in fema. i could point it to lack of government and it needs to start with the local government. we are still at the federal government dealing with issues. issues after the fact, helping louisiana get back up off their feet. guest: we do a lot of security consulting, high-profile protection. a lot of training. we also do a lot of disaster assistance, helping local officials try to negotiate the path. we're basically a consulting firm internationally. host: san antonio, texas, independent. welcome to the kong very sation. caller: my question for the director is about the properties fema has located across the country that are for the expected insur intelligence of immigrants because of the war on drugs and how do they relate to disaster responses and what are they expecting as far as a disaster. >> alex, i appreciate your call, but i have to tell you, i don't know anything about that. there were no such facilities during the two years i existed as director. i know there's a lot of buzz on the

in fema. i could point it to lack of government and it needs to start with the local government. we are still at the federal government dealing with issues. issues after the fact, helping louisiana get back up off their feet. guest: we do a lot of security consulting, high-profile protection. a lot of training. we also do a lot of disaster assistance, helping local officials try to negotiate the path. we're basically a consulting firm internationally. host: san antonio, texas, independent. welcome to the kong very sation. caller: my question for the director is about the properties fema has located across the country that are for the expected insur intelligence of immigrants because of the war on drugs and how do they relate to disaster responses and what are they expecting as far as a disaster. >> alex, i appreciate your call, but i have to tell you, i don't know anything about that. there were no such facilities during the two years i existed as director. i know there's a lot of buzz on the

in fema.ould point it to lack of government and it needs to start with the local government. we are still at the federal government dealing with issues. issues after the fact, helping louisiana get back up off their feet. guest: we do a lot of security consulting, high-profile protection. a lot of training. we also do a lot of disaster assistance, helping local officials try to negotiate the path. we're basically a consulting firm internationally. host: san antonio, texas, independent. welcome to the kong very sation. caller: my question for the director is about the properties fema has located across the country that are for the expected insur intelligence of immigrants because of the war on drugs and how do they relate to disaster responses and what are they expecting as far as a disaster. >> alex, i appreciate your call, but i have to tell you, i don't know anything about that. there were no such facilities during the two years i existed as director. i know there's a lot of buzz on the inte

and fema demanded that this couple pay back $27,000 in fema assistance they had received three years earlier and that they do it within 30 days or face penalties, interest, et cetera. well, this is devastating news for her. these are social security recipients. they lost everything in a flood. and let me back up and tell the full story and tell the rest of the story. three years ago, arkansas had some floods on the white river and the folks in the mountain view area, some of them experienced very severe flooding. fema came -- actually came to this couple's house, walked around, told them on the spot that they were eligible to receive fema assistance for the flooding. and the maximum you can receive is $30,000. they filled out the paperwork. in fact, fema helped them do some of that. like i said, on the spot, while fema was visiting their home and looking at their property, fema assured her that she would -- that they would qualify for th this. they filled out the paperwork, they go through the process. apparently at some point there's even an appeal or some sort of clarification and

they have got their act --fema has not functioned so well. >> they held a tornado very well. >> femas able to act with state partners as requested. >> fema has been good to us and they have dealt with school buses and the track by the football field, playgrounds, parking lots and a number of areas where they helped us. >> once the tornado happen, it was apparent that it was a catastrophic event and it would be beyond the needs of the community of parkersburg and the state. fema stepped in early in the process. >> their response is fast. it showed they cared they set up a community center here for helping the disaster and recovered but also helping the citizens seek funds demo will distribute more than $2 million than the first two weeks of bad tornado in parkersburg. >> withoutfema funds, parkersburg would not exist. >> however, due to communication and may be flaws in the theme of policy, parkersburg finds itself today in a critical struggle. >> at the grassroots, there's a little problem with fema, may be different people have a different view of what the government can or can't do

