Quotes About FEMA

You know, one of the perceptions, again, about FEMA is that there's been a demise in the organization since it became the - under - it started to become part of the Department of Homeland Security.

The other thing about FEMA, my understanding is that it was supposed to move into the Department of Homeland Security... and be what it was, but also having a lot of lateral communication with all those others involved in that issue of homeland security.

Our volunteer fire departments know their needs better than Washington, D.C. They need more flexibility on spending grant money from FEMA and Homeland Security.

I'll just tell you, I'm not a big FEMA fan.

Frankly, whatever assistance people get from FEMA will not have a lot of extras built into it, so they will need every dollar.

ment Agency, which did such a wonderful job on Hur icane Katrina). Funding for the FEMA investigation was only $600,000 and it appears that

The "common good principle" requires that secure communities come from having a well-funded infrastructure. This means funding not only police and fire departments but also departments like FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Weather Service, and a public health infrastructure—as well as good schools and universal health care. Thus, a strong infrastructure is crucial to security. So

Part of the redesign of FEMA is that they have so many people on standby, whether it is a retired nurse or a doctor who will take time off to go exactly where they are needed.

FEMA essentially has the power to put the Constitution and the Bill of Rights

I talked to General Downer about some of the funding about the National Guard and some of the civil defense workers, the firefighters, the police officers, and the way that FEMA is making them spend that money. We have got a problem there.

There's bipartisan efforts to change how FEMA works or, more importantly, change how relief funding trickles down to us down here.

I plan to work with all my colleagues on education and labor issues and to ensure the security of our nation by providing agencies from FEMA's disaster recovery efforts to the Coast Guard protecting our nation with the tools they need to be successful.

I don't think that any person can fix FEMA. I think FEMA needs a total restructuring. I think it needs to be taken from scratch and redone. The regulations are outdated; the rules are outdated.

I hope today and in the days ahead, the president will give us the unvarnished truth. That's what the American people need and what they deserve. I hope he lets the medical experts and FEMA leaders and others carrying out the work to take center stage, to hear from them directly. And I hope we hear less talk and see more evidence of fast action.

I can recall back in 1998, in August of that year, when we had a horrible disaster along the Mexican border in the town of Del Rio. At the time, FEMA was the shining star of the federal government. It's now perceived as many to be the dullest knife in the drawer. Right or wrong, that's the perception.

During the transition period, Zients and Quillian knew they couldn't direct FEMA to begin preparations. Instead, they began submitting question after question to FEMA, signaling the plan FEMA would operationalize at noon on January 20.

Michael Brown, the hapless director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, responded, "We're seeing people that we didn't know exist.

I just refuse to listen to any more lies. You hear them from FEMA, you hear them from Red Cross and I just didn't want to hear it from him.

In more than 500 instances, from the Gulf of Alaska to Bar Harbor, Maine, FEMA has remapped waterfront properties from the highest-risk flood zone, saving the owners as much as 97 percent on the premiums they pay into the financially strained National Flood Insurance Program.

In New York, FEMA granted the Mamaroneck Beach & Yacht Club's request to be remapped from the high-risk flood zone in August 2012 - just two months before the club was damaged and its outbuildings destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, which stacked up yachts at its docks like pick-up sticks.

FEMA says that it does not factor in previous losses into its decisions on applications to redraw the flood zones.

I have noticed a marked improvement in FEMA and with the coordination of FEMA and the State agencies.

FEMA had a "Waffle House index" with which it determined how damaged a community was after a hurricane or tornado passed through it. The sooner the local Waffle House opens after a natural disaster, the quicker a local community would recover.

NBC News found that FEMA has redrawn maps even for properties that have repeatedly filed claims for flood losses from previous storms. At least some of the properties are on the secret 'repetitive loss list' that FEMA sends to communities to alert them to problem properties.