WaPo: FEMA let reserve force dwindle
Tags: fema accusationThe WaPo says in "FEMA Let Reserves Wither, Hurting Response, Some Say" that FEMA let its reserve force dwindle, prefering instead to subcontract disaster work. Those reserves are called upon to do much of the ground-level work during disasters. Bureaucratic foul-ups also appear to be involved:
At one point, [one of the only reservists they spoke to] said, she had even received a call telling her that FEMA had decided to deactivate her, as well as 2,000 more reservists who had received training around the same time. The agency later said that had been a mistake and that she was eligible to serve, though it still failed to get her a credit card.
Meanwhile, FEMA has had delays in dispatching many of the reservists now serving in the Gulf Coast. In previous years, reservists were sent directly to the scene of the disaster. This year they were sent to a few centralized staging areas such as Atlanta and Orlando to get refresher training, receive assignments and move on to the Gulf. But Mann said that took several days in some cases, wasting valuable time. "It was a hindrance," he said…
One former reservist who is heavily involved in the Katrina recovery said that is the danger of using contractors instead of reservists: "The contractors are scrambling to fill the slots, but you don't know if the people they hire are going to be qualified," she said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because she is not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. "When you use [reservists], at least you know that they're trained and they have the skills."
