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Ex-FEMA head gives stormy report
BY KATIE RUMBAUGH
STAFF WRITER
Images of natural disasters on
television are nothing compared
to what it looks like on the ground,
a former FEMA director said
Wednesday.
James Lee Witt, the direc
tor of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency from 1993 to
2001, has seen it firsthand.
Witt was the keynote speaker at
Wednesdays Chapel Hill-Carrboro
Chamber of Commerce meeting at
the Carolina Club.
About 450 members of the cham
ber listened intently as he discussed
his experiences reforming FEMA
during the Clinton administration
and the problems the agency faced
when dealing with the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco
hired Witt to oversee reconstruc
tion efforts after Katrina.
“Two-hundred-forty-five thou
sand homes in Louisiana gone,”
Witt said. “Eighteen thousand
businesses gone. The tax base
for every single parish gone.
“It is the United States’ tsuna
mi, the worst thing I’ve ever seen.
Everything in Cameron Parish was
gone except the courthouse.”
Hurricane Katrina displaced 1.5
million people and inflicted an esti
mated $75 billion worth of dam
age, making it the most expensive
natural disaster in U.S. history.
Though he stopped short of crit
icizing the Bush administration or
FEMA employees, Witt addressed
the government’s unpreparedness
for a hurricane of Katrina’s force.
Partnership receives surveys, approves budget
JOIN IN
The Chapel Hill Downtown
Partnership heard the results of a
survey it deployed on the imple
mentation of wireless Internet
access downtown Wednesday.
Results presented by Shannon
Schelin of the UNC School of
Government show that 70 percent
of businesses that responded to the
survey are interested in municipal
wireless.
The partnership decided to del
egate its executive director, Liz
Parham, to work with other stake
holders to come up with suitable
models. Gregg'Gerdau, the town's
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James Lee Witt, the director of FEMA for eight years, addressed the
Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday morning.
“President Bush gave $3 billion
to build levees, but they only were
built for a Category 3 hurricane,”
he said. “We need to take the next
step to build the levees up to cat
egory five.”
FEMA is no longer a separate
government agency but is part of the
Department of Homeland Security,
which was formed after the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks.
The agency has received criti
cism for its perceived slow response
to Katrina last August and for its
inefficiency in evacuating and pro
viding care for residents.
Many, including Witt, say being
a part Homeland Security severely
impairs FEMA’s effectiveness.
“We need to re-look at FEMA as
an agency and put it back together
as independent,” he said.
technology committee, chairman,
said his committee is preparing
a presentation for the Chapel Hill
Town Council.
MO* MONEY
The partnership also approved a
$132,000 budget Wednesday.
The approved budget includes
appropriations for personnel costs,
operating costs and projects such
as the creation of a giving kiosk,
for which the partnership received
an SB,OOO private donation.
Parham also told the group
that the Internal Revenue Service
has requested more information
Witt said he will testify in
the investigative hearings about
FEMA’s handling of the Katrina
crisis.
“It wasn’t thought through as it
should be,” he said.
Several chamber members
echoed Witt’s sentiments.
“I totally agreed with Mr.
Witt,” said Cynthia Edwards-
Paschall, director of marketing for
Play Makers Repertory Company.
Edwards-Paschall said she was
disappointed by federal handling
of relief.
“It is a shame that the wealthiest
nation in the world had to respond
in such a way,” she said. “It was an
embarrassment.”
Contact the State Cf National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
about the partnership's 501 (c)3 tax
exemption status. Parham said she
is working with a D.C. attorney to
clear up the situation.
SO FRESH AND SO CLEAN
Following a series of clean and
safe audits of the downtown,
Parham brought the group a list of
proposed action steps for improving
the aesthetics and general security.
Nancy Suttenfield, vice chancellor of
finance and administration for UNC,
suggested that the partnership insti
tutionalize the inspections.
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THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2006
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