By Neil Johnson
The Tampa Tribune

NEW ORLEANS - The federal government used a calm 2006 hurricane season to make major changes to better handle a disaster this year, the head of the nation’s relief organization said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters before the opening of the National Hurricane Conference, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director David Paulison said his agency will be more nimble, proactive and better staffed this year than in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina ravaged the northern Gulf coast.

The old system of waiting for a disaster to overwhelm local agencies before states stepped in, then waiting for states to need help before FEMA arrived did not work, Paulison said.

Now, FEMA will have personnel at emergency operation centers and supplies on the way before a hurricane strikes, he said.

“But FEMA is not there to take over. We’re there to help,” Paulison said.

Some of the improvements for 2007 over 2005 include:

* Improved victim registration that can handle 250,000 people a day and conduct 20,000 house inspections each day after a storm strikes

* A field command system that can quickly communicate with different local, state and federal agencies responding to the disaster

* 20,000 Global Positioning Satellite tracking devices on FEMA trucks to pinpoint their location down to the street corner

* Satellite communication to get real-time video of conditions and situations because after Katrina the agency got much of its information from television broadcasts

* Bringing the agency’s staffing up to 95 percent by the June 1 start of hurricane season

Some of these changes were tested during the February tornadoes that hit Florida, but Paulison said those were not the same as a large hurricane such as Katrina.

“The real test will come when we have a major disaster,” he said. 

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