Computer systems at FEMA were lacking in 2004, says IG
Weeks before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, agency officials were warned that IT disaster response and preparedness systems were deficient.
The information technology systems in the Homeland Security Department's division for emergency preparedness and response had limited effectiveness in responding to the 2004 hurricane season, according to a DHS inspector general's report.
The report (OIG-05-36) noted that while the computer systems at the Emergency Preparedness and Response directorate, which oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency at DHS, initially met the disaster management challenges, they were incapable of handling increased workloads, could not adapt to change and lacked real-time report capabilities.
Former FEMA director Michael Brown signed off on a memorandum dated Aug. 3, disagreeing with the IG's conclusions, calling them "unacceptable," and the "overall tone of the report negative." The memo was written by Barry C. West, FEMA's chief information officer.
"The report erroneously portrays information technology as poorly managed yet states …that [it] has met the disaster management challenges to date," the memo pointed out. "The body of the report also contradicts this erroneous portrayal."
The report, from the DHS acting Inspector General Richard L. Skinner, said FEMA's computer systems were not effective in coordinating the deployment of operations because there was "no sharing of information" as the Florida coast was pounded last year by four hurricanes--Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.
"Consequently, this created operational inefficiencies and hindered the delivery of essential disaster response and recovery services," the report stated.
The agency's e-mail servers lacked the space to accommodate messages and documents sent from state and local emergency centers, according to the IG audit. If the e-mail servers were not cleared five to 10 times a day, they would crash. In one instance when they were down for two hours during one Florida hurricane.
Emergency workers were unable to save or download documents, Rather than expanding the server capacity, the department instructed workers to log off the system while the files were moved one by one.
The surge of disaster victim registrations from the Florida hurricanes overloaded the National Emergency Management Information System, which was originally designed to handle 20,000 registrations per day, but reached 40,000 per day during peak periods.
According to the report, FEMA's IT systems are old, custom-designed, complex and unable to adapt to change. The systems' inability to provide real-time information on the status of emergency workers put people at risk during the hurricanes, the IG concluded.
Delayed reports kept 200,000 Florida disaster victims from receiving temporary housing assistance and the lack of coordination left millions dollars' worth of ice melting in the staging areas while $1.6 million worth of bottled water was returned to storage.
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said DHS' emergency response division needed to further integrate its comnputer systems and update its departmentwide information architecture.
Davis said FEMA's IT problems were prevalent systemwide and that the House committee investigating the Katrina response--which Davis chairs--would look into these issues.
FEMA and DHS officials did not return calls seeking comment, but department spokesman Russ Knocke told the Associated Press last week that sections of the report were misleading, because FEMA's system was not designed to keep track of supplies. He said the department was looking at a broad range of issues that have come to light since the recent hurricanes.