i guess removed from that day and we're still working with fema. >> in the 1990s, fema was a model government agency. but as hurricane katrina showed, cronyism, under funding and lack of leadership turned him into the most ridiculed agency in the government. >> how the federal government affects my life and committee is most evident in the way he has handled continued disaster relief and parkersburg. >> parts of it you really love about theme and parts you're not crazy about. i've heard people say a love-hate relationship. >> there's been sometimes in some natural disasters that fema has not functioned so well. think in the last five years, they've gotten their act together and done a better job. >> several areas team a head of the parkersburg very well. >> they are invaluable as far as i guess when it comes to recovery of disasters. >> team has been good to us. it is worth noting they have helped us with school buses, the all weather track down by the football field, right -- playground, parking lots to a number of areas that helped us with. >> once the tornado havoc is very apparent from th

with fema. >> in the 1990's, fema was a model government agency, but as hurricane katrina show, cronyism, underfunded, and lack of leadership turned a steaming into the most ridiculed agency in the government. -- turned fema into the most ridiculed agency and the government. >> disaster relief and parkersburg. >> i have had people say it is a love-hate relationship. >> there have been sometimes with some natural disasters that fema has not functioned so well. i think in the last five years, they have kind of gotten their act together and have done a better job. >> in several areas, safina handled the parkersburg tornado very well. >> as needed and requested. >> they are invaluable in terms of recovery from disasters. and number of areas. >> siemens stepped in very, very early in the process. -- fema stepped in. >> they set up a command center, also hoping to the citizens. >> we distributed $2 million within the first few weeks. >> without the fema funds, parkersburg would not exist or be where we are at today. >> however, due to miscommunications, perhaps due to flaws in their policies,

fema provided funding including to the county dam. but plopper contract procedure -- but proper contract procedures were not followed. fema has determined the cost and work performed were within the agency's guidelines. the audit was conducted by the inspectors office. >>> and a cow slaughtered for beef was found to have radio active intoxication. they said the level of contamination was slightly higher than the league limit. officials stress the beef was never put on the market. >>> in about an hour, a vigil and fundraiser will get under way to help concord's japanese sister city. organizers are asking participants to bring in origami crane or make one at the event called a thousand cranes for japan. >>> a bay area woman filed suit today against the maker of her artificial hip joint. john fowler is here with a warning and what this means for our aging population. >> reporter: and because its based on an earlier type, it did not have to go through clinical trial. but it may grind off bone here. two years after her ars hip implant, she

you know, we didn't have fema until 1979, and even with fema, it -- progress -- the it's still the local government's job to start out and then the state and then they would go to the federal after that. and prior to 1979, we did have disasters in this country for a couple hundred years. and you know, it always got fixed one way or the other, and it wasn't the federal government doing it. in fact in 1,900 galveston island went under water from a hurricane. half the people were killed. and it was worse than this disaster at the time. and there wasn't one federal dollar that went there. and a year later, the whole island was rebuilt better than it was before it was destroyed. host: off of twitter. adding this, as bad as this tornado onslaught is, it is incomparable to that of hurricane katrina. melanie? caller: yes. the government i think has done well in helping. but what it needs to do is make sure the money goes to the people. fema gave the governor of louisiana $30 million to help the university down here. in new orleans. it's still up in trailers and he has taken money and wants to in

we already have programs that are going to work immediately with fema. it won't take months. we're working on programs, we prefill out fema forms. we're not going to wait months for that. we've got to do it faster and better. if our economy is down and the bay area economy is down, that will affect the whole of the united states economy. we know that. so that's why we're putting our data centers in safe places, we're consolidating them away from our city into places that don't have this kind of shaking and every time we have little jolts, it reminds everybody, you've got to do more. so we are ready with a great response from nert from all our practices that we've been doing and the agencies have been doing but we're going beyond response. we've got plans with our human resources agency to call back workers, we've got priorities on there, we carry our badges and we're finding out gaps. you heard the other day that we didn't get our password for our computer systems up. we corrected that already. we corrected that months ago after we found that out. we're not going -- and the w

