In the days following President Donald Trump's announcement that he plans to abolish FEMA after hurricane season ends, the head of New Orleans Office of Homeland Security Preparedness and Emergency Preparedness is sounding some alarms.
New Orleans homeland security director Collin Arnold acknowledges that all disasters are managed locally, but he told WWL's Tommy Tucker that as those disasters--especially major hurricanes--expand, local and state resources run out. According to Arnold New Orleans is dependent on FEMA funding not only for the post-storm response but also for getting people to safety before the storm.
"If we're not given that predisaster landfall declaration that covers all of the overtime of all of the law enforcement, that covers whatever we're going to spend on transportation, sheltering, medical care for people that need it, to get them out safe or out of the area or refuge somewhere where they're going to be safe just for the arrival of the storm, that's a huge problem," Arnold said.
Arnold says he agrees that the federal government needs to seek ways to reorganize FEMA. However, he believes the White House needs to have some sort of program in place before it considers phasing out FEMA. That because FEMA both provides funds to help storm-ravaged areas recover and sends workers to those places to provide much-needed assistance following hurricanes.
"The money is one thing, and I understand they are trying to save money, but it's really about people," Arnold said. "They do the recovery work. They canvas the neighborhoods. They go and talk to homeowners. They do a lot of the paperwork and a lot of the recovery process with insurance and things like that."
Arnold says if President Trump takes all of that away, New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana will be left in a lurch.
"They have the boots on the ground that can come into a community and set up the disaster resource centers and get people at least somewhere back towards . . . it's never going to be whole, but it's at least somewhat back to normal," Arnold said. "In the city, I have nothing to replicate that. I don't have the people. I don't have the expertise, and I don't know that the state has it, either."