Now the bad news: >>GAO raps some knuckles on recovery
Homeland Security, corps are scolded
Thursday, September 07, 2006
By Bill Walsh and Mark Schleifstein Staff writers
The billions of dollars being spent in Hurricane Katrina recovery aren't being adequately monitored, the Army Corps of Engineers lacks a comprehensive plan for storm protection around New Orleans and a key blueprint for responding to the next disaster has yet to be completed, the Government Accountability Office said in three reports issued Wednesday.
Few new revelations emerged from the most recent analyses of the nation's costliest disaster, which over the past year has been the subject of two congressional investigations, a White House review, several books and 30 reports by the GAO.
Still, the Government Accountability Office's reports serve to draw attention to gaps in the federal preparations for the next disaster and the government's ability to respond.
Congress has allocated $88 billion through four emergency spending bills to respond to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. To keep track of the money, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the funnel for most of it, submits detailed weekly financial reports to Congress. But the GAO raised concerns because once FEMA disburses the money to 23 federal agencies it's hard to find out how, or even if, it is being spent.
For example, the U.S. Forest Service spent $170 million on hurricane recovery through the end of January. But because the agency had not yet submitted bills for the work, FEMA's weekly reports made it appear that the Forest Service hadn't spent any money.
"While FEMA is reporting as required, its obligations are overstated and its expenditures are understated," the GAO said. "Depending on the stage of the process, the differences could be significant."
Levee work
Uncertainty also surrounds flood and hurricane protection for metropolitan New Orleans, according to the GAO.
When the levees breached during Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005, the Army Corps of Engineers raced to make repairs. Congress has allocated more than $7 billion over the past year to make additional storm protection upgrades. But echoing other independent critics, the GAO said the corps has not done enough to think through how the money should be spent.
And the GAO also warned that the corps expects to return to Congress seeking more dollars to complete even interim repairs to the levee system in a patchwork fashion.
"We are concerned that the corps has embarked on a multibillion-dollar repair and construction effort in response to the appropriations it has already received, without a guiding strategic plan, and appears to be simply doing whatever it takes to comply with the requirements placed on it by the Congress and other stakeholders," the GAO said.
Already short
"Consequently, we are concerned that the corps is once again, during this interim period, taking an incremental approach that is based on funding and direction provided through specific appropriations and is at risk of constructing redundant or obsolete structures that may be superseded by future decisions, thereby increasing the overall costs to the federal government for this project," the report said.
The report outlined the multiple spending bills that have begun pouring billions of dollars into levee redesign and repair, and warned that corps officials have already concluded that the $7 billion appropriated so far may be as much as $4 billion short of what will be needed to raise levees to heights required by FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program.
In a letter responding to the report, the Army's assistant secretary for civil works, John Woodley Jr., said he generally agreed with the GAO recommendations that a plan be adopted and that measures taken to ensure independent oversight of both the plan and individual construction projects.
But he also defended the corps' efforts to complete as much of the repairs as possible in advance of this year's hurricane season, which began June 1, while attempting to integrate that work into the future levee system.
". . . I am concerned that the findings and conclusions do not adequately represent how the emergency need, strategic planning and technical challenges go hand in hand in determining the best path forward," he wrote in an Aug. 21 letter. "It is still an emergency situation along the Gulf Coast and the Corps of Engineers is moving forthright to re-establish lines of defense."
In a response appended to his letter, the corps committed to developing a comprehensive strategy for levees and coastal restoration for both Louisiana and Mississippi, and said that the construction projects planned and under way would be incorporated into those plans.
The response said part of that strategy would be integrated into the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration plan, which will be submitted to Congress in December 2007.
The corps also committed to a three-part independent review of the plans and construction projects. The report listed several instances in which early corps cost estimates were proving too low. The largest involved a corps commitment to raise levees to satisfy new National Flood Insurance Program requirements that will require raising most levees and levee walls. A fourth supplemental appropriation contained $1.6 billion for that task, but the corps now estimates it will need another $4.1 billion to meet the new standards by 2010.
Waiting on blueprint
Taking aim at the Department of Homeland Security, the GAO said the nation's lead disaster agency still has not issued the Catastrophic Incident Annex supplement, a document that details the movement of commodities, equipment and personnel in a major crisis.
The GAO report said that until the document was finished, federal agencies won't know what they need to do in the next disaster.
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke downplayed the significance of the criticism. He said that while the document is still being "refined," data-sharing systems put in place since Katrina allows local authorities to track federal supplies in an emergency.
"While we continue to refine the details, there are very strong capabilities in place," Knocke said.
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