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By MIMI HALL
USA TODAY
McLEAN, Va. — The federal government is better prepared for this year’s hurricane season — and local officials, companies and individuals should be just as ready, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.
More than eight months after his department stumbled badly in its response to Hurricane Katrina and the devastating floods in and around New Orleans, Chertoff told USA TODAY that federal officials will be ready to step in any time lives are at stake.
However, three weeks before the official start of the storm season, which runs June 1 to Nov. 30, he took a hard line toward those who might not take responsibility for themselves in a disaster.
State and local governments “have the principal responsibility to be the first responder,” Chertoff said. “They know their people and geography best.”
He chided those who might think they should try to ride out a storm rather than follow evacuation orders. Those who do so, he said, put an unfair “burden on others” to save them. And he warned that if hospitals and nursing homes abdicate their responsibility to evacuate those who are too old or ill to move out of harm’s way on their own, he will do everything in his power to “yank (their) licenses” to operate.
Chertoff also urged police and fire departments and other first responders to train officers and emergency workers in how to use communications equipment provided by the federal government. “We can’t spoon-feed them,” he said. “This is something they have to train themselves to use.”
Chertoff outlined ways he said the federal government is better prepared:
*Last year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had 180 trucks of ready-to-eat meals on hand; this year, it has 770 trucks with enough food for a million people for seven days. Likewise, FEMA had 600 water trucks last year; this year, it has more than 1,500.
*FEMA has already named the federal officials who would be in charge in areas where disasters could strike.
*The Homeland Security Department is working closely with the Defense Department to make sure communications equipment, such as satellite phones, and medical operations are in place when needed.