From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: 2017 Hurricanes and Wildfires Description: A GAO report revisited last year’s devastating natural disasters to see how federal and state or territorial agencies prepared for and responded to the hurricanes and wildfires. Related GAO Work: GAO-18-472: 2017 Hurricanes and Wildfires: Initial Observations on the Federal Response and Key Recovery Challenges Released: September 2018 [ Background Music ] [ Chris Currie: ] We have a great opportunity to rebuild in a resilient way so the next time these things happen they're not as catastrophic. [ Matt Oldham: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm Matt Oldham. 2017 was an historic year for destructive natural disasters. The damage caused by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, and the California wildfires led to $120 billion in supplemental funding from Congress. I'm with Chris Currie. He's a director on our Homeland Security and Justice team, and he led a GAO report which looked at the preparations, response, and recovery to those devastating hurricanes and wildfires. Thanks for joining me, Chris. [ Chris Currie: ] Chris Currie: Thank you. [ Matt Oldham: ] So Chris, you and your team explored the federal and state responses and recovery efforts to the more damaging natural disasters from last year. What did you find? [ Chris Currie: ] What we found in looking at the federal and state responses is that, you know, in Texas and Florida and then California with the wildfires, the response was about as we would have hoped it would be and planned for it to be, not that there were not challenges. There were absolutely challenges domestically with that. But we were able to overcome those with some of the coordination mechanisms that we had. Hurricane Maria was another story in Puerto Rico. What we had is basically everyone being overwhelmed in that circumstance. The territorial government was overwhelmed. FEMA was overwhelmed. And what we saw was, you know, basically FEMA had to call in the cavalry after they understood exactly what was happening. Literally. They had to bring DOD in to provide much of that support, way more so than DOD has ever provided in any other disaster. So that was certainly a very unique challenge that we found and something that FEMA is learning a lot of lessons from. You know one of the other things that happened is because the disasters were sequential, FEMA had already deployed many of its staff and most of its highly trained staff to Florida and Texas. So when Hurricane Maria hit, they couldn't quickly redeploy those folks to be as ready as they probably wanted to be there. [ Matt Oldham: ] So were these new challenges or were some of them identified from past disasters? [ Chris Currie: ] There's always new things that nobody ever thought would happen, and we have to deal with those. Clearly in Puerto Rico there were significant gaps and weaknesses that were identified actually before Hurricane Maria by FEMA and the territorial government. But you know, what we found is a lot of the things that happened are things that happen in every disaster. Recovery is always a very difficult challenge. We found housing issues, for example. With so many people affected in the states and territories, without homes, where do you put these people? Do they stay in hotels? Do they stay in rental housing? Do they stay in FEMA trailers? So trying to deal with that across the country, remember these disasters happened 4,000 miles apart from one another, was a massive challenge for FEMA. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] So a lot of resources and time and effort goes into preparing for natural disasters like we saw in 2017. But it sounds like there's not much we can do to prepare for three of these major hurricanes within a month, ending up with something like a Hurricane Maria when we already have so many people deployed elsewhere around the country. So Chris, what can the government do to overcome some of these challenges in the future? [ Chris Currie: ] You're absolutely right. I mean it's very difficult to prepare for something like, that happened last year with three storms happening so quickly together. However, with extreme weather events happening more regularly, I think we have to prepare for those types of events. We have to have our staff and the federal workforce ready to respond to these types of things and be prepared. The other key is, you know, FEMA has to work with the state and local governments to understand the gaps and the weaknesses in preparedness. So there's a lot of things that we can do beforehand to make sure that we're prepared for these types of events. [ Matt Oldham: ] Lastly, what do you believe is the bottom line of this report? [ Chris Currie: ] Well, like any major catastrophic disaster, similar to Hurricane Katrina, there's always a number of lessons learned and things that we never thought would happen in the next disaster, so obviously learning from those and planning for them in the future. But I think what this shows us is how important some of those preparedness efforts are beforehand when we identify weaknesses and gaps that we really work to try to address them. Because these things are going to happen. The last issue I'd like to point out is that, you know, while these disasters are terrible things, given the amount of money that is going to be invested, particularly in rebuilding homes and infrastructure, we have a great opportunity to rebuild in a resilient way so the next time these things happen, they're not as catastrophic. [ Matt Oldham: ] Chris Currie is a Homeland Security and Justice director, and he was talking about a GAO report on the federal and state responses and recovery efforts for the 2017 hurricanes and wildfires. Thank you for your time, Chris. [ Chris Currie: ] Thank you. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] For more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at gao.gov.