Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Coordination between FEMA and the Red Cross Should Be Improved for the 2006 Hurricane Season
GAO-06-712
Published: Jun 08, 2006. Publicly Released: Jun 08, 2006.
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Highlights
The Red Cross played a key role in providing relief to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, mounting its largest ever disaster response. Under the National Response Plan, and its emergency support function-6 (ESF-6), the Red Cross and FEMA are tasked with working together to coordinate federal mass care assistance in support of voluntary organizations, as well as state and local governments, as they meet mass care needs--such as shelter, food, and first aid. Questions have been raised about how the Red Cross and FEMA operated following the Gulf Coast hurricanes and what improvements can be made for the 2006 hurricane season. This report includes GAO's interim findings on the Red Cross and FEMA's hurricane operations. GAO will continue to analyze federal and charitable hurricane relief efforts.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Emergency Management Agency | To clarify roles and responsibilities within ESF-6 for the 2006 hurricane season, the Secretary of DHS should direct FEMA to work with the Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of the Red Cross as soon as possible to reach agreement on the operating procedures that they will both use in the event of an incident of national significance. Given the lack of progress FEMA and the Red Cross have made thus far in reaching agreement on the operating procedures and that the new hurricane season is beginning, they may wish to use mediation to speed the agreement. |
FEMA and the Red Cross executed a new Memorandum of Understanding that sets forth their agreement to cooperate in a variety of areas related to disaster response and recovery. The MOU confirms the organizations' commitment to sharing information about relief operations and coordinating their activities with respect to disaster response and recovery operations, service delivery, training, the issuance of public information, and communications technology.
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| American Red Cross | The Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of the Red Cross should implement ESF-6 staffing strategies that better facilitate the development of working relationships and retain institutional knowledge. For example, such strategies might include lengthening ESF-6 staff rotations in incidents of national significance or primarily using permanent staff to fill ESF-6 positions. |
During recent months, the Red Cross has implemented a number of additional strategies to ensure that its ESF-6 personnel have the strongest working relationships and ESF-6 expertise to provide the highest level of service. These strategies include the following: Red Cross has created positions for and is in the process of hiring ten new ESF-6 staff, each of whom will work in one of the 10 FEMA regions on a full time, year round basis. Red Cross has created positions for and is in the process of hiring ESF-6 reservists, specially-trained Red Cross personnel who will be deployed to FEMA locations as needed in the even of a disaster. Because reservists are paid employees, they will be able to remain on ESF-6 assignments for longer periods than volunteers typically can. Red Cross has revised its training course for the ESF-6 function to place greater emphasis on coordination with its partners and provide more comprehensive information about the process for requesting federal resources to support state and local response activities. To date, approximately 170 Red Cross personnel have been trained using the revised training course. Red Cross is in the process of hiring two additional staff to work at Red Cross Headquarters and assist in the management of Red Cross ESF-6 activities. Fourteen new employees have been hired to work in specific states and focus on coordination with state emergency management agencies on mass care issues. These new employees will be knowledgeable about the mass care activities of state and local governments and work closely with Red Cross ESF-6 personnel, who will be deployed to FEMA locations during a disaster, thereby enhancing communications about state and local resource needs that can be addressed through the federal system.
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| Federal Emergency Management Agency | To help ensure that FEMA's resource tracking system will meet the needs of those requesting FEMA assistance, the Secretary of DHS should direct FEMA to ensure that it obtains input from the Red Cross as it develops a resource tracking system. |
Although FEMA has taken steps to improve its resource tracking, the agency has not confirmed that the Red Cross was consulted in the development of a new FEMA resource tracking system. We requested an update from FEMA on its actions but have not received any information for FY08, FY09 or FY10.
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Topics
Agency missionsDisaster planningDisaster recoveryDisaster recovery plansDisaster relief aidEmergency preparednessEmergency response plansHurricane KatrinaHurricane RitaHurricanesInteragency relationsInternal controlsLessons learnedPerformance managementRelief agenciesStrategic planning