This hearing has come to order. On the one hand, it is nice to see senator carper acting as my Ranking Member. But the circumstances are unfortunate, to say the least. Senator mccaskills husband is in the icu. Senator mccaskill is with him in missouri. We want to send her thoughts and send them our thoughts and prayers. I just mentioned, he had a massive heart attack, i think it was an internal did did you later that may have say defibrilator that may have saved his life. There is still blockages to worry about it additional surgery that needs to be done. To what the chairman said, keep them in our thoughts. Thank you. I want to thank our witnesses, not only for being here and your testimony, for what you are about to answer in terms of our questions, but for the last two and a half months. I have been to femas response center. I have talked to the men and women working with you. Doing an extraordinary job, working 12 hour shifts for weeks, months on end. This has been unprecedented. Starting in late august with harvey, then irma and maria, we have been in a span of 30 days. We have not seen anything like this. I think it is heartening, really. After katrina, the Lessons Learned, a lot of those lessons put into place and used to great effect. When you have hurricanes and disasters of this magnitude, you cant just snap your fingers and make it well again. This is going to be a recovery effort that goes on for years. The response, i think we will hear in the testimony today has been quite extraordinary. Nothing is ever perfect. I think the men and women that work with you in your agencies need to be commended, in terms of your management of them also needs to be commended. I thank you. This Community Committee thinks you as well. This will be first in a series of hearings. From my standpoint it started with the high risk hearing, when i asked Inspector General roth to take a look at fema spending, what kind of controls and Inspector General roth responded quickly, made a number of recommendations, which we have turned into a draft legislation, working with senator mccaskill. Also senator dames, anybody else on this committee who wants to work we have been talking to ,. Appropriators, and how to marry that with the emergency funding requests that were passing here. We are spending a lot of money, it needs to be controlled. The issue with white fish is i am sure we will get into that, is exhibit a, how careful we need to be in terms of how we spend the taxpayers hard earned money. I have seen with director longs testimony, we do need to review and layout femas proper role within the Emergency Management response. It is a subordinate role. If we can put up the chart. Wherever our chart is. Everyone has this as well. This is a history put together by the heritage foundation. It goes up to 2011. It shows the history of fema declarations of emergencies. It is really striking. Back in the 1950s, there were between seven and 18 a year. In 2011, 200 42 federal disaster declarations or fema declarations. There are a number of reasons for that. Certainly, we continue to build. We have that moral hazard. We continue to build and rebuild in flood zones. Property values are increasing dramatically. More and more, often states are looking to the federal government to do what i believe was more suited toward state and local response. It puts a great deal of stress on federal disaster resources and fema. Im sure, director long, you have felt that pressure over the last couple of days. I think it is appropriate for this committee to take a look at what is the proper balance between state and local response and the federal response. From my standpoint as much as we , can rely on the state in terms of preparation, standing up those Emergency Centers responsible for these responsible before these disasters occur, i want to make sure we are talking about that. I did go to puerto rico. I was down there for about two and a half weeks afterwards. My initial response, having flown over a quarter to a third of the island, i was first relieved the Property Damage was not as extensive as i was expecting it to be. There is no doubt about it, there is devastation. I have seen pictures of st. Maarten. And the basic stats, courts have ports have been opened 70 of , gas stations and Grocery Stores opened. A third of the roads were opened. As we flew over, 90 were clear, but blocked in certain chokepoints. Cell phone companies responded appropriately. Kind of share the burden, fixed each others towers. It will be interesting to see what percent of Cell Phone Service is back and operational. Two municipalities were accessible by road. Logistics problems was being eased. The biggest problem was 12 of the electrical power had been brought back online. I returned, convinced, and i continue to be convinced, the primary problem in puerto rico, and even before they disaster, was the power grid. It was weak and fragile before the hurricane, now it is offline. It is a complex problem. Trying to reestablish and maintain the balance of that electrical grid. We are going to be spending an awful lot of money. That has got to be controlled. What money we spend hopefully can be spent in a manner that we create a more resilient power grid that will power a vibrant economy for generations to come. My last point is i have been in contact with the chairman of the financial oversight management board. I just received an email, a text from him last night. I am going to redo the text federal Oversight Board , unanimously has asked for a cheap transportation officer to take over the Administration Authority to reestablish power as quickly as possible. Moreover, we must transform the Energy