Self Delusion

FEMA job openings still unfilled
By JULIA MALONE
Cox News Service

WASHINGTON - With hurricane season less than a month away, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is still looking to fill dozens of positions, including the key job of regional director in Atlanta.

In all, 88 vacancies were listed as of the end of April, said House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis in a letter expressing concerns about whether the much-criticized FEMA is ready for the storm season that starts June 1.

Considering that FEMA's Atlanta director has responsibility for Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky as well as Georgia, "it appears imperative that this position be filled" by next month, Davis wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, whose department includes the federal emergency agency.

The Virginia Republican questioned whether FEMA had learned lessons from its faltering response to last year's Hurricane Katrina, whose debris is still strewn across the Gulf coast region.

Davis noted that important FEMA jobs, including the logistics division director, have just recently been advertised.

FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said that the agency was moving to pick a permanent Region IV director in Atlanta "as soon as possible" after the application period ends May 25 and that the agency was on target to fill 95 percent of the agency's empty job slots by June 1.

The Atlanta position has been vacant for eight months because the former director, Ken Burris, was called to Washington to perform the job of operations director.

Bottom line: the Agency is in complete disarray. This doesn't bode well for the upcoming hurricane season. Forget about their ability to provide any help in the event of a pandemic. We're on our own, kids.