Investigative report on u. S. Disastere joins us to discuss a report on u. S. Disaster response. We will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter as well. Washington journal is next. Host it is tuesday, september 3, and this is washington journal. The house and senate in for pro forma sessions. They will likely face new requests for more disaster aid money in the wake of Hurricane Dorian. As we begin the program, we americans to ask are have we become too reliant on government assistance during and after disasters . Andou live in the Eastern Central time zones, that number is 2027488000. Mountain and pacific, that line, 2027488001. If you live in a disaster prone area, particularly if you are anticipating Hurricane Dorian, that line, 2027488002. Also looking for your posts on facebook. Facebook. Com cspan and your cspanwj. Well at we will talk to florida congressman on the coast and fema. The front page reporting of usa today on the hurricane, bahamas blasted. Storm stalls dangerously close expected to swipe the east coast. We will also look at the wall street journal, hurricane hammers bahamas near u. S. Florida power light saying it had 17,000 utility workers ready to respond to outages. States of emergency in effect for georgia, florida, South Carolina, and virginia and the track of the storm from the wall street journal as of last night, we will try to keep you updated on that. Some comments on facebook already on our question, are we too reliant on government aid . Yes, we are, personal responsibility for extra food and water, preparing us to be the best of our ability. Have the glenn beck survivalist kit i bought two years ago. I dont want to have to rely on the government, so i take care of my family and help friends if needed. This is the clearest example of the need for organization. We choose government as an organizing tool to develop, maintain, and advance society. , brockmer head of fema long, was on face the nation on cbs. The headline on the hill, we have to stop looking at fema as 911. Here is some of what he had to say. [video clip] faceshink fema Unrealistic Expectations by congress and the American Public and the standards by which we declare emergency declarations need to be increased. 50 of the disasters fema declared, they are less than 7. 5 million. We have to stop looking at fema at fema as 911. If we want to respond better, we have to refocus the training upon how we ask citizens to be prepared, not just having supplies for 5 or 7 days. Teaching them insurance is the first line of defense. Bolster stateo and local capabilities. Until Congress Starts to incentivize putting building codes in place, Incentivizing States for ensuring public infrastructure, femas job is impossible. We have to set realistic expectations for the agency and bolster capability from neighbor helping neighbor all the way to the federal Emergency Management agency. Host brock long this past weekend on face the nation. Ahead of anticipated landfall or affects of Hurricane Dorian, are we too reliant is there too much reliance on the government during and after times of disaster . Is the line for those in eastern and central time zones. 2027488001 in the mountain and pacific time zones and for those of you in disaster prone areas, weather the earthquakes or out fires in the west or certainly to hurricane anticipated strike the east coast this week, 2027488002 is that line. Want to look at craig caplan tweeting this, we mentioned congress is in for a pro forma session. He says special elections are scheduled one week from today to fill the remaining two vacant house seats as Hurricane Dorian heads for the u. S. Coast, including North Carolina. We mentioned disasters have been declared by governors in those states. Florida, georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and virginia. Just a couple things about what has happened so far in the bahamas. They write the bahamas, a country that long prided itself on withstanding positive storms revamped building codes, adopting some of the most stringent resiliency standards in the region. During heavy rainfall combined with the low lying islands vulnerability to flooding raised fears of huge losses. We saw what a category 5 hurricane did in the british. Irgin islands we are looking at a situation where we have a similar category 5, a large storm sitting much longer than maria on these countries. Calling in this morning, you are first up. Caller maybe this isnt the most uplifting comment i have to i am really disappointed with a paid, government person describing how we have to rely on ourselves when there is an emergency. I thought that is what tax dollars were for, to pay professionals to help us in emergencies. I dont think i can go out and do firstaid on somebody that has a broken leg or somebody that is drowning when i dont have a boat. It seems to be ridiculous coming from our government, but i am not surprised. Former femaas the administrator, brock long. Caller thank you for taking my call. Thanks for cspan and my comment was about i read a biography one time andlidge it was a time period when his attempt after Warren Harding y had a recension recession and his attempt was to. Ut spending and taxes he resisted the attempts to spend money on anything. He thought the states could take care of many of the problems that existed and at the time, they had severe dust storms in the u. S. Midwest and flooding and there were a lot of calls to pull them out of these disasters and he said when he thought it was proper, he said we cant help. Even his own state of vermont came to him and said we need help with all the flooding and everything. His answer was no and it resulted in one of the greatest periods of prosperity our country has ever known, when more people had jobs and prosperity and all kinds of things and a growth period great period of growth and low unemployment and i think that is what we have to get back to. Helpuch expectation of from the federal government for everything that happens to us is unrealistic. Host thanks for that. We are opening our phone lines by region. Eastern and central, 2027488000. Mountain and pacific areas, 2027488001. Those of you in disaster prone areas, 2027488002. Goesticle in the hill that back to the fall of 2018, but certainly still relevant. Disasters become a big chunk of the u. S. Deficit. Congress approved 15 billion last september to pay for damages from hurricanes harvey and irma. The following month after Hurricane Maria devastated 36. 