Sector and ensure lower costs. In order to do that we have to , depoliticize the authority and attract private capital. Puerto rico does not want to return to d. C. With hat in hand in the future. The person of the board is named who has experience in Infrastructure Projects that was by jose. Has a we have real problem with the governance of, the Public Ownership of prepa. That was exhibit a, which has been pulled back with white fish. I want to thank the witnesses. I will turn it over to senator carper. Senator cover thanks. I know a couple weeks ago, we called for a bipartisan investigation. Im delighted to hear this is not the last but the first of several. I want to express our thanks to those at the table before us, those who work with you and for you. I believe in the last 100 years we have had a total of 33 category five hurricanes that have struck the United States. 33 in 100 years. We had literally two within weeks of each other. There is a high risk list, every other year of things that we need to focus on. If we did, we could save some money. One of our high risks is the we have been saying incidence of extreme weather and the cost it is putting on the federal government. The cost is extraordinary. We need to keep that in mind. Im delighted to hear the chairman mentioned the electric grid in puerto rico. I often times quote albert einstein. Who said famously, in adversity lies opportunity. As bad as the adversity is here, there is also opportunity. Most people as i understand, they will hosted when he was governor, just as a family vacation. I have been around the island a fair amount. Most of the power is generated in the south of the island. Most people live in the north of the island. Most of the power is generated from diesel power. It is dirty. It is expensive. The cost of electricity is twice what we pay here in the mainland. They have an opportunity. I talked with the governor yesterday. He was basically a teenager. We talked about his vision. His vision would be to move Power Generation for the south to the north where the people are, to transmit that electricity from one side of the island to the other, to use natural gas and bring down the cost. Right now diesel fuel comes from mostly south america including venezuela. We are not sure that is a good place to be dependent on. The idea of having the ability to have large ships to come in, to have Power Generation there, his goal in time is to step up, increase dependence on generation of electricity from renewables, solar and wind, things like fuel cell Power Generators for electricity to help hospitals and places like that. I want to go back to my prepared comments if i could. I am proud of our National Guard. We have had units to floyd to deployed to texas, florida the u. S. Virgin islands. We are great for to the National Guard as part of this team effort. I hope in the future we can have the governors of texas, the governors of florida, puerto rico before us we can hear their perspectives on what worked well, what did not how we can be more helpful, and include mayors. Sometimes we dont always want to hear from people who were you were going to be critical, but we need to hear folks that are critical. It isnt perfect, make it better. If we can hear from governors and some other leaders, that would be helpful. We are at the beginning of a long and difficult rebuilding effort brought by these hurricanes. It may exceed 300 billion. More than double the total economic damage of both hurricanes katrina and rita in 2005. We must ensure the federal government is meeting the needs of the survivors of these disasters and ensure funds are being used efficiently and effectively. Every dollar of waste will be a dollar that cannot help other americans in need. We have already heard about Risk Management contracts. It has been discussed quite a bit. I dont think it can be dust discussed too much. A lot of us were shocked when 300 Million Contract to repair the electric grid that was awarded by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, a company with two fulltime employees existed. It ends up getting a 300 Million Contract. Heaven help us. That is unbelievable. Cannot overstate the need for Action Equipment to ensure the availability of safe and clean Drinking Water for all citizens of the United States. We talked about the electric generation. I wont go into that further. Looking forward to going down, i think senator michalski will lead a delegation. I hope that will come together. I would love to be a part of that with her. They have a fair amount of jurisdiction. As does this committee. Where i serve as well. Finally, i understand the time under which people can apply for individual assistance has been extended to march . I think i heard something. Yeah. If you address that when you speak to that, that would be great. It says right here fema extended , the deadline to march. We will be happy to hear of that. Mr. Chairman, i just want to say a few words about the obligations our federal government has to rebuild when disasters strike any part of our country. It is scary, it is dangerous, often far more powerful than we imagine it would be. It is hard to imagine. I have flown into monsoons in the pacific ocean, got run over by katrina with boy scouts on a sailboat coming down the coast of florida during that storm. Had a little bit a taste of this stuff, it is scary as can be. For the people whose reality has become a nightmare, they want to know there is a path to a better and safer future. The residents of puerto rico, they must do their part. Our federal government has a moral obligation to help as well. Like the folks at home depot like to say, you can