at northcom to provide that assistance. one of the things we've done that goes back to some of the issues that madam chairman had raised. a lot of times these would be requested that we had not prepared ahead of time. what we have done is after katrina and after the hirks last year we have developed what we call a prescripted mission which is essentially we put together the types of things that we would be likely asking for. we write these out clearly what we're trying to accomplish. north com then identifies the resources, transe the resources and has that ready to go. so radio rather than trying to call up peefs we can call up a mission package which is working through those states. so if it exceeds the capability of that national guard, we have often times have built these packages for the threats we know about so that whether it was to do a flood fight, whether it was to support mass care, whether it was to support

commodity distribution or bring in specific equipment, these are the types of thing that is we have written out. i believe there's over 200-and some 30 of those missions we have already written out. and that's in addition to the capability that northcom could do in addition to the support we would have for the federal family. one of the things we try to do is capture anything that was different that we either needed to adjust that mission or we needed to create a mission support for and so that's a constantly evolving process each time gow through a disaster. >> gentlemen, i haven't been a civilian for so long coming back into the government. i think the general public has no idea of the preparation and planning that goes into these disasters. and what i'm certainly seing is now our public official now it's good to know these things and hopefully can get a message out to the people that we are

all very prepared to assist in these situations. which lead me mr. if you gathe to another question. are you familiar with the what the university of illinois has with this super computer that they are simulating the tornadoes and hurricanes and assimilating daferts on these computer models? i was down at the university of illinois which has the fastest computer, madam chairman, in the whole country. and what they showed me a demonstration of is a simulated tornado. and they can then study this and then actually prepare based on the atmospheric condition that is are taking place and the development of the various winds and velocities and other elements that are going to make up a tornado. as well as assimilating floods and disaster even say chicago, they have this computer design that says there's a disaster in chicago, where is the evacuation routes?

or do you know of any other facility where this is being studied, computer wise, or these assimulations are taking place? >> i know there's a lot of different programs out there. i'm not directly -- doy not know directly about this but i will ask my staff to get with your staff. >> we would certainly like to let you all know what the university of illinois is coming up with in terms of the assimulations and preparations for it. >> thank you, senator. i'm aware of a center like that in louisiana. i don't know if our computer is as fast as yours but we will see. i think it is. a battle of the computers here between illinois and louisiana. but i am very impressed with what several of our universities have done on the heels of katrina and rita and using technology and building strategic partners. so let's explore the opportunity because there may be real expertise out there at, i know at the university of laugh yet, because i've seen

it. perhaps senator bureriss has a suggestion as well. i would like to get to my line of questioning, and we'll come back. i wanted to ask first mr. fugate, what are your top three priorities? i know you have many. but tucked forl if you could for this committee because we would like to work but, we're going to push and work but but push to get the very best systems we can. so what are your top three priorities as you're stepping in to an agency that has really been at the front line in many ways these last few years, how do you see your top three priorities? and i'm certain that you've discussed this with the secretary and with the highest levels of this administration. so would you outline that for us now? >> yes, ma'am. they're rather broad.

they're easy to communicate, and they require a lot of moving pieces and they're very simple. increase the responsibility and participation of our citizens to prepare for disaster. i truly believe that far too many of us who do not get ready, to do not prepare, oftentimes put vulnerable citizens in jeopardy as we compete for those needed resources. and looking at these, i know that the more that those of us can be ready and prepared, the more successful the team will be. i really have come into this job with the understanding that in our response, the immediate needs to a state and governor, we need to be focused on the outcome we're trying to achieve and not neffsly look at process. i'm challenging the team as we have been participating in exercises to not define our response by capabilities but by what is needed to support an impacted state and local

government, recognizing there are many parts of that partnership. but as an example, it doesn't seem to me to be very effective in search and rescue operations that if we're not reaching the injured quickly, that we're mobilizing, staging, assessing and it's still two to three days into the event, we haven't changed that outcome. so i would radser take the approach of let's define what that outcome should be. let's work in partnership and say rather than to wait and bring it from the outside, how do we build that communication within the states? and from the federal response, how do we do that. but speed and stableation needs to be based not on what we can build but look at what could happen. and go if that does, have we got all the parts of the team working together? including our support from the national guard, from our active duty and reserve components to achieve that? and not merely go we're going to incremently improve

something. and i think that starts getting back to the crux of some of your issues, some of the challenges such as hospitals that we haven't gotten the generators pre-planned for. we need to do that ahead of time. it's getting that hospital back on line. and that may mean a generator, electrician, mechanic. and if you just look at one piece, you didn't get the outcome which is getting the hospital back on line. and that's one of the things that i learned and continue to bring forth. so that response based on changing outcomes. the third piece, and this is a piece i've seen in much of what you have been trying to get in testimony is much of what you've been writing about, is what is recovery? keep talking about long term recovery, and i keep walking away from it ime not sure that all the pieces understand what we're trying to do. i understand the stafford act all by itself will not achieve what we need to achieve but if we don't have some folk al

