interview. thank you everybody [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] . .

>> now, a senate hearing on hurricane preparedness with the head of fema and other officials. the latest forecast calls for 14 tropical storms in 2009, seven of which could become hurricanes. as we strive to get our nation's response in the very best possible shape that we can for hurricanes and all dafertteds. and that is the subtted of this hearing today.

to see where we are and have the opportunity to have on our first panel the new fema administrator who will be testifying today for the fird time since his confirmation, welcome mr. fugeade and major general crafted from missouri who will be testifying today as well smed led me say that this hearing is focused on hurricane response t because we started hurricane season this week smed but we will be examining regions of the country in this hearing today and we will be focusing on plans and prosesses that have applicability across the board from many threats. the ranking member and i both

represent states that have seen large portions of our states major cities and very important rural areas devasted by recent hurricanes. 2004, 2005, and 2008 were particularly hard years for cities and commuentsd through youd the gulf coast from florida to texas smed but the last crendry has been difficult for many, many statesd and i would loik to put the first chart up. these are the number of hirks that have hit this particular region of the country which is the hurricane belt from 1955 to 2005. the blue line is hurricane katrina which was the greatest among all the storms doe picket

ed there by a significant in terms of size of damage smed and then hurricane reeda which ranks second among t the storms in terms of damage. and i would like to show you the next graffedt which is even more startling are the storms since 1851 to the present.

we've gotten pretty good at predicting where these storms will hit. there's very little we can do to stop them but we can certainly prepare our people better for the threat that they are facing. it's important for us to understand our capacity to deal with these real and ongoing and in some people's minds ever strengthening thretsd, and that is what this committee will focus on and has focused on since the wakeup call of cailttedna which will be four years august 29. we want to make sure that we continue the science necessary to make more scientific based predictions and warnings so

they can move oudoffed way smedwepped to make sure that there evacuation rusde are secure and clear smed and that the rules and regulation of involving are clear to those of those who use them and to those organizing smed what will people be reimbursed for, what they woned is of particular ind rest to me smedmeedly, stabilizing weard, food, and medsen to alled people that flee from storms like this is porned and we vndquide goden that riggedeyedsmed where -- si

landful disasters in both states and surge resources into the areas before impact and in most instances the federal levees held. however, insufficient quantities of generators forced hospitals in baton rouge to evacuate patients, insufficient supply of generators caused gas stations to shut down which almost caused a panic in a major metropolitan area as for weeks people could not access any gasoline when people can't access gasoline they can't get to work, it shuts the economy down. people start getting laid off of work even within a week or two of a storm that could happen. we can't afford loss of jobs

right now i might remind the people testifying today. local gofts waited days for commodities like ice and water and blue tarps. the state of louisiana's bus contractor failed, evac wees were forced thousands to take school buses without air condition which doesn't seem like much unless it's 100 degrees out it becomes a real issue for people who are sick or elderly or for small children to sit still on a bus is very hard. particularly if they have to do so without bath rooms. evac wees from texas and louisiana arrived if shreveport just two to give examples of and i've walked through these shelters myself, that were wholely inadequate. there were no cots, no blankets, inadequate showers and people were forced to sleep on floors because the cots and

towels didn't arrive until 17 days after people arrived. soit was a very interesting couple of weeks for the mayors of those towns which did their very level best to make a bad situation better. local levees in south louisiana failed again. they failed in katrina, they failed in rita, they failed in gust aff and ike and as the administrator knows because he is from florida, the people of south florida are very concerned about their water management issues and whether their dikes and levees and water will hold and that's the subject of another hearing. recovery has been frustrating for loggle lo governments despite many impriveyfplgts which i will mention in a moment. i believe we're still relying mr. fuge gate too much on trailers in order to jump start recoveries and we're going to be pressing hard on new housing and shelter options from this committee.

i will continue to say that providing these communities with $5 million in community loan assistance is probably not what charleston or savena or miami or new orleans or atlanta or baton rouge or any number of communities they can't do much with $5 million and that's a all the law allows them to borrow. so administrator few gate from fema will discuss the 2008 response tand agency's work on alert and warning systems evacuation plans and from his perspective if we're better situated as the 2009 season opens. major general grass from u.s. northern command will outline the department of defense's support mission for hurricane response including aerial storm surveillance, air medivac, search and rescue,

communications support, logistics support, recent hurricane response exercises and north come's coordination with the state national guard. it's a lot but we're going to try to get that in. and i will mention that we're very proud to have the general with us and he is from the missouri national guard which is of particular interest to senator mccaskle. and then in our final or next panel we will have george forceman, former d.h.s. official whose here today to talk about the private sector's role because this committee chairman chair and ranking member and members recognize it's not just the federal government, it's state and local government, it's individuals, it's the private sector and the nonprofit sector. we want to give them voice. we also are happy to hear from frank miselli, the director of america's red cross. they have gone through a major tranls formation, we are very