do it, we can help. Thats i think applies here, too. Lets continue to make sure we just do that. Thanks so much. I would like my full Opening Statement into the record. Sen. Carper if i could make a similar request. Sen. Johnson if you will rise and raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Please be seated. Our first witness is mr. Brock long. Mr. Long as the administrator of the federal agency. In emergencies facing the United States including the recent hurricanes, harvey, irma, and maria. Mr. Long, i dont know how long you are on the job before harvey hit, but i want to thank you for your Extraordinary Service over the last two and a half months. Mr. Long before i get started, i would like to say my thoughts and prayers are with Ranking Member mccaskill and her husband. Chairman johnson senator carper, distinguished members of this committee, it is a pleasure to be here today. It has been unprecedented. I am here to discuss anything you would like regarding the response efforts my staff has helped coordinate when it comes to all of the agencies that have been involved. Like me, i have seen i work with people who are truly dedicated, that come to work who want to save lives and help people get on the pathway to recovery and become more resilient. I have been in office 132 days. 478 of those days, we have been actively responding to harvey, irma, maria and the California Wildfires as well. Each one of these events that i spoke of could truly be catastrophic events, standalone events, but they happened in rapid succession, a 25 day period. Which is obviously unprecedented. Chairman johnson in regards to , this, i think it is important to point out before harvey heads, fema was responding to 30 different disasters in many states that you folks represent. Not only in addition to those major declarations, we were responding to 50 different Fire Management assistance grants due to the wildfires taking place. While there many improvements to be made to ensure whole community response, i do recognize that there are many challenges ahead, particularly when it comes to california, texas, florida the virgin , islands, puerto rico, i want to put a couple of things in context for this most recent response. If you start with harvey to the California Wildfires, 25 million americans have been impact. That is 12 of the population. Basically in a twomonth period, over a 50 day time. The fema search and rescue teams 50 day time period. The fema search and rescue teams saved 9000 lines, in addition to our dod partners, coast guard partners, First Responders to my neighbors helping neighbors like the cajun navy coming to houston, tens of thousands of lives have been saved. Four and a half million americans have been registered in the fema assistance program. That is greater than hurricane katrina, sandip sandy, wilma rita combined. We cant make you whole, but we can serve as a catalyst to help you recover. Over 3. 5 billion was expedited into our Flood Insurance program, immediately to our policyholders. That number is projected to grow to 60 billion to 17 billion for Hurricane Harvey and irma alone. Since the onset, we have worked with the red cross, to shelter 1. 1 million americans. The peak population in one night was 200,000. That is unprecedented. To believe reason that commodity mission and humanitarian mission to puerto rico and the Virgin Islands as well as all the states has then one of the largest humanitarian missions and the history of fema. While there is existing response and recovery challenge that need to be solved, chairman johnson, in regards to your opening comments, and optimal response and Recovery Process should be federally supported, statewhilee managed, locally executed. Each level of government has a Critical Role to play that we have to continue to define what the responsibilities are, what they target capabilities should be. In the case of puerto rico they , were hit by two major hurricanes in rapid succession, which created a diminished capacity. Not only were there responders disaster survivors, but also the ability to respond was compromised. That puts fema as the primary responder and the First Responder which is never a good , situation. When fema is the first and primary responder for many weeks, we will never move as fast as anybody would like. I recognize that. Moving forward we continue to , work to restore the power particularly in puerto rico. Restoring the power solved a multitude of problems. It will require our partners at the army corps working hand in glove with governor rick seo who i talked to on a regular basis. We have to restore hospitals and medical facilities to normal functions. Each one of the missions is going to be unique. From california all the way to the Virgin Islands. We are working to rectify those issues every day. Clearing roads, getting rid of debris is also a major mission. Theres 3. 5 cubic yards of debris in puerto rico alone. Communication and cell service, is something else. We are up to 85 along puerto rico. The Retail Industry is back up to 90 . The Water Systems are back up to 80 . Progress is being made but we have a long way to go. In the future, i have not had a chance to catch my breath, after action review of the things that just happened among but i do have several ideas. I think as a community, we have two streamlined Disaster Recovery programs that are offered across the government. Weve got to simplify them, make them easy to understand, help our state and local partners understand when to use these things. I will be asking for your help to do that. We have to work with the private industry to make sure that as we become more and more attached to our cel