need to assess the training needs and develop training goals for all department staff consistent with fema and california office of service management. that involves training, etc. as well as postdisaster earthquake design of buildings. two is to resign and update the d.b.i. emergency response plan to conform with all current city standards and ensure compatibility and integration with the city and county of san francisco all-hazard strategic plan. three is to sign and update positions and to clarify duties with the assessment team, verify recall costs, documents and reporting requirements are current. item four is going to be to attend regular emergency operation center meetings and workshops, participate in tabletop exercises and support the emergency resource planning work group which is participating and apply for available grant funding opportunities through the department of emergency management. last month, we on a monthly basis there's emergency resource planning work groups that are intradepartmental and those have been important for us communicating information and resources, sha

so this is also a test of the post katrina fema. the folks who came to fame for all the wrong reasons after katrina, bosching the response to that. but it isn't the kind of disaster where we are going to have ice trucks driving across the country to get here. obviously most of the state of alabama is up and running and functioning and thriving. western alabama and parts of six other states, however, are dealing with just an earth-shaking tragedy. again, the worst outbreak of tornadoes since the era of the great depression in the united states. >> what is the likelihood of another wave of tornadoes coming? traditionally may is worse than april. we just said an all-time put it in the record books record for the month of april. and it all depends on and i'm not a meet loll gist and sometimes i wish i was. the steering currents, the jet stream as it passes over the united states. the temperature of the pacific this time of year. the temperature trend in the pas civic ocean. est coast storms, if depends on a lot but when you get that awf

fema's hole of community efforts demonstrates this approach known as the maxima of maximums. the focus is on planning around a catastrophe and 13 core capabilities were extraordinary levels of mass casualty damage and disruption overwhelm our traditional plans and assesses. this effort is a concrete step in making the all of nation whole of community principle real and operations. another example comes from the centers for disease control and prevention. just a few weeks ago, the cdc released 15 capabilities to serve as national public health repaired the standards to assist state and local public health departments with their strategic planning. third, we are actively pursuing more rigorous assessment systems that are focused on outcomes so that we can measure and track our progress over time. we simply need to do better and articulating our current level of preparedness and demonstrating what innovations have worked. fema and hhs are very actively evaluating their grant programs, aligning them around the outcomes to be achieved and seeking to clarify program guidance so tha

four of those victims have been identified as fema prostitutes.eaths could be a serial killer. - female prostitutes--and also bones found in this area to see if these bones are human. south florida, attacking birds. it looks like the hitchcock's " the birds ". and this has happened before in the spring and the poor to try to protect their nest. the say they cannot try to do much. >> when this is a book about sarah palin " blind allegiance ". he is a former campaign aide to sarah palin and now it comes out next month. exports rose we were leaked frank bailey has a written the tell all. baja expe--experts from this book have been beat. experts excerpt's test- >>pam:- -- >>pam: town hall meeting precipitatiparticipation. >> kimberlee: 0 >> this will be like stream, and i will answer questions from across the country. and hope that you can rsvp at facebook.com/ white house. >> kimberlee: according to which delt white house, they are actively involved in this. once you click on the questions to concede the events page many people of a recent and questi

there will be fema documentation and everything there will be needed to support it.ant to thank everyone for making themselves available for that, for the training on the turk street. still awful, up to your sites and operational staff will make sure you have access to your buildings and things like that, so that our cost recovery experts can deal with that. >> thank you very much. other announcements? yes? >> [unintelligible] of vaccination clinic on may 14? >> for what? a vaccination -- >> of vaccination clinic. [unintelligible] may 14 they are having won at john mcconnell high school. >> other announcements? just a reminder. when we do in anniversary of one of our two quakes here, the personally prepared. it is an opportunity for you to go home, see whether you've of water stored, flashlights and batteries, really simple. just look on 72hours.org. i'm sure that everyone is more prepared than they think they are. just look through. it will make you feel better. is there any public comment? ok. hearing none, say this is adjourned, unless, mr. mayor -- ok. thank you

in the past where we have had casualties, fema has stepped in. we will not see that in the future. not only is it more expensive to repair a damaged building them to retrofit it, but there is a big question of where the money is going to come from. we still have thousands of people living in temporary housing. and our residential buildings are safer to stay and, we will have less of a need for temporary housing. the huge issue is resiliency. what will san francisco look like after the earthquake. we saw the terrible consequences in new orleans, who when of the ideas of how we have been gauging this is if we have a much safer san francisco were the majority of people who can continue to reside in their houses, where businesses will be able to open the where social services are available, the economics of the city can get back and work faster. it will be much more apt to come back quickly. >supervisor wiener: think you very much for your work. it is still important. we have sort of been operating with our head in the sand. we have been very slow in terms of doing what we need to do.

