FEMA admits that its natural disaster plan doesn't include people with disabilities

From Hearst Newspapers. Pictured is a tornado site in Wisconsin.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Emergency Management Agency acknowledged July 15 that it has failed to implement a natural disaster plan for the disabled and told a congressional panel that the agency lacks the resources to put a plan in place.

Marcie Roth, FEMA's senior adviser on disability issues and director of the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination, said FEMA has developed a plan to evacuate, shelter and supply disabled people in a disaster.

However, she told a panel of the House Committee on Homeland Security that her agency has only one paid full-time position and a working budget of $150,000.

Panel members encouraged Roth to establish a voluntary registry of potential disaster victims who are disabled so that rescuers could help them evacuate.

Roth replied that her current budget does not provide for the staffing needed to create such a registry. Moreover, a registry without the funding to back up services would give false hope to victims in need of assistance, she said.

Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., chair of the panel, said President Barack Obama should boost FEMA's resources to respond to this need.

In the background of Roth's testimony was the memory of Hurricane Katrina when some people were unable to escape the storm because they were disabled or had other impairments.

Roth told the lawmakers about the case of Benilda Caixeta, who waited three days in August 2005 for help in getting to the Superdome in New Orleans.

A quadriplegic confined to her Upper Ninth Ward apartment during the hurricane, Caixeta's body was later found floating next to her wheelchair.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the disabled deserve additional resources and support because their care is a "matter of life or death."