interested in hearing about the fact that they have increased their volunteer base from 23,000 to 90,000 and we think it's a bigger and better red cross because i think americans look to the red cross to give them particular strength and comfort at times of disaster and that of course has been a key role of the red cross for many years. and finally, mrs. janet durden joins us on behalf a community in northeast louisiana which i'm very proud my husband's home town and in katrina they did a phenomenal job as the offices dropped off of their ability in south louisiana, north laws f louisiana picked up as i'm sure the same thing happened in texas and in alabama and mississippi and florida as these storms come in, the northern part of the state picks up a great amount of help and we want to hear about the increased affect

tivity of the 2-1-1 operation, which is sort of the go to operation. they don't call 9-11, they call 2-1-1 and we want to help americans understand that. so i'd like to ask mr. few gate, good to see you senator. i would like to ask mr. fugate to begin. let me ask senator burriss, i know you're just coming in and welcome. do you want to make any brief opening statement or should we go right to the panel? thank you. thank you, senator. we are happy to have craig fugate with us who is the new administrator from fema who i supported and many members of the senate, you are greatly experienced. we thank you for the work you've already done. but we're looking forward to hearing from you, because you know as i know that while we've made some progress there's a

tremendous amount of work that has to be done and we're looking to you for leadership and guidance. and may i say before you start, my great thanks for nancy ward who came in on the election of president obama and the appointment of secretary of homeland security, janet nap ol tano stepped in the interrim and was able to make a tremendous improvement and i know you are happy with what she was able to do. but i wanted to acknowledge that and to thank you for now being the formal and official director and look forward to your remarks. >> thank you, madam chairman, senator land rue, senator burriss, there is always your first time to testify a lot of formalities. i've submitted written testimony to address some of the questions, i have some opening statements. i will try to keep these short

because i would rather have the questions and dialogue. i am please ds to be here to represent homeland security and the federal emergency management. and i appreciate the opportunity to come before you particularly your leadership in these issues, this committee's work in identifying as a nation where we need to go. that kind of talks about changing how bept to approach things. we at fema believe our role is to ensure that we are working together as a nation to build sustain and improve our capabilities to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate against all hazards. and the key thing here is recognizing that fema by itself cannot be successful. many of the groups that you have represented in your hears are part of that team. more importantly it is our local state officials and volunteer organizations burks ultimately it is our citizens that are part of that team. and if nothing else, i'm trying

to get people to recognize that the public is not the liability, they are the resource. but we also have to be there for their needs when disaster strikes. as you know, the post katrina emergency management format established a position of administrator prosiding for the authorities and additional functions that we now have at fema, more tools that as you pointed out last year began showing the improvement. but again we still have a ways to go. it allows us to further strengthen that relationship with our governments as part of that community, contributing to our increased operation qual capacity to manage all types of emergencies. one of the challenges was not being able to remove and release items until there was a deck claration and the challenge of prepositioning and now clarity has been brought because of the work your committee did and the findings that said we need to enable the administrator and team to

support governors. we continue that work in empowering fema to do that. in fact, as you point out we face a variety of hazards, we've also instituted no notice exercises to begin testing the team wefplt simulated a major eereds quake this morning to make sure we are reinforcing these procedures so we are not 72 hours after a disaster strikes getting critical resources there in support of the governors. this process of building this team and enhancing what utch given us the tools is really where we're focused on in this 2009 eans. there's tremendous capability that has been built in the legal construct that oftentimes your work, the committee's work and the legislation passed has addressed. now it's our responsibility to make sure we can implement that fully. so as we go through this and build these partnerships, having her serve in that role

and helping transition as i came on board and now again a very strong regional administrator as part of the fema family, as you pointed out she brought a lot of common sense approach and got a good team to address the challenges we face in the recovery and that is a continual commitment that we have. as i serve in this capacity coming from a state director and working with secretary nap tano, she was a former gf nor, we very much bring the experience that we were once customers and the challenges we face in trying to help our citizens and we continue to work towards that. and we are working with our state partners to give them more ownership of this process. we know temporary housing how do we how's people after a disaster? it's not a solution that we're going to bring from washington and fit all states. we want to work with our states as we have developed some ideas and concepts to work with our states and g what other ideas? how do we make sure that we're

able to capture what resources are there, what's the best way to address that? we know that there's no one solution that fits every scenario and we want the make sure that we are working with the states to help build those task forces so that as these may occur in the future, we have more options as we go forward. it's again multidiscipline, multiteam approach. we need to have that ownership and buy in at all levels and integrate. and when i said working together, i think a lot of times we sometimes look at our planning process. we're so government centered that the communities are a lot more than government. as you have here some of the volunteer agencies that are represented, of course american red cross, the people that promote the united way with 2-1-1 is critical that we bring about that team approach and we work as not just representing government but what the private sector does. to me it's always a challenge does it make sense to be

distributing supplies when we have an open grocery store but we have other areas of the community that aren't served. and we can't do that if our go cuss is to build a government centered team. and we don't recognize we have to build a team that can serve and support our citizens but most importantly making sure our citizens understand they have a role to be as prepared as they can so when disaster strikes we can focus on the most vulnerable citizens because we've done our part to have a plan ready. and finally the last thing, if we can just ask folks that all this work that your community is doing, we can do a lot more if people do one more thing. if you and your family are ok, check on a neighbor. we can do a lot more working together than we can just trying to doit from a government cent rick approach. >> spoken like a true local fema administrator. i thank you. and we will give you as much time as you need. thank you for sticking to the five minutes. but i want to be very liberal with you and your time because i do think that you have a