. >> i just closed my eyes and said lord please protect me >>catherine: and my childcatherine fema is in the scene and homes that have been too dangerous to enter have been marked. in mississippi, winds were strong enough to lift it this tree straight out of the ground. 165 mi. an hour winds tore through the town killing this woman's niece. we're talking about homes and businesses and schools. this is what's left of a church in alabama. throughout the southeast crews are struggling to restore power and identify dangerous buildings. >>pam: traffic in walnut creek, the 680-24 exchange no problems. traffic moving at medium speed, but moving well. we will be right back with more news, weather and traffic in a few moments.. [ male announcer ] try sizzler's new value menu! malibu chicken, flame broiled steak, or half dozen jumbo shrimp, plus endless salad bar... starting at just $9.99! at sizzler. hey marcel, watch this! [ buzzer sounds ] [ cheers and applause ] ♪ hey marcel, watch this! yeah, marcel! -marcel! -hey marcel! are you listening to me? marcel! [ male announcer ] only at&t u-vers

. >> reporter: fema is on the scene assisting those effected by the deadly storms. >> we are going toget things under control. we are going to do it on a statewide level. we are going to work together. >> reporter: alabama governor robert pweptly announced he will be applying for federal aid and president barack obama pledged his full sup port. >> we can not control when or where a terrible storm may strike but we can control how we respond to it. >> reporter: the president will travel here to alabama tomorrow. he will meet with the governor, state and local officials and those family who's were affected by these deadly storms. in bermingham, alabama, back to you. a bay area band is ready to play at a hotel where they never saw their drummer. a year as passed and they think green is not missing but a victim of foul play. the police say they have no evidence supporting that theory. >> fairfield police say they are combing through clues in the murder of 25-year-old lee. lee was last seen april 25th at a barnes and noble's store. investigators say they have gone through more than 100 pie

we no, fema, flood map's don't incorporate future risks and some say they don't adequately incorporatelood risks. the story we heard from david on often does but insurance companies are interested in this because they obviously have a financial stake in that and we may see some changes in insurance policies. after katrina, the new orleans levies were built to the exact same standards before. i didn't want to argue about the height but they certainly did not include climate change and one would argue they built them at an ineffective manner to begin with but they did not rebuild with climate change. brad said the colorado river and it's use of,hydrology, and it occurred to me, why are they not addressing climate change. why is the bureau not integrating it into the analysis of the system and i'll come back to an example of that in a moment. we have not yet done in california a systematic assessment of reservoirs. there have been some studies on specific reservoirs or river basins and how flexible or inflexible they might be under existing rules and there are a couple of studies that loo

all the building pads, incorporated tsunamis, all the analysis was based on guidance given us to by fema and other risk studies that they have done. results, again, you know, tsunamis by themselves could have a certain magnitude but it really is the combination of that tsunami with the tide which produces flooding or does not produce flooding. in the case of the japanese tsunami, it happened at a low tide so there was hardly any sort of observation recorded. the analysis that we conducted to come up with the established heights, you know, we had like 160 years, quite a bit of modeling that went into it and the end result was that the highest tsunami over a 100-year period was 9.5 feet, less than half a foot higher than in a normal tide today. the proposed criteria for treasure island, the base for elevation, 9.2, really the 100-year tide. all the base floors on the buildings on treasure island, it would have to be at or above 9.2, at a project level itself, it took the initiative to incorporate 3.5 feet of sea level it into since the buildings are not easily elevated. for the permit itse

