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FEMA is the hero in this disaster zone

Drawing on hard lessons, it is both quick and generous with aid.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 7, 2007

GREENSBURG, Kan. - Around Greensburg, FEMA is not a dirty word.

Four months after a twister practically obliterated the town, killing 10 people and leaving hundreds homeless, many folks have nothing but good things to say about the federal agency that was lambasted as spectacularly inept and clueless after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

"It was important they were here so quick," City Manager Steve Hewitt said.

Eager to improve its image and apply the lessons of Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency moved fast after the May 4 tornado, sending 300 workers and as many mobile homes to the town of 1,500.

Not only that, but FEMA announced it would cover 100 percent of the town's cleanup costs - a concession made after the storm robbed Greensburg of nearly all its tax-generating businesses and homes. The agency usually covers only 75 percent, with state and local governments making up the rest. FEMA is paying for 90 percent of the Katrina cleanup.

About 750 residents are left in Greensburg, more than 500 of them living in what residents call "Femaville" - about 200 FEMA mobile homes arranged in neat rows on the outskirts of town.

FEMA regional administrator Dick Hainje worked for several months with the agency on the Gulf Coast during Katrina and brought home some of the lessons learned from it, including the importance of moving supplies quickly into place.

"That was kind of a lesson the whole world learned - to be a little more self-sufficient when you arrive at a disaster scene," Hainje said from his office in Kansas City, Mo.

Greensburg residents are thankful for the temporary homes and millions in aid.

Harold Clark, 89, moved into one of the FEMA homes with his 58-year-old son, Jon, six weeks ago. The men were impressed to find it came furnished complete with linens, blankets, dishes and even cutlery. They can live here for 18 months while they rebuild their lives.

They got their mobile home a day after they called FEMA to ask for one.

And FEMA was just as quick to respond when they called to ask that handicapped-accessible bars be installed in the shower. The agency not only put in the bars but installed a hand-held shower and brought a stool for use in it.

Jon Clark pointed out another mobile home with a wheelchair ramp, saying FEMA put that in for the woman who lived in it after she went to the hospital.

"Everybody is so glad to be alive - that is part of it," Clark said. "When you see that kind of devastation, it is hard to complain."

School superintendent Darin Headrick, whose home was destroyed, too, conceded that the Greensburg disaster was "a whole lot more manageable" than Katrina.

"We are a town of 1,500. Our city limits are a mile by a mile. We are not a 300- or 400-mile coastline that has millions of displaced people," Headrick said.

Fast facts

By the numbers

60 FEMA workers who remain in Greensburg

$7.6-million amount FEMA has spent in Greensburg for housing assistance

$1.5-million amount FEMA has spent for other resident needs

$10-million amount FEMA has spent to help fix infrastructure

[Last modified September 6, 2007, 23:36:52]