A Diminished FEMA Scrambles to the Rescue

In the years that followed, however, instead of receiving a mandate to marshal the resources needed to handle such a disaster, FEMA saw its standing within the federal government downgraded sharply and its mission pushed lower on the priorities list as the Bush administration focused on the threat of terrorism.

Previously a Cabinet-level agency that reported directly to the president, FEMA was folded into the vast bureaucracy of the newly created Department of Homeland Security. Both resources and energy devoted to preparing for natural disasters were reduced, giving way to the bureaucratic demands of organizing the home-front war on terrorism.

Similarly, over the last three years, as the White House gave top priority to spending on defense and national security, the Army Corps of Engineers saw its funding requests for flood control projects along the Louisiana coast slashed. In particular, a major program to strengthen and increase the New Orleans levee system -- the failure of which left most of the city under water -- all but ground to a halt in 2004 because of budget constraints.

On Wednesday, amid complaints from local leaders that the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina has been slow and uncoordinated, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff moved to take charge -- ordering the implementation of a new national emergency response plan.

But Chertoff's action, the primary effect of which was to make the federal response to Katrina a Cabinet-level responsibility, appeared to be little more than a return to the past -- giving such emergencies the status they had before FEMA was downgraded.

"We are historically back to where we were before," said Mark Ghilarducci, a former official in the California Office of Emergency Management.

It's not that terrorism is not a serious threat, experts such as Ghilarducci said, it's that the federal government's approach needs to be balanced. "We're losing sight of the fact that we've got earthquakes, fires, floods, and hurricanes" occurring on a continual basis, the former California disaster official said.

Reflecting that feeling, the mayor of New Orleans and some other local political leaders have complained that the federal government's response was sometimes slow and uncoordinated. "There is way too many