Emergency Preparedness? Not In NY!

During Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf Coast took a beating from the weather. Some of it couldn’t be avoided. Then they took a beating from the incompetence of then Mayor Ray Nagin, which exacerbated the suffering of Gulf Coast residents. When he was finished screwing up his portion of the hurricane and it was all over, shady contractors clobbered the residents again under the guise of help. Although, many good samaritans did help a lot of people. Most people were desperate to try to save whatever might be left of their homes after losing most, if not all of their possessions, automobiles and even loved ones. They grabbed at any help being offered. Still, FEMA dropped the ball with Katrina.

Government is like the stumblebum that just can’t seem to get the right footing. Several days after the hurricane had moved on, FEMA was finally able to get in to the area. One fact that many people aren’t aware of is that FEMA must be requested before they can go into any area. It’s a home-rule issue. In the case of Mayor Nagin and his city, he never requested FEMA until the Bush administration reached out to him and explained what he needed to do in order to get federal assistance. Maybe there should be a class for new mayors explaining what they need to do once they are sworn in?

Locally, we’ve witnessed tremendous failures in tandem with tremendous posturing during and in the aftermath of Hurricane’s Irene and now Sandy by our politicians at every level. Governor Cuomo just fired his emergency management commissioner for diverting resources to his home for tree removal. C’mon. A good leader takes care of his people before himself. In this case, he should have taken care of the other residents before himself. While the governor did the right thing with this episode, he’s done little else except for declaring NY a disaster area before anything even happened, providing New Yorkers future funding relief. It isn’t really relief as much as it is the ability to get low-cost loans to rebuild.

So, why then, is the Long Island area still so in need of food, electricity and general help almost two weeks afterwards? The residents of Coney Island are calling their area New York’s “Katrina”, asking, “Why isn't anyone helping us? We have no food, no power, no heat... we are Katrina.” ABG believes it’s because the state has no real emergency plan to help any of its residents.

County Executive Astorino did an interview immediately after the storm with John Gambling. He seems to do these every week. No stranger to campaigning, he typically is complaining about the HUD monitor, the dysfunctional county legislature or some other issue of little consequence to the county’s overburdened taxpayers. When Gambling asked how recovery efforts were going, Astorino said (paraphrasing), “About as good as it can be given the intensity of the storm.” Gambling asked if there was anything he could do better the next time or what if any lessons were learned this time. His response was to try to improve communications between the emergency workers in the field and the Emergency Operations Center located in Hawthorne. Huh?

The state of the art Emergency Operations Center was built in Hawthorne several years ago under the Spano administration. Many first responders have little or no interaction with this center, but many have been given tours of it and told of how every agency would have a seat at the proverbial table. By design it is for all the various leaders of the government to locate in one area, with liaisons to first responders, the press, state and federal agencies. While it looks impressive, it operates like a Friendly’s Restaurant: there are a lot of people working there, but nobody is helping you and no decisions ever seem to get made. It seems like yet another governmental feel-good boondoggle!

Speaking of first responders, the County insisted in the wake of September 11, 2001, that the first responders in Westchester needed a better radio system. The thinking at the time was all the reports from the 9-1-1 Commission was the failure of radio systems was a part of what led to such a high loss of life. Perhaps. But the County radio system operated on three basic channels. Many fire departments and fire districts operated on the own frequency, not overseen by the County and continue to do so. Then the County spent millions upon millions of dollars “improving” the radio system at 60 Control. So what did we get for all the time and money spent? A marginally different system that allows departments to operate on a localized frequency at a call. Does it help the first responders at a scene? Perhaps. Does it help residents during an emergency such as Hurricane Sandy? No. ABG believes it’s because the County has no emergency plan to help its residents.

In the Town of Greenburgh we have three paid and six volunteer fire departments. We have the Greenburgh Police Department as well as the six Village police departments. We have a county police department that really offers very little bang for the buck, save for the Bomb Squad (pun intended). We have a state police department that does very little in Westchester County and especially local communities except to patrol several highways. Both organizations are reactionary by nature and don’t typically do much until something happens. We can’t really blame them if they don’t take much preparatory action prior to a weather event. However, the paid departments all apply for Homeland Security grant money that seems to only be used to pay for overtime. The police chief worked on an emergency action plan for the Town. It may have been used to prop open a door for a resident who ran an extension cord to his neighbor for power.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency - FEMA - was closed Thursday morning, leaving hosts of individuals, families, and children without food or water. Here’s a picture taken Thursday, Nov. 8, of a FEMA Center for their Staten Island office with a sign on the door that said “FEMA Center Closed Due To Weather”. 

Unbelievable!? People are suffering for almost two weeks and FEMA takes a snow day? It’s ridiculous!

When FEMA came into Greenburgh after Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene, we were told residents that received a visit received a subsequent follow-up phone call the following day asking if a FEMA adjuster or representative had visited the resident. The answer was usually yes. If the resident pushed asking when they might see a check for funds, they were told this was only a follow-up phone call to ensure a visit took place and they need to ask the adjuster, who would tell you to call their 800 phone number. The phone call was only about FEMA being able to say how they were being responsive to victims. Remember, if you didn’t go to them and apply, they weren’t coming to you!

Once a FEMA adjuster visited your home or business, you needed to produce insurance documentations, mortgage verification, utility bills/receipts and the like. Most people who were flooded were hard-pressed to produce the requested documentation. While it isn’t funny, it was a bad joke. When asked when a payment check would arrive, they were told several weeks to process the claim and if everything was correct, a few more weeks to get the check in the mail. Ultimately, it would take about three months! There were no follow-up phone calls after that. ABG believes it’s because FEMA has no emergency plan to really help its residents.

FEMA, like The Paul, doesn’t actually do anything, rather, only points you to someone else. If you ask for money, they tell you to apply to the Small Business Administration (SBA) for a low interest loan. There’s the Office of Emergency Management. Who knows what they are managing, but when people need basic services restored, OEM is nowhere to be found. That is pretty much the story to date. For all the people that have suffered from Irene, Sandy, and the recent nor'easter, they are still without essential services. All our local, county, state and federal politicians continue to claim, “We’re here for you!” or, “We’re doing everything we can.” Which is exactly what? 

Talk is cheap; recovery is expensive – life is expensive, especially in NY. The system needs a major overhaul. We can only hope.