to summarize the guidance given by fema and the california emergency management agency -- we went above and beyond. over 1000 years of modeling work performed to include tsunamis back, and the numbers, you can see those. we also recognize that low probability events could occur. that has been published recently, and the maps for san francisco bay. we recognize the those are for emergency scenario planning, rather than for design. they are significantly beyond the standard of practice compared to earthquakes. the last thing i would say is that structures are modern, code-based designs, so they are not vulnerable to tsunami damage. >> good afternoon, supervisors. office of economic and workforce development. i am going to briefly present the agreement, the johnson equal opportunities program. all aspects of the problem that speak to the extraordinary level of community benefits that will be provided to maintain the proposal you heard earlier. the treasure island homeless development initiative, a coalition of a neighborhood organizations, going to 1994 providing housing, service, and econ

>> fema has been there since the beginning, and working through our state e.m.a., we have got everything that we've requested. we're going to be relying on them even more in the coming days and weekend ahead as we transition into debris removal and finding housing for those that have lost everything. the president was-- was very interested and engaged today, and i must say, that he provided a lot of hope to our community, and he provided us a lot of resources that will help this community move forward more quickly, and i'm very glad that he came. >> tom: mr. mayor, let's talk about the resources that are in tuscaloosa and the are you sounding areas. a number of big employers have had to temporarily shut down plants because of no power or lack of supplies, including boeing, toyota, mercedes-benz with a plant just 20 miles outside of your town employing some 3,000 workers. how soon could these get back up and operating? >> i think you will probably see that happen within 48-72 hours. the majority of the major manufacturing sectors did not receive damage. their issues are more logistical wi

japan's struggles to stem the leak of radioactive water into fema out onto the ocean while thousands of homeless tsunami survivors face an uncertain future and you know venting anger at the government they say is not doing enough to help. them and a year off the most elementary suicide bombing russian deals a devastating blow to terrorism by killing and with high ranking militants the security services raided the offices on the frontier kill several terrorists from the in a circle of the whom are up against wanted man in the country. rogers head out the latest from the world of sports. hello there thanks for watching the supposing this is what is coming up over the next few. surprise ladies you boys bold astounding on the moscow sky joint stopping the russian prime in late. atlanta the first side through to the gun cup final after a thumping last night see. and india a kind cricket world champions after beating shoreline cap in mumbai. but stopped the football though and there's a surprise team at the top of the russian prime league new boys bolded joining ladies routine on six point

as required by the nuclear regulatory commission and fema, within a six-year cycle dema conducts threelume exercises which really test the state's emergency response capability within the epc and one injection exercise which tests the state's readiness to address needs within the 50-mile radius of the utility. historically delaware's federally graded exercise received very my marks from fema, and these are graded exercises that are quite thorough and exhaustive inasmuch as they test each and every state emergency response resource that could potentially have a role in any radiological emergency incident. they involve our first responders, our evacuation plans, reception centers which are registration and contamination sites, traffic control access points, shelters, schools, hospitals an emergency worker decontamination centers. and in addition to that, dema conducts quarterly radiological drills with pse&g that specifically focus on the epz and our responder resources. in 2010, 821 people received training specific to the rep plan and emergency worker equipment. i'm going to cut some o

. >> reporter: in oklahoma, fema and disaster relief organizations are expected to be on the ground all week. and as in many other battered states, neighbors are also coming together to rebuild. and the overwhelming sentiment around here in this neighborhood is perseverance, including the owners of the home behind me. they were in the basement when the storm hit. their children's bedroom upstairs completely gone. but the owners say they will rebuild right here in the same spot. betty? >>> all right, ines ferre in raleigh, north carolina. thank you, ines. >>> it's slow going this morning for rescuers at a idaho silver mine where a miner has been trapped since it caved in on friday. ironically, the mine is lucky friday located in the town of mullan in the idaho panhandle. rescuers say it will take two days to drill through the rock just to determine if the miner is still alive. fellow miners are worried. >> i was scheduled to work together. but i'm not working today because of the situation. miners, you know, want to see the -- they're just like brothers. they want to see them, you know,