5 rico proved another billion. Billionlast year, 140 nearly triple the amount appropriated for the department of Homeland Security. It also amounts to 18 of the total deficit for fiscal year 2018. Conservatives have long argued Disaster Relief should be offset with spending cuts. Hurricane aid should not be added to the debt. That is akin to going to the emergency room and pretending the bill is never going to. Rrive louisville, good morning. Caller good morning, sir. This 1937d to reveal hearing. In 1941 and dad during his life, he never talked about anything but the it destroyed the city of louisville. Water was from 6 or 7 miles from the river all the way up to the hills of iroquois park, which is about 6 or 7 miles south of downtown louisville. There was a fire downtown where the water was. It destroyed the buildings down there. It was an electrical fire. Wiresad these electric and somehow the wires and the electricity caught on fire and it was devastating. It took years for them to get over the 1937 flood in louisville. Host do you know what role the federal government played in that . How much the state of kentucky chipped in or how much the federal government had to chip in . Caller my next comment, the city of louisville basically all the people in the city of louisville got together. Did the itself revamping of the city. As far as the state goes, in 1937, that was the middle of the great depression. As far as the federal government goes, the same thing. My opinion, the government the reliance on the government in todays term, it is a different ballgame today. There are certain events in life the city cannot do, the state cannot do, organizations cant do, churches can do. The federal government, that is one of the reasons we have a more Perfect Union in the preamble. Thats why we have the federal government and that is why it is important for us to be united whenthe government so events like that exist or happens, that we can come together as a government, as a people. As far as the bahamas go, we dont own the bahamas. I think Great Britain owns that. Independents is an nation, former british territory. Is is therequestion too much reliance on federal government . Not toosay there is much reliance. I used to work for the red cross. The red cross told us when an event like this happens, they have a fund, the red cross has a. Und say it is a billiondollar devastation, the red cross puts up the billion dollars, but the government comes behind that and stands good for the billion dollars. Donate to the federal government to the red cross, it is not the billion dollars it is in addition to redbillion dollars the cross stands good for and the federal government stands good for. Host the International Red cross is reporting this morning that 13,000 homes have been destroyed in the bahamas during the storm. A couple of quick notes from fema on the level of spending, this is the most recent hurricane spending we have gotten from Hurricane Michael, 1. 3 billion for recovery including 146 million in individual assistance, 217 million in National FloodInsurance Program and 642 million the federal government paid 117 million through other agencies to help with other response and recovery. That call dropped on the line. Want to show you the comments of the acting fema administrator. Gaynor, weve peter will show that in a bit. We talked about the figures in 2018 from fema. What fema covers in disaster aid, the overall their , housingurview assistance, temporary rental assistance, financial help to and lodgingce expenses, reimbursement, the assistance will not make you whole. It is designed to help survivors move forward. Medical, dental expenses, funeral and burial cost. Repairing or replacing vehicles and other necessary expenses and public assistance. They reimburse state and local governments and certain nonprofit organizations and repairing and replacing disaster damage infrastructure. That is the fact sheet from fema. 2027488000 is the number to call if you live in the eastern and central time zones. 2027488001 mountain and pacific and if you are in a disaster prone area, that line is 2027488002. We will talk to the author of this report. E e news. Ted from i wanted to read more about this investigation and why the disaster industry isnt ready for disaster catastrophes. Fema has wasted more than 3 billion and misused employees by responding to floods, storms, and other events states couldve handled on their own. An investigation shows fema has underestimated the capacity of states to respond to them. Those errors triggered 300 25 unnecessary deployments of money and personnel since 1998. The errors resulted in homeowners and businesses receiving 725 Million Dollars in low interest disaster loans from the Small Business administration. Fema deployed staff to small disasters for decades even as federal auditors warned it was sending emergency workers and money to states that may not need the help. Federal law says fema is supposed to assist with disasters only when they threatened to overwhelm the state possibility to respond. Climatefemas change is intensifying hurricanes, floods, thunderstorms, and wildfires and as development is expanding in peril prone areas. Many of the events that trigger aid are becoming routine, raising concerns that it will be unable