point that says this is where we're going, then i think we get lost in our housing programs, we get lost in these solutions. because they're not really tied to that outcome. so i use and it's a very simplistic approach but it helps me guide an outcome that i can articulate and begin looking at the var variety of resources and that is reestablishing a tax base and community within a time frame no greater than five years that equals or exceeds that tax base prior to the event. and this is recognizing you don't want to take five years. but in an event like katrina where we have so much rebuilding to take place that it's sometimes people say it may be a simple measure. but having been in government most of my life, tax basis are a good indicator of the health of the economy. it tells me businesses are buying permits and cars. it tells me i can provide for the services such as schools and other components and gives me a chance to start looking at our programs that can come in such as h.u.d. dollars from

community block development grant, dollars from the department of labor, other groups to make sure that sometimes disaster happens as the community is pivoting economically and it doesn't make sense if you don't recognize that just putting it back won't change the economic outcome and we end up with a failure. so looking at something that may not be the answer in all cases but from the standpoint of being able to give us a folk al point to start driving recovery, not just merely plrg the stafertted act but gting to the point where community has their tax base intact clrks is a good indicator that they can continue the services, that getting schools open, providing public safety, setting the stage for business to thrive helps me articulate a view that says as much as we work as a team to respond to the governor in a disaster, it's not fema, we're merely articulating on behalf of the president the team approach of all our federal agencies, that approach and recovery, which is to me

one of the things that you cannot have a great respns and not recover is still a failure. it gives us a better opportunity to start looking at holesically what federal programs do we already have, what authorities do we already have. and even though fema may not have those programs, helping provide that focus of the stafford act parts of the program doing what it can but also bringing in the rest of the federal family to help a local government and the state reestablish that government, that tax base, which in turn is a reflection that we've been able to achieve the things such as housing, jobs, and maintaining the community infrastructure. >> let me say, what you've just outlined is music to my ears. and the people that i represent will be very grateful to hear such a clear and passionate vision of what is needed and truly what has been lacking for many years here. and your focus on citizens and empowering them to make decisions that help us make all

of this much better even though these are very difficult challenges, whether it's hurricanes, earth quakes, tornadoes, or great floods, your focus on results as opposed to process,ically not tell you how happy that makes this senator. and your focus on which is something that i had not even thought of and i really am challenged by what you just said about trying to define what recovery is. because i myself have searched for that. and your focus on identifying it as restoring the tax base either 100% or 120% or being satisfied with 80%, whatever we decide it is, at least it gives us a goal that we all know what we're working for. and i think that's a very excellent vision that you've outlined. and i most certainly can appreciate the significance of it. let me ask you this question

here. which vi to bring up to you and you know because it's a very tough issue at home. is the v zone issue. can you take a minute to explain to the country what a v zone is? how many parts of the country are going to be affected by this decision? and why we're struggling right now with what we rebuild and what we don't rebuild. because i'm going to press you i'm happy that fema released i think 60% of $33 million or so that we've got tied up in this issue that affects the building of fire stations police stations along the coast of louisiana. but mississippi, all the coastal communities, from texas to mississippi to florida are going to be affected. and i understand and i'm going to get a map of the united states with all the v zones on it so people can understand, you may find yourself in one of

these v zones. and if a tornado comes, and destroys areas in the v zones the reimbursement that your community thinks they may be getting from the federal government is not neffsly going to happen. so i would like mr. fugate to take a minute and i'll press you on how we can try to resolve this for our state. >> madam chair, v zone is a velocity zone. it refers to in the flood insurance program in determining risk that these are areas that have the highest risk and that we have had as a policy within the nation to direct new growth away from the most vulnerable, most hazardous areas. that's a good policy. it makes sense. the challenge is we go back and remap and identify these areas, we're oftentimes finding that we have many communities that were built in the v zone. and historically are there. and as we had developed our

polls policy of passively directing construction out of there, and again not wanting to put new growth there, but when you had a disaster if something was damaged there, we would relocate. well, there are probably opportunities in a small event where we had only a few homes that relocation would make sense. but when you're dealing with the challenges we find across the gulf coast and other places that when you look at the new data that would suggest is high philosophy or high risk area, merely using the passive approach the totally destroyed but allowing repairs to damage buildings but mitigating, really didn't recognize that we still have to ask the question that as good stewards we do not want to promote growthness hazardous area. but if it's already there can we not look at engineering. and i understand you've just come back from new orleans where they do a lot more active engineering to protect property that we would look at as being

