by Ariel Benjamin Mannes | Mar 6, 2019 | Public Safety, Security

I recently published an article with Security Management. See below for an article excerpt, and click the link to read more: 

“The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) operation in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria was the largest and longest response in the agency’s history.

Yet, as it had been with its responses to Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, FEMA was widely criticized for how it handled the disaster, which caused more than $100 billion in damages to the island and killed possibly thousands of people.

There were numerous factors that could have influenced this response. A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that 54 percent of federal emergency personnel were not qualified for the positions they held in October 2017—aE month after Hurricane Maria made landfall. This challenge was echoed after Hurricane Katrina as well, largely due to differences between federal hiring processes that emphasize administrative background and education versus those in many state and local emergency management departments that recruit heavily from the fire, law enforcement, and emergency communications services.”

Click HERE for the full article at Security Magazine.