HOMELAND SECURITY 5
Homeland Security
The myth of the National Disaster System and How it Affects People’s Ability to Coordinate in Response to Major Disaster
Many Americans assume that it is the responsibility of the government to help them during disaster incidences by offering services such as national defense, law enforcement, and firefighting. The government, therefore, accounts for the daily social and public order of the community by responding quickly to public emergencies and fixing damaged infrastructure. As a result of the myth, people have delegated full ownership of the national disaster system to the government such that it is its role to fix even small problems caused by disasters such as fixing potholes, teaching children, conducting a search program for missing children, providing for the homeless among other activities.
The government’s national disaster system causes a moral hazard in society whereby people have no preparedness skills because of the notion that the government will always handle disaster incidences. As a result, the community blames the government when it lacks to respond quickly during national disasters. Majority of governors in the USA also believe that the national disaster system is always fully equipped to assist them whenever the impact of a disaster becomes overwhelming. The assumption is that when an incidence is declared a national disaster by the president, FEMA will automatically appear bringing with it the Calvary. Unfortunately, in most disaster events, the Calvary that FEMA offers is unsatisfactory and often delayed despite having the ability to offer more help such as food resources, emergency power, and water supply.
It is a myth that the USA national disaster system is highly effective and offers a quick response in case of a national catastrophe. However, every individual state is responsible for enacting its national disaster system, and when one state seeks help from its neighboring state, the assistance often comes slowly and haphazardly.
US presidents are often fed with the myth that Home Rule laws and the Stafford Act define clear responsibilities of the state and local governments and that they are always ready to offer support services when help is needed during national disasters. Unfortunately, the myth is untrue, and several presidents have learned the hard lesson such as President H.W. Bush during the Hurricane Andrew of 1992.
Home Rule Laws and How They affect Inter-Agency Coordination in Homeland Security
Home rule is a law that stipulates duties and roles from the state level to its smaller units in the government. Many states use the home rule laws to evade duties by transferring them to the governmental body nearest to the community, for example, the county government, cities or towns hence, the main burden of national disasters lies with the local government. A catastrophe that lies within home rule is one that exceeds a community’s ability to respond effectively but does not exceed the combined efforts of the state and local governments. Many disasters that occur in the USA are home rule, and the government is making great improvements in its response system for example on August 2016 when floods destroyed thousands of enterprises and homes, FEMA was able to respond quickly by offering food, water, and medical services and carrying out search and rescue exercises.
The response system of FEMA in home rule disasters is quite effective however in the case of Maria-disasters, it lacks proper readiness. Maria-class disasters are those that exceed the combined efforts of state and local bodies and require a different approach to home rule disasters. Each individual state is responsible for implementing its national disaster system in case of the occurrence of a Maria-class disaster. It is FEMA’s vital role to bring together all the states into one national team, but it has failed to do so and instead, collaborates with each state separately. FEMA’s advocacy for 100% cost coverage during national disasters has led to under-preparedness by most state governments. Also, the state bodies, as well as FEMA, are left with a huge burden of meeting recovery costs instead of focusing on implementing the disaster system. The money issuing programs implemented by FEMA are Individual Assistance and Public Assistance. The Individual Assistance program covers the repair costs of the individual property while the Public Assistance program helps the state and local governments meet public infrastructure repair costs such as road repair.
The national disaster system consists of three separate organizations set up by FEMA, the state and local governments in different locations other than the point of disaster. FEMA sets up the Joint Field Office, the state government forms a different operations center while the local government enacts its Emergency Operations Center. Due to the lack of a common system for disaster management, a complex environment is created that has different dysfunctional and overlapping functions.
County Government Efforts in Homeland Security and the Prevention of Terrorism
In New York, the government layer below the state level is County. The New York County government has formulated counterterrorism bodies to collaborate with the police force in terrorism prevention acts. Funds are also allocated for training and equipment requirements on disaster preparedness skills and the purchase of rescue tools in a program known as the Urban Area Security Initiative. New York recently employed 500 officers in the local police intelligence and counterterrorism organization to intensify protective measures during alert periods against terrorist attacks. I obtained information from the government websites as a Written Testimony for the Senate Committee regarding Homeland Security and Governmental Issues. The information was relatively difficult to find because of the security purpose.