House Homeland Security Committee Issues Testimony From FEMA Acting Administrator Gaynor
"My name is
"I am proud to continue to be part of an agency that, every day, helps communities before, during and after disasters. The historic disaster seasons over the last two years were a true test of the Nation's ability to respond to and recover from multiple concurrent disasters.
"Two years later,
"On
"In
Key Themes & Lessons Learned
"Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria caused a combined
"The unprecedented scale, scope, and impacts of the complex combination of disasters tested the improved capabilities that were developed as a result of lessons learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.
"Following the 2017 and 2018 disasters,
* Sustained Whole Community Logistics Operations: The scale and duration of life-saving and sustainment operations showed that
* Locally Executed, State Managed, and Federally Supported:
* Staffing for Concurrent, Complex Incidents: When Hurricane Harvey made landfall in
*
* Responding during Long-Term Infrastructure Outages: Too often, we assume the loss of power, communications, and water infrastructure following disasters will be limited in duration. The extreme degradation of critical infrastructure in
* Disaster Sheltering and Housing: Providing housing for survivors following the 2017 and 2018 disasters was a challenge, especially when a disaster devastates a community that already had limited affordable housing. Regardless of the readiness of a SLTT government, when dealing with the displacement of tens of thousands of survivors from their homes, there is no easy or one-size-fits-all solution.
"Any sheltering option is, by design, a temporary and short-term solution, designed to be a bridge to middle- and longer-term solutions. We have other programs and authorities that assist with housing, including rental assistance, repair assistance, multi-family lease and repair, and manufactured housing units. With all of these options, we partner with our SLTT stakeholders to identify the sheltering and housing solutions that make the most sense for each state, each event, each community, and each survivor.
"States have a much better familiarity with the needs of their residents, the local laws and ordinances that can impact some of the
"Incorporating the knowledge gained from the 2017 disaster season,
Build a Culture of Preparedness
"
"Developing resilient communities before an incident occurs reduces loss of life and economic disruption. When communities are impacted, they should ensure that they rebuild infrastructure better, tougher, and stronger to protect taxpayer investment and promote economic stability.
"
"While we will never be able to eliminate all risk, we must mitigate the known risks as much as possible.
Ready the Nation for Catastrophic Disasters
"As this past year has shown, communities must increase their capacity to respond to smaller-scale disasters on a local level. We continue to work with our SLTT partners to increase their capacities to respond to and recover from smaller-scale disasters so
"No level of government can continue to plan, train and exercise for what is easy. We need to prepare for catastrophic events that stress our capabilities. In 2017,
"As part of
Reduce the Complexity of
"
"Reducing administrative and bureaucratic burdens will allow survivors and communities to receive federal assistance quicker. Throughout the federal government, there are a number of programs that offer assistance to survivors. We are working with our partners to improve some of these activities to ensure survivors can better navigate these various programs. For example,
"
"These are the priorities and vision of this Agency. As we examine and further develop these initiatives, we will find that some can be accomplished by existing authorities
Preparing for the 2019 Hurricane Season & Ongoing Initiatives
"The 2017 Hurricane Season FEMA After-Action Report (AAR) outlined 18 key findings across five focus areas, and it made recommendations for improvement moving forward. In 2018,
"The 2017 AAR also discussed the need to improve
"As we continue with recovery operations,
* Updating Plans -
* Maturing the National Response Framework (NRF)-
* Staff Movement Prior to & During Responses - To improve staffing for incidents,
* Logistical Improvements -
* National Level Contracts -
*
"
"
* Housing Inspection Process -
* Exercises and Training - In
"On
Conclusion
"The 2017 and 2018 hurricane and wildfire season continue to shape the future of
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