

The Red Cross. (2018, September). Hurricane Maria relief information. Retrieved

January 23, 2019, from https://www.redcross.org/about-us/our-work/disaster-

relief/hurricane-relief/hurricane-maria-relief-information.html
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World Vision Staff. (2018, September 7). 2017 Hurricane Harvey: Facts, faqs, and how

to help. Retrieved January 23, 2019, from https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-

news-stories/hurricane-harvey-facts