Oversight of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Response to the Baton Rouge Flood Disaster: Part II

• Incompetence and mismanagement plagued Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) delivery of manufactured housing units (MHUs) to victims of the August 2016 flood.
• FEMA MHUs cost taxpayers approximately $150,000 for an 18-month occupancy. FEMA auctioned off similar units for an average price of $10,914 in 2015.
• FEMA documents show the agency prioritized public relations and positive press in the aftermath of the flood.
• A federal contractor responsible for the maintenance of MHUs only responded to 10 percent of maintenance calls in December 2016. An 84-year-old man died in his MHU when the thermostat malfunctioned and the unit overheated. FEMA then replaced approximately 1,500 thermostats.
• The Governor of Louisiana was unaware of how many flood victims are still displaced from their homes.

KEY VIDEOS:

Chaiman Chaffetz (R-UT): “What’s sad about this is there are a lot of good men and women serving in all of your organizations . . . the person that’s down there on the ground in Louisiana trying to do things, working for FEMA, I think their heart is in the right place. But I don’t think any of you could look at this and assess it as . . . anything other than a total and utter failure from top to bottom.”

Government Operations Chairman Meadows (R-NC): “Something I saw today just stinks to the core – we’ve got emails that would suggest that the number one priority that FEMA had was a political motivation prior to an election . . . wouldn’t you think the major component for FEMA would be to get people in housing and make sure that that housing is safe, and it has nothing to do with political consequences?”

Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL): “Listening to testimony this morning, it’s disturbing to me, Mr. Chairman, that the federal agency has failed in so many respects. And I think maybe we need to look at this process, we need to make some corrections and see if we can’t be a little bit more responsive–actually a lot more responsive–to the state and local governments when they have needs like this.”