in a vulnerable zone. so i think we're reaching a point where we come back and discuss the reauthorization of the national flood, we look at v zones, we are working under our current rules and regulations. but also looking at, as we go forward, is it time to recognize that there are many places along coastal communities that are going to face the same challenge in a disaster that we have to recognize that if we're going to allow a repair to occur if we mitigate, why would a destroyed building not also be considered the same factor and should we not be looking at if we can engineer a solution that keeping the public safe, reduces the future damages, does not commit to new growth in these areas but allows those historical communities to rebuild as they were but better so they're not damaged, then i think that's something we have to ask ourselves as a country. and this will be again through your leadership and through the process of congress looking at

reautsryization that we want guidance on. but i think we have to recognize that far too many areas that a passive approach of relocation only does not provide options that communities need to be able to continue. as you point out numerous times, doing an alternative project for a fire station far away from the community it's supposed to protect doesn't make any sense. >> i want the public to understand that the significance of this issue right now we have communities that have been in place for hundreds of years. that are vibrant communities. vital communities. that are shipping communities. that have been designated as v zones. the current laws says fema will -- you can repair your home or you can repair your home but we won't build a fire station, we won't build a post office, we won't build a library. so the question then how viable of a community can you remain without a fire station, without a police station, without a library? and that is a big question.

and this map is put up, which i don't have today, that's going to show all the v zones in the country and how many millions of people, millions and millions and millions of people live in v zones, which is in this senator's state and my state, i can promise you it's going to be a major debate in this reauthorization of flood insurance. and as you know, i have a hold on that bill. that hold is going to remain until this issue gets resolved in a way that i believe or my i subcommittee -- i'm only one senator but this committee is going to work very closely with you to find a rational approach, which is part of what motivated me to go to the nedserlands because i think they have an extremely rational approach to this issue, which is a whole different system we won't get into at this hearing. but we will have some more hearings on that subject. i've been joined by my ranking member and i would like to recognize him now because, as i was pointing out, he and i have

quite a challenge. and as why i love having him on my committee when i pointed this map out to him. and yes he said strom thurmond was there through most of these. >> he didn't miss many. >> so he is ready to work side by side with me. and let me correct myself when i pointed out earlier, senator, the blue is actually the route of rita which was one of the second largest i think storms of all of these, and katrina was the yellow. when i said the reverse. and i of course should know these patterns better than anyone. so rita was the blue and katrina was the yellow. and this was done before ike. and i'm going to put ike up there because it really ran right smack into galveston and i'm sure you've had some major storms in your time. but senator, let me recognize you at this time. >> thank you. that would be interesting modern art. it's just scary that it represents hurricanes.

hurricane hugo came through south carolina and was very devastating. so i appreciate the work of the chairman of this committee. i've never met anybody in the entire congress more dedicated to a cause than you are to this subcommittee. we -- i'm just trying to stay up but. but south carolina is certainly in harm's way. i want to thank all the folks at state and federal and local lell of who help our citizens with disasters. in myrtle beach we had a huge fire. the fire did a lot of damage. and it's not just hurricanes. the red cross was there. so hurricane is what we're talking about today but coastal communities can be hit in many different ways. ron osborne, the director of the emergency management division could not be here today, but he prepared a report about hurricane preparedness. and i'd like to submit it for the record. they are doing an major

exercise in south carolina but ron is a very smart guy and i would like to put this into the record. >> without objection. >> and one final thought. as you talk about when you go down to the coast of south carolina, land is obviously very valuable. but when there are a lot of minority communities. where do they go? i mean, there are people who have been there literally generation after generation after generation. and where do they go and what do they do? and from someone that may flive nebraska or in the upper part of south carolina where hurricanes are not such a factor, i think we want to make sure that our coastal residents can get help. i mean, people are not being irresponsible, they're not living in areas where mudslides, i mean, so many people in our country live along the coast and it's a rich tradition culturally. the culture in south carolina.

and i want to hang on to it. i want to make sure that we have that rational approach. so, madam chairman, i will help you in any way i can so that when a community is hurt, the community is rebuilt. and the community includes fire stations libraries and other aspects of the community, because if you're not willing to invest in those things, you've lost a community. and thooze communities are worth hanging on to. >> thank you very much. let me ask the general a question if i might. you said that the exercises that you've recently conducted identified some gaps, general, in the organization as between northcom and the national guard. could you identify for us one or two or three of those gaps that you all identified and what you're doing to close them? >> madam chairman, as we melt in south carolina, in february, the first thing we did was we brought together the staff from the national guard from each of the 11 coastal states and we

