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Release Date: January 28, 2009
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano announced today two action directives, on first responder health surge capacity and Hurricane Katrina.
The directives require specific department offices and components to work with state and local partners to review and assess current plans to respond to significant medical emergencies and address Hurricane Katrina’s lingering impacts.
Secretary Napolitano has already issued nine action directives: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) state and local integration; national planning, cybersecurity; northern border strategy; critical infrastructure protection; risk analysis; state and local intelligence sharing; transportation security; and state, local and tribal integration. She will continue to issue additional action directives in the coming days focused on the missions critical to the department: Protection, Preparedness, Response, Recovery and Immigration.
The full action directives are below:
Public Assistance Projects. What will it take to resolve major public assistance projects under dispute with the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana such as Charity Hospital, New Orleans Water and Sewer Board, St. Bernard Wastewater Plant, university projects at Louisiana State, Tulane and Southern universities and other major projects? Are there legislative or regulatory requirements that are impeding speedy resolution of these projects? What is the schedule to resolve the backlog of appeals on public assistance projects and what can be done to expedite these appeals?
Hazard Mitigation. FEMA has made available over $1.5 billion in funding for hazard mitigation projects in Louisiana. How is this funding being used to make communities more disaster-resilient?
Co-Location. Historically, the state and FEMA co-located their recovery efforts. However, the state of Louisiana and FEMA are operating out of different locales. What is the value to co-locating operations and what would be required of FEMA to co-locate with the state?
Housing. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has played an important role in issuing temporary housing for Katrina victims. How has the process worked and do they have the capacity for future disasters? How can we best address those individuals that continue to reside in FEMA-supported temporary housing?An oral report is due Feb. 10, with a final report due Feb. 24.
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This page was last reviewed/modified on January 28, 2009.