Kristi Noem under fire when FEMA officials exploit their Texas flood response

The Secretary of the National Security Department, Kristi Noem, is in increasingly hot water, since the Democrats demand answers about their response to the mortal floods of Texas last week and emergency officials smile the alarm of the policies that tell them that they quickly provided that they will quickly provide relief.

Noem’s DHS, which supervises the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is defending its approach after four FEMA officials told CNN that a new cost reduction measure that requires its personal signature in any contract or subsidy of more than $ 100,000 prevented from the agency’s capacity to respond quickly in the center of Texas, where around 120 people have died and more than 160 are still missing after the flood sudden.

“Us were Operating under a clear set of guidance: Lean forward, prepare, anticipate what the state needs and prepare to deliver it, “said a FEMA employee for a long time to the network:” That is not so clear to us at this time. “

The officials told CNN that Noem’s new policy prevented them from rapidly deploying urban search and rescue teams, which Noem did not authorize until Monday, more than 72 hours after the floods began and when more than 100 people were confirmed dead. The documents reviewed by CNN also found that by Monday night, only 86 FEMA employees had been deployed in Texas.

Bloomberg through Getty Images

FEMA employees also said that the new policy prevented them from rapidly providing Texas officials aerial images in the flood area and attracting additional support personnel in disaster call centers.

When he contacted to comment on the concerns of these officials, the assistant secretary of the DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, said that the department has adopted an approach of “all hands in writing” for recovery efforts, saying that the department has deployed “extensive” personnel and a link officer to Kerville, Texas, although it did not provide specific numbers when asked.

Much of McLaughlin’s response focused on the efforts of the Trump administration to climb FEMA: a Noem and Trump agency have said they want to close completely while leaving the disaster response to the United States.

“FEMA is changing a swollen and dC centered to a thin and deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief to their citizens. The old processes are being replaced because Americans fail in real emergencies for decades,” McLaughlin said.

The DHS did not respond immediately when asked to name specific failures.

“The DHS is rooting the waste, fraud, abuse and is reproducing appropriate dollars. Secretary Noem is delivering responsibility to the US taxpayer, which Washington bureaucrats have ignored for decades at the expense of US citizens,” McLaughlin’s statement continued.

“The old processes are being replaced because Americans failed in real emergencies for decades.”

– Assistant Secretary of DHS Tricia McLaughlin

The Democratic food of Senator of Oregon Ron Wyden of the CNN report was blunt.

“Children in Texas died as a direct result of Kristi Noem’s negligence. It should be withdrawn from office before their incompetence is killed in a forest fire,” he wrote on social networks.

Another important interrogation sign in the DHS response is the whereabouts of the FEMA administrator, David Richardson, who has not issued any public statement about floods and does not seem to have visited Texas. When News themezone asked FEMA on Tuesday where he was, the agency said that any information about his trip is “released through official channels” and did not answer any follow -up question.

When he was asked again on Thursday to comment on his plans to visit Texas, the DHS did not respond again.

Via News

His absence is not normal, former FEMA to Political officials said, and indicates local leaders who cannot trust him.

On Wednesday, a group of Democratic legislators sent Richardson a letter that was wondered if he was fulfilling their job duties, demanding more specific details about how many members of the FEMA staff have been deployed in Texas and asking about the plans to fill vacancies in the National Meteorological Service.

The Democrats, who include representatives Rick Larsen (Washington), Zoe Lofgren (California), Greg Stanton (Arizona) and Gabe Amo (RI), pointed out that a key position of NWS in San Antonio had not been held. “How did the critical information to the Emergency Management and Public Security officials of Texas communicate?” They asked in the light of the vacancy.

“It would be inconceivable to face the next extreme climate event with a FEMA and a NWS that are somewhat less than totally resources to respond from the first prognosis to the last delivery of relief,” they wrote.