sit with the national guard fema and then we brought in representatives from buford county, county level first responder, and then we brought in the state coordinating officer. and what we did is we walked through those gaps as to how the locals would be responding, how the state would respond. then the national guard gave us a laydown by state of where the short falls were. then fema came in and explained what capabilities they may be requesting. and then the general summer rised the table top exercise. i will tell you that the biggest short fall in this current hurricane season probably is in the brigade structure within the national guard because of the number of brigades deploying. even though it's a shortfall in certain regions and it's not a shortfall across the nation, so it's a matter of reallocating forces and the national guard is working very closely with

the state oogejent generals to identify those forces that can fulfill those shortfalls. another area was the number of rotery wing aircraft that could be deploying again we looked at across the states and there's plenty of assets available. it's, again, identifying those well in advance, who would back up who within the states. and on top of that we've looked closely at the active component, both army, navy, air force, marines, working with the coast guard through d.h.s. to see where their assets would be available. the last area that i would mention that is of concern to us and we work closely last week with u.s. transportation command, d.h.s., fema, health and human services, and the veterans administration is arrow medcal evacuation. and i think we've improved greatly since last hurricane season the ability to identify patients who may be moved, how to receive them on the outbound end.

and the problem i think we'll face and we brought it up and discussed at great length is the release time of those patients at local and state level because if you wait until the last moment we can only move so many patients. so we're trying to have our defense coordinating officers working closely with administrator fugate's coordinating offersers to talk to those locals. if you make the decision 48 hours, here's the number of patients we can still move and get aircraft in. >> i'm going to ask my staff for the next hearing to design a chart along the gulf coast from texas to new york and ind skate how many nursing home patients live within 30 miles of the coast. and i'm going to provide those numbers for you. because, as you know, in katrina we had the very unfortunate incidents of dozens of patients drown in those nursing homes. and of course, it was quite traumatic for the families.

as well as for the victims, obviously. but i don't think people realize, like senator graham just said, how many people live near this coast. and not everyone that lives near the coast has an automobile, not everyone is well, not everyone is strong enough or young enough to move out. they've got to have help moving out. or wealthy enough to afford the several thousand dollars at a minimum that it costs to leave your home for several days, even if you manage to just find shelter in a tent there's some expense associated with this. and i just don't think people have an idea of this that have not recently gone through what some of our states have gone through. so that is going to be an interesting focus, and i think

that you've i've had this medivac situation as something the national guard and north covepl can be very, very helpful because as you know states normally governors might have one helicopter that moves them around but we don't have helicopters that move like all the citizens around. so it would be helpful to have these federal assets being able to do this evacuation. did you have a comment? >> very quickly. general, it's not a question of lack of capacity in terms of overall numbers for the guard. it's just the resources may not be in the right spot. is that correct? >> senator, yes, sir. >> and i hear recruiting and retension is pretty good now in the zpwaurd? >> yes, sir. they are overstrength right now. >> how important is the guard to hurricane assistance in terms of the different agencies involved? how important does the guard, what role do they play? >> i can't talk for the national guard being a title 10

federal officer right now serving at northern command, but i grew up in the missouri national guard so i will talk about my experiences from the past. but they're the first responders in support of the fire departments, the emergency responders and the governor. so they're going to be there first. and it behoofs us at north com to understand their capability, look at their response times. because if they're uke successful at the federal local level that's one less asset that we have to put forward. >> so redistribute, reorganize what we've got? >> yes, senator. the congress has been very gracious with the department of defense and our ability to look at what we capall the ten eerbles that we use in the homeland, those capabilities that we respond to disasters. and we're coming along very well in improving that capability, especially in equiping of those ten eerbles. >> thank you. and mr. fugate, would you

comment from your perspective the role of the national guard, and do you find it to be essential? how do you want to position your organization with it? and then if you can do that in one minute or less, or two, and then also comment on this idea that has boon moving around here about a sort of civilian ready reserve that could supplement both fema and the national guard in terms of trained person until that could be called out in the event of a catastrophic disaster which obviously we can't maintain on the call every day but it would be nice to maybe have something like that. maybe we don't need it. maybe that's what the red cross is going to do or maybe that's the role the national guard plays. but if there is a gap. so comment on the national guard and then this ready reserve ideas. >> thank you, madam chair.

national guard is a ski component of any state government government ability to respond. they are a force multiplier. and again after with your leadership upon my confirmation one of my first visits was the national guard bureau having worked very closely with mike knowing that relationship. we have a very strong statewide state system. we leverage that with the national guard so that as units rotate in and out, we have capability. we have eertteds states. there is a lot of work done within the tags to make sure that things such as joint operation training, they're ready to go. so i think it's a good team. it's a key component of our national defense strategy but most importantly they are the first of those assets available to governors and that governor's authority. and those governors can request from other state governors additional guard units as part of