- Tracking trucks carrying food, water, ice, blankets and other emergency supplies by satellite to ensure they arrive at disaster sites quickly and with enough equipment.
- Sending FEMA employees to emergency shelters and other temporary housing venues to register victims for aid, instead of relying on victims to register by phone or the Internet.
- Creating a database of already-approved private contracting firms from disaster regions to remove debris and provide services faster.
- Creating "reconnaissance teams" to report disaster conditions to Homeland Security and FEMA operation centers within hours, and improving communication channels to ensure the information quickly gets to the president and Cabinet-level officials.
- Hiring up to 1,500 new full-time employees as year-round coordinators.
Humm.... Something missing?
You bet. How about bring back the disaster preventative programs FEMA had before the Bush Whitehouse & (so called) Homeland Security gutted FEMA. This is a minimum need.
Here's one I would add, take FEMA out of Homeland Security and put it back as a Cabinet level agency with the added mandate to assist Homeland Security in the event of terrorist disasters.
No matter what Chertoff says, under Homeland Security FEMA cannot focus on the more urgent need of dealing with natural disasters. FEMA cannot do that if Homeland Security can override FEMA decisions.
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