From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: GAO Snapshot: Improving Federal Disaster Assistance

Description: Chris Currie discusses our March 2023 report on improving
federal disaster assistance. The federal government provides billions of
dollars to communities damaged by disasters, such as hurricanes, floods,
fires, and earthquakes. The rising number of natural disasters and
increasing reliance on federal assistance are a key source of increasing
costs for the government. GAO has dozens of unimplemented
recommendations for improvements.

Related GAO Works: GAO-23-106544.  Disaster Assistance: Action Needed to
Improve Resilience, Response, and Recovery 

Released: March 2023

[ GAO's Chris Currie, Director, Homeland Security and Justice, speaking 
]

[ Chris Currie : ]

  A couple of things really have struck me as I've gone around the
country over the years doing this. One is how remarkable our communities
are during these times in helping each other, particularly right after a
disaster. The way people work together and help each other out is huge.
The commitment of federal, state and local officials to do this kind of
work is amazing.

  But the other thing that's really hit me that has affected our work is
how complicated these programs are for people who are really going
through the worst day or the worst time of their life. 

  We were in South Florida touring a mobile home park in a low income
community that had been devastated. We were looking at houses and mobile
homes that were, you know, sometimes half of them were completely
destroyed. And people were still living in some of these houses, some of
the folks had not registered for federal assistance, had not gotten
housing inspections.

  Some of the FEMA officials were concerned that certain folks had not
registered and actually told some of the local officials that were there
at the time to reach back out to these homeowners and let them know that
there was assistance available.

  We have to get better and make this more efficient for the people that
it's supposed to help. And so, you know, touring these locations has led
to a number of findings we've had in this space just to try to do that
very thing to these programs to make them easier for the people they're
supposed to help.

[ End ]

For more info, check out our report GAO-23-106544 at: GAO.gov