By AMANDA MILKOVITS
The Providence Journal (Rhode Island)
Copyright 2006 Providence Publications, LLC
Governor Carcieri criticizes the federal government for cutting back on the amount of federal homeland security dollars, half of what the state received last year.
A smaller pool of federal homeland security dollars is being spread thinly across Rhode Island’s public safety sector.
There’ll be expanded radio signal coverage for a statewide interoperable communications system, using $3.6 million for radio towers, but no new radios for first- responders or others who’d use the system. So far, communities in Washington County and a few others in Rhode Island have some radios for their first responders. Poor radio communications is a chronic problem nationwide, and were cited in the collapse of the World Trade Center and The Station nightclub fire.
There’ll be training for the state’s own regional search-and-rescue team, its seven hazardous-materials teams, and its six decontamination teams, but no new equipment for the members.
Money will go to regional programs, such as an animal-management plan, but not to individual communities to prepare for disasters.
In a twist, money is being spent somewhere that’s historically been unfunded. The local emergency management directors, many of whom are volunteers or part-timers, will get help writing plans for reacting to and recovering from disasters in their communities.
The state Emergency Management Agency is hiring four regional planners, spending $600,000, for an 18-month project to assist the local directors with writing their disaster and recovery plans, said executive director Robert J. Warren. Many of the local directors complained of being overwhelmed by the demands from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
As Gov. Donald Governor Carcieri announced how the state would distribute its $7.8 million in federal money, both he and other officials snapped at the federal government for cutting back on funding. This year’s allotment is about half of what Rhode Island received in 2005, and far less than the $60 million it angled for.
“To maintain and expand the emergency response capacity we’ve already built, we must have the necessary funds from the federal government,” Carcieri said in prepared remarks. “Unfortunately, I do not believe that Rhode Island is getting its fair share of federal funds from the Department of Homeland Security.”
In June, Carcieri met with officials from the Department of Homeland Security to argue for more federal money.
Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty also spoke out about the reduction in funding during a meeting last week of the Emergency Management Advisory Council. “It is disconcerting to see that some cities and towns will not have the adequate resources to improve their emergency preparedness efforts,” Fogarty stated later. “We are in the middle of the densely populated Northeastern corridor between Boston and New York, yet we are receiving fewer funds than some rural states that are sparsely populated. For the Bush administration to justify their drastic cuts by saying that Rhode Island is not vulnerable is a gross mischaracterization of the truth.”
The federal money may be drying up, but the threats - natural and manmade - are not.
U.S. Rep. James Langevin, who is a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Tuesday that as federal money for homeland security fades, “it’s going to fall to the states to provide the funding, and the states don’t have it.” With less money available, states like such as Rhode Island could take a regional approach to homeland security by working with its neighboring states, he said.
Meanwhile Tuesday, a day after the governor’s announcement, researchers at an international conference on national security and natural disasters told an audience at the University of Rhode Island about the complexity of dealing with the aftermath of a disaster.
The researchers focused on the effects of disasters on the major ports in their cities. There was Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, the 1995 earthquake in Kobe City, Japan, and Super Typhoon Maemi, which wiped through hit the Busan Port in Korea in 2003.
“As prepared as you think you are, you’re not,” said Gary LaGrange, president and CEO of the Port of New Orleans, which he said had a hurricane plan but no plan for recovery. “There’s no possible way to determine the unexpected.”
They were faced with getting bringing in manpower, and restoring port activity and transportation. The work took years, and some have not fully come back up to where they were. The impacts were felt nationally, and internationally, because of the effect on the importing and expecting exporting of goods.
Afterward, Warren said he was struck by the complexity of the destruction, and how it impacted beyond the damaged cities. “When you look at what we’re charged with, rebuilding is the key,” Warren told the audience later. ". . . The economic impact on a small state would be truly humbling.”