Local Work Force Leads FEMA Recovery Efforts
FEMA programs are staffing up with skilled area residents
Release Date: August 21, 2006
Release Number: 1603-531
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NEW ORLEANS, La. -- One year into Louisiana's recovery from Hurricane Katrina, the work of putting the state back on its feet is being transferred to thousands of Louisiana residents. The shift from disaster assistance employees from around the country to local hires is most apparent at the Louisiana Transitional Recovery Office of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Monday through Saturday, nearly 2,000 FEMA employees work in offices in Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Harahan, New Orleans and other cities. Most of them grew up in Louisiana and have deep roots. They are working to help their communities, families, neighbors and co-workers rebuild and recover.
"We are seeing great benefits from our infusion of local hires," said Jim Stark, a Louisiana resident and director of the Louisiana Transitional Recovery Office. "Our new employees bring important local knowledge and empathy to their jobs which will see us through the recovery process."
Mike King of Slidell, chief of staff for FEMA in Louisiana, has been monitoring the process. "Very soon, nearly all of the FEMA jobs in this state will be staffed by local residents," King said "Our folks are not just helping to solve other people's problems - we're living the problems ourselves."
Individual assistance helps families restart
Many of the 2,000 FEMA employees gave families and individuals a safety net after Hurricane Katrina. FEMA provides emergency cash for daily expenses, housing repair or replacement, and unemployment money for people who lost jobs, plus temporary housing, crisis counseling, and other services.
Most people who needed help after Hurricane Katrina arranged it at a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center, known as a DRC. Cheryl Magee of Algiers started her work for FEMA last October at the DRC in Algiers. As she explained the range of services to many of the 54,000 applicants who came through her center, Magee understood what they were going through because she had been there herself.
Magee's grandmother had died a month after the hurricane, leaving a flooded home for Magee to handle in addition to her own damaged home, insurance complications, loan difficulties, and the needs of her children. Today, Magee can recognize a silver lining in Katrina's mud.
"In some ways my life is better than it was before," said Magee. "And many of the applicants at our Recovery Center felt more comfortable knowing that I knew what they were going through. It made a difficult process more bearable for all of us."
Today, nearly all applications for individual assistance have been received and processed. Only three of the original 59 DRCs are still operating and many of their workers, like Magee, continue with full time jobs in other FEMA programs.
Volunteer Agencies are essential
Hurricane Katrina also brought an interesting challenge to Kathleen King and her husband, Ronnie. A former administrator with Life Center Cathedral of New Orleans, Kathleen was more than eight months pregnant with her second child as the storm approached. In a story that sounds like it came from the Bible, she and her family traveled all the way to Dallas, Texas, before they found safe shelter from the approaching storm.
The baby was born in Dallas the day Hurricane Rita made landfall. When the baby could travel, the family returned to New Orleans, financed a new roof for their home and began to put the pieces of their lives back together. King says she was cleaning out her former office in a high rise building near her church when she heard that FEMA was hiring local residents to replace the team of disaster employees brought in from other states. She hurried home, put together a resume, and became part of the FEMA staff.
Today, King works in a program called Voluntary Agency Support, which coordinates hundreds of volunteer jobs involving thousands of volunteers who feed and clothe displaced citizens, clean out homes, rebuild, provide counseling, contribute emergency money, and perform other services too numerous to list.
The young King family endured a severe disruption and relied on FEMA for help with emergency cash and unemployment money to stay afloat. They also received case management services from the Salvation Army for special needs such as child care. Kathleen's experience has given her knowledge and compassion for her job, and she reports happily that her family is steadily recovering from the havoc Hurricane Katrina created in their lives.
Public Assistance helps communities renew
Besides helping families, FEMA provides expertise and money to state and local governments, Native American tribes and other organizations. Grants are given to restore public facilities to pre-disaster condition. For example, FEMA has paid for many temporary school facilities and to restore water and sewer lines and pumps. FEMA also paid to put the 9.7 acre roof that will withstand hurricane winds on the Superdome.
Other large grants are being used to remove the residue left by Hurricane Katrina. An army of local residents, like Drew Dunne, are leading that effort. Dunne's office is a pickup truck. He is a man on a mission, working as hard as he can to put himself out of a job. A technical assistance contractor whose family goes back several generations in New Orleans, Dunne is a liaison between FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who are managing the debris mission.
This work is easier than Dunne's previous job for FEMA. Earlier this year, Dunne worked on foot with trained dogs and a Search and Rescue team of New Orleans firefighters. They recovered several hurricane victims in the Ninth Ward, helping to bring closure to many families.
"The firefighters are awesome," said Dunne. "I was given a privileged vantage point to watch these super heroes do the hard work in tough conditions." Despite the pressure of the work, Dunne, a math major with a degree from Louisiana State University, is willing to do it again.
"I hope I get a chance to help out on another disaster at some point in the future." He's not hoping for a disaster; he only wants another opportunity to be useful.
Mitigation braces communities for the future
Born in Abbeville, La., Shelia Forest came to New Orleans after high school to earn her bachelors degree at Southern University. When Hurricane Katrina struck last summer, Forest held a counselor position at Delgado Community College's main campus. She briefly evacuated to Houston, came back to New Orleans, put a blue roof on her house and continued her work with students from Delgado Community College through the call center. She was furloughed in November.
One morning while preparing for Sunday school, Forest received a phone call from FEMA offering a job. Today she works as a community education outreach specialist in the mitigation program.
"The Lord promises never to leave us alone," she said. That belief energizes Forest in her job as a FEMA educator. She meets with local governments, homeowners and business owners to explain the merits of building stronger and elevating construction to guard against future damage.
Forest is too busy today to worry about her blue roof that features a year-old set of tarps. "I get the bucket when it rains hard," she said. The roof will get repaired eventually. Right now, Forest has too many other things to do.
Keeping it all running smoothly
Supporting the FEMA staff with equipment and supplies is the job of a group of specialists in a branch directed by Dwayne Barnes of New Orleans East. Barnes and his entire family of ten brothers and sisters took a hit from Hurricane Katrina.
"We are a very close family," said Barnes. "We are all back, but fewer than half of us are back in our homes. We're staying in New Orleans." Barnes commutes to work from a FEMA trailer next to his gutted home. Insurance will help him rebuild the house, which held six feet of water for a week.
Barnes's management abilities surfaced quicker than the flood water receded. Only two days after leaving his resume at his mother-in-law's church for a recruiter to examine, Barnes was hired by FEMA to work in the branch he heads today. The logistics staff acquires, distributes and tracks everything from thumb tacks to trucks for all FEMA employees-at desks, in vehicles, or on foot-in the New Orleans area.
"FEMA is an organization I could see myself building a career with," said Barnes.
Front and center for the long haul
During the year since Hurricane Katrina, FEMA workers in Louisiana have labored in the foreground, said Mike King, whose Slidell home suffered flood damage.
"Most of our folks are right up front and center. Almost every worker has a face-to-face relationship with the Louisiana citizens and government officials that FEMA is helping," King said. "That close relationship will continue and will benefit by the local knowledge and compassion of our employees." The Louisiana Transitional Recovery Office will be here until the job is done.
FEMA manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, works with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.
Last Modified: Monday, 21-Aug-2006 09:17:11