fema is also monitoring the situation and is ready to step in wherever assistance is needed. but the worst may not be over. a new weather system tonight is threatening to bring tornadoes, high winds and hail to parts of missouri, arkansas, illinois, indiana and kentucky. >>> well, today the operator of the crippled nuclear power plant in japan is taking a key step in stabilizing that building. highly radioactive water from the basement of one of the plant's buildings is now being pumped into a storage area. this will help workers restore the cooling systems that were knocked out during the march 11 earthquake and tsunami. crews estimate it will take about nine months to bring down core temperatures and reach a cold shut down of that plant. >>> bryan stow remains under a coma this morning. the dodger fan suffered seizures over the weekend when doctors tried to wean him off the drugs. his sister posted an update on the family website saying doctors removed his neck brace for the first time. the family says doctors may know more about his condition on friday. no arrests have bee

it's interesting to note, a few years ago there was a lot of fema money available that was spent to produce brochures and handouts and a lot of training. that's pretty much gone right now. certainly on the federal level. i mean, there is some grant money coming and emergency management department has information about those. even then there are limited resources. so you may have 100 applications and only 10 available so, again, that's another thing we are looking at as well. to try to make sure we identify the right priority for the resource and have the financial ability to pay for it. president hechanova: any other questions? tony, matt, thank you very much. >> thank you. president hechanova: and will we be updated on a monthly basis or through director day? >> we can update you as needed. previously regarding a timetable, that's something that i'm certainly interested in as well to produce and we got the work plan. we just need to set the priorities and really have some realistic target dates so we can show you that we've done this by this date. president hechanova: ok. and maybe the glo

the fema director is already onsite here in alabama. tomorrow, the president of the united states will visit to try to lend comfort to a region in shock. diane? >> jim, those are incredible scenes. thank you for reporting in tonight. >>> and two hours southwest of jim, the college town of tuscaloosa, home of the university of alabama, where today, the mayor looked around and said, entire neighborhoods have been removed from the map. steve osunsami is in one of those, and it took a direct hit. what do you see around you tonight, steve? >> reporter: well, good evening, diane. there is a lot of heartache around this neighborhood. there were supposed to be search and rescues today, but no rescues today here in tuscaloosa. just a few minutes ago, they found a body of a 5-year-old girl buried in that rubble. so far, 36 people in this town have died here. and many of them were found in this neighborhood. on tenth avenue, the rosedale apartments were home to hundreds of low income families who had so little and lost so much. >> it was just five

setting up the department of homeland security greatly weakened fema.michael brown, the fema director wrote a series of memos how it would make the agency less effective. in fact, michael brown was looking for a good job when katrina hit. he thought it wasn't going to work. he turned out to be might. michael chertoff was this at least, a very good judge, he was an, i thought, an effective leader of the homeland security. yet, bush kept him on as a manner of loyalty. which is disturbing. i'd also add that kathleen blanco who wasn't terribly cooperative with the federal respond deserves some of the blame. some of it is the immensity of the disaster. some of it there's a lot of blame to go around in terms of incompetence decision making. >> managing the crisis was not well done. actually early 2005 was a bad year for carl rove. because they preferred to try to reform social security instead of immigration. and in his memoir, he says i'm sorry, we shouldn't have done that. we should have tried immigration and then worried about restructured social security.

fema's ready campaign at ready.gov provides simple and practical steps all americans can take to becomeetter prepared, including how to prepare a family emergency plan, an emergency supply kit, and how to get involved in community preparedness efforts. given your expertise and your interests in this morning's topic, i'm also confident you are probably among the most prepared audience as i can imagine. but i would be remiss if i did not mention the basics, even here. our challenge continues to be making more effective use of the resources we have in our communities, and at all levels of government. and it's no surprise to you that yes, our resources are constrained. our thinking need not be. so that we measure and track our preparedness efforts over time, based on the key outcome measures i talked about, and community our level of preparedness to the congress and to the american people. the directive requires the national preparedness report every year. a clear articulation on the return we receive for investment and preparedness is even more critical in the current fiscal environment. t