Homeland Security Watch

Comment by William R. Cumming

May 18, 2009 @ 8:14 am

WHO will go to Level 6 on the Pandemic Scale before the conference opens IMO! Overdue. The reports are that they WHO have rejected trying to fashion a scale of the virulence of any particular virus. Probably a good decision but still the published scale needs to have a specific disclaimer.

Apparently NO written decision by the OBAMA Administration on the FEMA in or out of DHS decision. Until the next catastrophe then. It is interesting that no detailed followup except to some extent by GAO has occurred since Katrina on the issues and policies addressed by the three (independent of each other) reports issued by White House, Senate, and House (two versions) on FEMA and Katrina response.

It really is starting to appear that except for the goings and comings of the Secretary DHS nothing substantive has been done since January 20th of this year to make sure FEMA is ready to go. I wonder what the new Administrator FEMA is finding and what he plans to do? It is interesting that the hold on Fugate was largely over so-called “Recovery Phase” issues and I have published elsewhere that FEMA has very limited authority in the Stafford Act for the recovery phase. This should be fixed but it takes hard work and I guess neither Congress or the Administration is up to that and still hope that the “Hoping it does not happen on my watch” sees them through. Hey lady luck was once a standard for selection of German Generals so perhaps not a bad strategy. Until luck runs out of course.