to respond to the growing number of large catastrophes if it continues to Waste Resources on smaller ones. News. S from e e want to show you the testimony fema director, peter gaynor. [video clip] femas preparedness training and Grant Programs which helps states and communities prepare for Natural Disasters, terrorist attacks, and other high consequence events. It does not appear the risks have waned. Can you explain the basis for the proposed reductions . Maam. We have had a historically constrained Operations Support budget over the years and, frankly, there are few paces places to cut. We look at the potential programs and resources we provide an preparedness is a shared responsibility. Over the past 10 or 12 years have dhs and fema, we some of those grants have turned in overtime to entitlement. Rants we think it is fair and equitable to ask states and locals to offload that for their own budget so we can keep up with new threats and innovation. When it is a constrained budget, it is hard to find hard to reduce the impact. I was a local and state emergency manager, i know how much locals and state directors. Epend on that we believe preparedness is a shared responsibility. Host peter gaynor in a recent testimony. Are we too reliant on government aid during and after disasters . 2027488000 eastern and central time zones. Mountain and pacific, 2027488001. And for those in disaster prone areas, 2027488002. Lets hear from nat in baltimore, maryland. Caller thanks for cspan. Was tasked to be the head of fema. It was a Little Agency in western maryland and really very large, unmanageable by states organization. I just heard the statement made tenorthough the general of the statement was accurate, one thing is absolutely wrong. That is the Natural Disasters have not increased. We have not seen a single hurricane that was as big as the one that got galveston over 100. Ears ago we are normal in all weather conditions now. The only difference is we get reports for every single rainstorm that occurs anywhere. The current hurricane is a problem because it has stalled. Can predict accurately which way it is going to go. Host when do you think that changed . You mentioned being there early on in the 1970s. When do you think that changed and fema took on an early role . Caller early 1980s. During president reagans administration, there was a big drive. It, fema hadall done such an effective job on a couple of jobs that were needed that there was a big push to expand the agency. The director i was of r d for naval Systems Command and i moved onto another job. I turned it down because i am meteorologist. Werend early expansions very good, organized well, they were hiring people who were very accurate on logistics and support for people that were out of luck. Aroblem is it became fishbowl to get money out of and that is when they resulted in buying plywood that was gluenous because they used big moneyt became a pot. Have had the theral experience, are states too reliant on federal aid . Caller absolutely. The large percentage now of they scare tactics and response, political, of the just President Trump, but all the previous ones, is they get criticized so badly for not being there 2. 5 hours before the storm hits. Politically, they automatically allow emergencies. The emergencies federal emergencies should not occur until there is an absolute confirmation that the state is beyond its means. Conway, are going to South Carolina. Go ahead with your comment. Caller i would like to speak to the issue you are discussing wes morning and i think denigrate the government too much and it is causing a problem for the whole nation. I think the government should step in whenever people are having problems like this and instead of spending a whole lot of money on travel and throwing allway and giving people this money to go here and there and run across the nation because when people of the nation need help, the government should step up and do what they can to help people, that is what it is for, government for the people, by the people and whenever people are having trouble, i think the government should do their part. Yes, people should volunteer and do what they can to help, but i think the burden really falls on the government because it is the people and by the people, so people should be able to spend their own money when they need it. Host how close are you to the coast . How worried are you about this storm . Aller we are 13 miles away i am really not as concerned stormthe wind from the except maybe flooding and so forth may give us problems. As far as the wind is concerned, from the way it looks now, i am not sure it is going to affect us that much. Host this piece from the houston tribune texas tribune, the federal governments hurricane response needs an overhaul from the mayor of houston. Sylvester turner writes reforming the federal governments handling of responsibilities will save taxpayers money and perhaps relieve some of the physical and psychological pain of disaster risk fibers disaster survivors. Rapid delivery rather than current bureaucratic procedures of multiple audits. Lets go to carla in tax bill, florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am so glad i was able to get on the program. I am constantly ranting and raving in front of the tv and my husband is getting bored with me. I wanted to comment i am beginning to learn that Good Government starts from the bottom up. Everyone seems to be referring from the top to the bottom, but when we talk about Citizens Rights and voting rights, all of these things, i am encouraging more of my friends and neighbors to vote and be aware of what is going on in our own neighborhood. Host in jacksonville, you are right on the coast, so you have not been asked to evacuate . Caller fortunately, we live in an area where people evacuate to. I am about 10 miles away from the coast and our area has been f