Strengthening Emergency Preparedness and Response

Figure 3: New Orleans: Lower 9th Ward Following Hurricane Katrina

Source: GAO
Effective emergency preparedness and response requires effectively communicated and clearly understood roles and responsibilities; the capacity to carry out those roles and responsibilities in coordination with others involved in preparation and response; and accountability for resources that provide for effective response while also protecting against waste, fraud, and abuse. DHS and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as well as their federal and nonfederal partners, face continuing challenges in each of these areas.

• FEMA is to develop a national preparedness system that includes community preparedness programs, such as the Citizen Corps Program and its partner programs (e.g., Fire Corps), which are designed to bring together government and community leaders to involve citizens in all-hazards emergency preparedness and resilience, and the Ready Campaign, which promotes preparedness through mass media. FEMA faces challenges measuring performance for the Citizen Corps Program, its partner programs, and the Ready Campaign because (1) it relies on states to verify data for local program units and (2) it is unable to control the distribution of the Ready Campaign messages or measure whether the messages are changing the behavior of individuals. FEMA's challenges in measuring the performance of community preparedness programs are compounded because it has not developed a strategy to show how its community preparedness programs and the Ready Campaign are to operate within the context of the National Preparedness System.
  
  Highlights of GAO-10-193 (PDF)
• Initiated in 2004, FEMA's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System program is intended to integrate new and existing alert capabilities, including Emergency Alert System, into a comprehensive "system of systems" to alert the American people in times of hazard. However, Integrated Public Alert and Warning System efforts have been affected by shifting program goals, lack of continuity in planning, staff turnover, and poorly organized program information from which to make management decisions. In addition, FEMA does not periodically report on Integrated Public Alert and Warning System progress, therefore, program transparency and accountability are lacking.
  
  Highlights of GAO-09-834 (PDF)
• Recovery stakeholders have a responsibility for fostering collaboration during disaster recovery. State and local governments have taken the leadin defining roles and responsibilities within pre- and post-disaster recovery plans, a step that has helped to facilitate the recovery process. The federal government has also played an important role in fostering collaboration for recovery. For example, FEMA has supported post-disaster planning efforts and hosted videoconferences between experienced officials and those currently in the recovery process. However, the agency can take additional steps to share information focused on recovery so that it is captured and preserved for the future. In the absence of a mechanism for compiling and disseminating recovery information, valuable expertise from officials who have first-hand recovery knowledge may be lost.
  
  Highlights of GAO-09-811 (PDF)
• From fiscal year 2003 through fiscal year 2009, DHS allocated about $5 billion for the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grant program to enhance regional preparedness capabilities in the nation's highest risk urban areas (UASI regions). Although FEMA, which administers this program, has gathered and summarized data on UASI regions' funding for specific projects and related preparedness priorities and capabilities, it does not have measures to assess how UASI regions' collaborative efforts have built preparedness capabilities.
  
  Highlights of GAO-09-651 (PDF)
• DHS, FEMA, and other federal entities have completed most of the key policies, such as the base National Response Framework (NRF), that define roles and responsibilities for emergency preparedness and response and the planning processes for developing emergency plans. However, some of the associated plans to implement these policies, such as certain operational plans for terrorism response, are incomplete. In 2008, DHS published the base NRF, which broadly describes national response doctrine and the roles and responsibilities of officials involved in response efforts, and certain related annexes, but DHS has not yet completed other components of the NRF, such as the four response partner guides that are to provide stakeholder-specific references describing key roles for federal and nonfederal leaders.
  
  Highlights of GAO-09-369 (PDF)
• Since 2007, FEMA has taken actions to implement the National Exercise Program at the federal and state levels by developing, among other things, program guidance and systems to track corrective actions. However, FEMA faced challenges in ensuring that the exercises are carried out consistent with program guidance. For example, the Homeland Security Council (an interagency entity responsible for coordinating homeland security policy) and state participants did not systematically track whether corrective actions had been taken to address deficiencies identified by exercises as called for by program guidance. As a result, FEMA lacked reasonable assurance that entities have taken actions aimed at improving preparedness.
  
  Highlights of GAO-09-369 (PDF)
• FEMA has made progress in developing a system for assessing national preparedness capabilities by, among other things, establishing reporting guidance for state preparedness, but it faces challenges in completing the system and required reports to assess preparedness. While FEMA has developed a project management plan for the new system, the plan does not fully identify milestones and program risks for developing quantifiable metrics necessary for measuring preparedness capabilities.
  
  Highlights of GAO-09-369 (PDF)

^ Back to topWhat Needs to Be Done

• FEMA needs to examine ways to verify local Citizen Corps programs and partner programs’ data, and develop timelines and milestones for completing preparedness strategies.
  
  Highlights of GAO-10-193 (PDF)
• FEMA needs to develop strategic goals and processes for deployment of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System and report periodically on program progress.
  
  Highlights of GAO-09-834 (PDF)
• DHS needs to establish a mechanism for sharing information and best practices focused on disaster recovery.
  
  Highlights of GAO-09-811 (PDF)
• DHS need to develop and implement measures to assess how regional collaboration efforts funded by UASI grants build preparedness capabilities.
  
  Highlights of GAO-09-651 (PDF)
• DHS needs to develop a program management plan, in coordination with DHS and other federal entities, to ensure the completion of the key national preparedness policies and plans called for in legislation, presidential directives, and existing policy and doctrine, to define roles and responsibilities and planning processes, as well as to fully integrate such policies and plans into other elements of the national preparedness system.
  
  Highlights of GAO-09-369 (PDF)
• DHS needs to develop procedures that detail how FEMA will work with the Homeland Security Council to help ensure that the council documents and tracks corrective actions resulting from exercises and revise FEMA's procedures for monitoring compliance by states with National Exercise Program requirements.
  
  Highlights of GAO-09-369 (PDF)
• DHS needs to enhance its project management plan to include milestone dates, an assessment of risk, and related mitigation strategies for (1) comprehensively collecting and reporting on disparate information sources, (2) developing quantifiable metrics for target capabilities that are to be used to collect and report preparedness information, and (3) reporting on the results of preparedness assessments to help inform homeland security resource allocation decisions.
  
  Highlights of GAO-09-369 (PDF)
• DHS and FEMA need to enhance stakeholders' emergency response capabilities through grants, capability assessments, and building effective partnerships.
  
  Highlights of GAO-08-369 (PDF), and Highlights of GAO-08-823 (PDF)
• DHS and FEMA need to ensure that policies, procedures, and systems provide reasonable assurance that payments are being made for work actually performed through such actions as designing controls to test invoices and placing a greater emphasis on issuing task orders to companies with the lowest costs.
  
  Highlights of GAO-08-106 (PDF)

^ Back to topKey Reports

Emergency Preparedness

Emergency Management

Emergency Preparedness

Disaster Recovery

Disaster Assistance

Urban Area Security Initiative

National Preparedness

Radio Communications

Government Operations

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