- The Federal Emergency Management Agency seems woefully understaffed and has wasted resources responding to situations that were not in dire need, an investigation by E&E News found.
- FEMA is "stretched thinner than ever" with staffing shortages, as nearly 75% of its disaster workforce is unable to respond to the upcoming hurricane, E&E News reported.
- But E&E News reported that the federal aid agency has overestimated the damage to states and underestimated the given state's ability to handle the situation.
As Hurricane Dorian continues to threaten Puerto Rico and parts of the US coast, an investigation by E&E News revealed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency may barely have a grasp on responding to it.
After decades of wasting resources and deploying personnel unnecessarily, FEMA is "stretched thinner than ever" with a "major staffing shortage" — nearly three-quarters of its disaster workforce is either assigned to address other disasters or on break, E&E News reported.
FEMA is tasked with providing aid to states that cannot respond to a disaster on their own, according to federal law. However, E&E News found that the federal agency has wasted more than $3 billion in resources and misused personnel since 1998, after continually overestimating storm damage to US states and underestimating the capacity of states to handle it.
The investigation also noted FEMA's shortcomings when addressing the last three hurricanes — Harvey, Irma, and Maria — which collectively took 3,167 lives and racked up $276 billion in damage, E&E News reported. When Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in September of 2017, it did not get its first recovery center until a month later, according to the report.
Read more: Hurricane categories tell only part of the story — here's the real damage storms like Dorian can do
Moreover, Hurricane Harvey proved to be the wettest hurricane in US history after dumping 60 inches of rain on Houston, Texas, The Washington Post reported. However, 4,948 emergency workers were unavailable the day that the hurricane made landfall, almost half of the agency's emergency workforce, according to E&E News.
"FEMA is dying a death by 1,000 cuts," Brock Long, a former FEMA administrator, told E&E News. "When Harvey hit, we didn't have enough staff in my opinion to be able to deploy to the largest events. We were out in the field staffing too many small to medium disasters."
Hurricane season is typically pegged from August or October and ends in November, with an average of six hurricanes per season. However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasted a 45% chance of above-average activity this season, with five to nine hurricanes.
Though Hurricane Dorian was rated a Category 1 storm on Wednesday, it is projected to strengthen to a Category 3 hurricane within 72 hours as it nears the US coast.
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