WASHINGTON, July 31 (UPI) -- The new Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency says it is ready for hurricane season and he wants to "make this country proud of FEMA again."
David Paulison briefed White House correspondents and other reporters Monday in Florida, following President Bush's tour of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Paulison, who was named to head the troubled agency following the unceremonious firing of Michael Brown after the flawed response to Hurricane Katrina last year, said "FEMA has got to be a more agile, a more flexible organization than it has been in the past, and that's what we want it to be."
He said that the agency had improved its communications and situational awareness set-ups, purchasing satellite telephones and other technology that would be able to provide decision-makers with live, streaming video from disaster sites.
He also said that the agency was revamping its logistics. "We didn't have enough equipment," he said of the agency's much criticized performance last year, "didn't have the ability to get it where it needed to be.
This year, he said, FEMA has quadrupled the amount of supplies such as food, water and ice, it has obtained; purchased 20,000 GPS units that signal the location of trailers; and signed a deal with the Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency, to act as a back-stop for the agency should it get overwhelmed.
"We have enough stuff in stock already to feed a million people for a week," he said.
