Disaster Assistance

Federal, State, and Local Responses to Natural Disasters Need Improvement Gao ID: T-RCED-91-57 May 15, 1991

GAO discussed a report concerning the federal, state, and local responses to such disasters as the September 1989 Hurricane Hugo and the October 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. GAO found that: (1) there were weaknesses in both state and local preparedness programs and in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) assistance and overall guidance; (2) inefficiencies in the response phase resulted from staffing and coordination difficulties between agencies at all levels; (3) during the recovery phase, state and federal agencies did not coordinate their efforts and made delayed and duplicate payments; (4) because state and local governments independently determined preparedness program resources and emphasis, their emergency response and recovery capabilities differed; (5) FEMA and other federal and state agencies did not manage their assistance programs as efficiently as possible; (6) inefficient operations and uncertainty over roles and responsibilities resulted in incomplete responses to the needs of disaster victims; and (7) current federal disaster assistance programs do not provide adequate assistance to state and local governments to reconstruct damaged rental units for low-income disaster victims.



The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.