During a House Transportation Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Shomari Figures (D-AL) asked Acting FEMA Director David Richardson about his agency's response to the deadly floods in Texas.
00:00Chair, thanks, the gentleman. The chair now recognizes representative figures.
00:05Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Richardson, for being here with us today.
00:10I represent the 2nd Congressional District of Alabama, which begins in Mobile.
00:16It's where I'm from, where I was born, where I was raised.
00:19And with the exception of probably Congressman Ezell, I don't know, from Mississippi,
00:25I don't know that there's another member on this committee that's actually been through more
00:29FEMA-respondent disasters from hurricanes throughout the entirety of my life.
00:36So it's important to me that FEMA is ready, is prepared, because it's not a matter of if we get hit by a hurricane.
00:43It's a matter of when we get hit and how severe the damage will be and what FEMA's role will have to be in responding to that.
00:52We are approaching the 20-year anniversary of Katrina, and a lot of focus on Katrina is on New Orleans.
01:01But there was an entire realm of the east side of that storm that decimated parts of Mississippi and Alabama as well.
01:09And so this is a time where people are focused on some negative history as it relates to FEMA and FEMA's response.
01:17And as I sit here, the question that I just have to ask, because if we get hit by a hurricane or when we get hit by a hurricane,
01:27and fortunately there's not a bad response, but if there is a bad response from FEMA, I don't want to sit here and the answer is I'm sorry.
01:37I don't want you to be sorry. I want you to be careful. I want you to be prepared. I want you to be ready.
01:43So in light of what just happened in Texas, where, you know, a family of five from Mobile, a grandfather, a grandmother, their son, his wife,
01:55and their five-year-old daughter were camping there in the hill country, and all of them, with the exception of their son, died.
02:03And so this is something that is resonating in my district right now.
02:08What is, and I'm in no way insinuating that that was FEMA's fault, but what lessons have you learned in the response to Texas that you will apply going forward,
02:20particularly through this hurricane season?
02:23Thank you for your question.
02:24So a lesson learned from Texas is essentially how Texas had forces prepositioned.
02:36For example, there are 28 national urban SAR units.
02:42One of them was in Texas.
02:43And it's not that it's a lesson learned, but what we did is we confirmed how effective that is.
02:48And under Secretary Noem's leadership, we also confirmed how effective it was for the Emergency Operations Center in Texas
02:56to be able to communicate with CBP as well as Coast Guard.
02:59So all those DHS assets were already there.
03:02So prepositioning is something that we've confirmed is a solid practice.
03:09Now, I think one of my lessons learned, and I think this is an important one,
03:13obviously communication, Nimkid and I were in communication.
03:18I was in communication with the Secretary Noem, coordination, prepositioning, planning.
03:23But the lesson that I particularly learned was personal relationships.
03:29I had come to know the emergency manager in Texas, Nimkid, and it helped a lot.
03:35From the second I heard about the disaster, Nimkid and I got you off, but I want to preserve my time.
03:41But is there anything you think FEMA did wrong in its response to the Texas floods that we can rectify and do differently next time?
03:50I can't see anything that we did wrong, and I think the President and the Secretary acknowledge that.
03:57And so is Governor Abbott by saying how well we did.
04:01So what we would like to do is we would like to take the strengths that we did in Texas,
04:06and we're going to share them with other states, and we'll work on them in tabletop exercise to make sure that they can do it as well as Texas.
04:11Is there a testimony here today that FEMA's response to the Texas flooding was a perfect game?
04:17It was perfect.
04:18Well, nothing is perfect.
04:19However, I will say that it was a model, particularly at FEMA, the region, and the state level,
04:25that continuity was a model how disasters should be handled.
04:31And that's thanks to the President's guidance, the Secretary's guidance, Governor Abbott,
04:36the State Emergency Operations Center in Texas, the emergency manager, as well as the region's six manager.
04:41Well, one thing I would encourage is it's important to see leadership there on the ground when it happens.
04:47So if this happens in Mobile, we certainly want to see you on the ground, you know, within certainly within the within a reasonable time of when it happens.
04:58The last thing I'll say is I know notice of fundings for FEMA grants just went out or are in the process of going out the notice of funding opportunities.
05:06But they're 68 days late.
05:08And so my concern is making sure that you guys have the resources and the commitment to actually review the incoming applications in a manner where we will not end up in an excessively delayed state when it comes time to actually awarding the funding opportunities.
