Word: fema
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...common scam, according to the worker, interpreters hired by FEMA would approach aid seekers who don't speak English, often elderly Chinese or recent immigrants, while they stood in line at the centers. The translators would tell applicants they were ineligible for aid and give them the business card of a confederate who would then provide fake documents for as much as $400. The fees would be split, according to the source, with the interpreters and sometimes with caseworkers at the centers...
...both Safe Horizon and FEMA, local workers were hired quickly in the first few weeks after the attacks, often from job fairs and temp agencies. The former assistance worker says he became "disheartened" by an atmosphere at the centers in which staffers would stuff prepaid phone cards intended for victims into their FEMA aprons and in which computers and other equipment available only to employees turned up missing. This worker, like many among the center staff, was let go when the tide of aid applicants slowed this spring...
...authorities recommend evacuation, car windows and vents should be closed and a first-aid kit packed. FEMA provides more suggestions on its website, www.fema.gov The advice may not be as appealing as a panacea pill, but to an increasingly jittery public, almost any advice is welcome...
...short-term, Bush’s best bet is to leave FEMA is charge of directing anti-terrorism efforts. FEMA already has a rapport with the major security agencies, and although its shortcomings are well documented, FEMA has the most experience coordinating large-scale prevention and response efforts. To make the agency more effective in the current crisis, Bush should schedule teleconferences every few days between his own security team, FEMA officials and the leaders of the major security agencies—including the FBI, the CIA and the NSA—to ensure that everyone is on the same...
...assessing the current state of domestic security and proposing long-term reforms—Ridge should begin his work immediately. But while Ridge works toward long-term solutions, he should steer his agency away from immediate policy decisions, which are better left to experienced groups like FEMA. With threat of another terrorist catastrophe growing every minute, we cannot depend on a hastily constructed agency led by a security outsider to avert disaster...