great message to bring to the nation. major. >> chairman land rue, senator burriss, thank you for the opportunity today to represent and present comments of the defense support to civil authorities that we do at north come every day. i would like to take just a moment to introduce my executive officer who grew up in jefferson pair rish, louisiana, great naval aviator and has many relatives living there today. >> very nice to meet you. >> we at u.s. northern command are privileged to be a member of the whole of u.s. government approach to disaster approach including active guard and reserve alongside our federal, state, tribal and local govement. we started our planning this year well in advance of the past. we stand ready to assist the primary federal agencies in responding quickly to man made and natural disasters when directed. when requested and approved by

appropriate federal officials in accordance with the national response framework, we support civil authorities by providing specialized skills and assets to save lives, reduce suffering, and restore infrastructure in the wake of catastrophic events in the homeland. last year, during one of the most destructive hurricane seasons on record, we supported the department of homeland security and the federal emergency management agency in responding to three major hurricanes within a 13-day period. we continued to take significant steps in improving our response capabilities. first of all, we have incorporated the joint staff standing execution order to stream line defense support to civil authorities within operational planning for the 2009 hurricane season. this joint staff execution order provides u.s. northern command commanders the authority to establish

operational staging areas, federal mobilization centers, national logistic support areas, and department of defense base support installations to support fema. in addition, our ten full time defense coordinating officers and their staffs coordinate and plan continually with their respective fema regions. in collaboration with the department of defense and the department of homeland security, we have also developed pre-scripted mission assignments for fema. we have 24 of those approved currently. it prosides a menu of response capabilities with the cost to fema so they can quickly respond and request those mission assignments. based on anticipated requirements of medical evacuation, damage assessment and commodity distribution to mention just a few. and finally, in 2009, february, we co--hosted the first national guard and northern command hurricane planning conference in february in south

carolina. p it brought togetherage jent generals from if eastern and gulf coast states along with the chief of the national guard level and my boss and for the opportunity to look at gaps and also work with fema and other interagencies and provide a rist of short falls that we anticipate based on current deployments for the 2009 hurricane season. additional planning for the 2009 hurricane season included discussions with u.s. transportation command on arrow medical evacuation, general population evacuation, discussions with the department of homeland security, and also fema. health and human services, and our service component commands. all of these are planning conferences and table top exercises we've conducted for this season. if and when called northern command continues to stand ready to provide robust support to civil authorities during the 2009 hurricane season.

thank you for the opportunity to present today and i stand ready to answer your questions. >> thank you, general. we very much appreciate it. >> thank you very much, madam chairman. and to our distinguished panel and certainly a good opportunity to listen and learn what we are preparing for. and mr. fugate, we know that we had a bad, it wasn't quite a tornado so we hear a lot about hurricanes but inland a hurricane is a tornado and that's what we get in illinois. and my home as a matter of fact is in tornado ale down in southern illinois. and we just had a big storm to come through a few weeks ago and it wasn't quite at the tornado level they called it a dur aido or something that they come up with this new name for it. but it's high winds that reaches about 75 miles an hour.

is that correct? >> that's one term. you also may hear it called a microburst. my experience has been if you lose your roof, it's kind of academic. >> well, and we had quite a bit of damage and of course our governor has asked for some assistance. and i'm just hoping that that assistance will be forth coming because unfortunately in southern illinois there's a lot of poverty and it's just not that much resources. so i'm hoping we can get some assistance on that. are you familiar with that request that's been put in for southern illinois? >> no, sir. we will research that. it could still be at the region. >> it was about six weeks ago. >> it may have come through. i've been on the job for about two weeks and three days. if i haven't seen it, i'll find out. >> and general, i was down in my national guard facility down

in cap lincoln the other day and we were talking about coordination of the disasters of what our national guard does. we also have another issue called flooding over the mississippi river that ends up in new orleans. but it comes down from illinois roaring like a mack truck doing 90 down i-55 and it leaves in its wake a lot of flooding. and i was just wondering, how does nor com coordinate with the national guard in terms of the disaster coordination? does it go through the national guard first or who is really in charge there? >> to answer your question, our coordination is with the national guard bureau. but the first response will always be with the national guard supporting the state and local officials. we though immediately upon indications that there's a disaster pending will begin to

coordinate with the national guard in case there are gaps in their capability to respond. and i talk with the national guard chief of operations daily. in looking across the country, looking at where they have forces deployed so we are prepared to respond. we recently responded to flood in the red river in the north in north carolina north dakota and we provided some active duty forces to back them up at the request of the federal emergency management agency. >> so you say your request also can come from fema to you? does that have to originate at the state level? >> senator, process by which we would activate northcom would be at the request of the state. and we would not have assets within either your national guard or other federal assets and if it was