Southwestern Illinois Flood Prevention District Council May Suing FEMA

The Belleville News-Democrat reports that the Southwestern Illinois Flood Prevention District Council met to discuss a possible lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to explain why the agency termed local levees useless, a move which FEMA has used to justify its plan to raise flood insurance rates.

FEMA has not yet responded to the group's November 4, 2009 FOIA requests for information regarding levees in Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair counties.

For more information, click here.

FEMA drags its feet on, among other things, FOIA requests

The Times-Picayune is still waiting for FEMA to fill its FOIA request filed on Oct. 5, 2005. Mark Schleifstein requested expedited delivery of the records. He wrote, "The delayed disclosure of information necessary to improve future initial responses to hurricanes could threaten the life and physical safety of people living in the New Orleans area." If the loss of life isn't important enough to justify an expedited response, what is?

Last week, I got my annual letter from FEMA letting me know someone deep within the federal bureaucracy is "making an earnest and diligent effort" to fulfill the request for public records I filed on Oct. 5, 2005.

Among other things, I had asked for reports created by so-called "Rapid Needs Assessment Teams" that outlined the type and amount of help needed in communities affected by the storms -- food, water, housing, medical assistance. I sought to better understand the causes of FEMA's historically botched delivery of disaster recovery aid.

You may or may not be familiar with the intracacies of the federal Freedom of Information Act, but trust me on this: The public's right to access to government records lies at the core of what distinguishes freedom from tyranny. A government operating in secret is, by definition, doing citizens wrong.

More here.

Iowa newspaper denied flood-damage records

Although the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2007 that FEMA was required to release address-by-address information about hurricane assistance, city officials in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, have denied a similar request for flood damage assessment data. They say the release of address-by-address data would violate U.S. privacy law.

Cedar Rapids city officials said address-by-address flood damage data is not public record, despite a federal appeals court ruling last year that said such data is public.

An assistant city attorney in Cedar Rapids said the city denied the Cedar Rapids Gazette’s Freedom of Information request for release of address-by-address damage assessments, citing U.S. privacy law.

The Gazette asked Cedar Rapids City Hall to provide address-by-address information about damage assessments of the 850 homes in the city’s 100-year flood plain.

More here.

FEMA: Those Records Will Cost Ya...

From the Times-Picayune comes the latest PR victory from the folks who brought you the Hurrican Katrina cleanup...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is charging a newspaper $209,990 for records documenting the agency's response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a price deemed "absurd" by one lawmaker.

The Advocate of Baton Rouge must pay that amount before FEMA will turn over copies of more than 2 million pages of documents relating to inspection and maintenance of government-issued trailers and mobile homes, the newspaper reported Tuesday.

FEMA also gave the newspaper 10 days to pay or said it would consider the request withdrawn.

Ah, yes...but the first 100 pages are free!

More here.

Times-Picyune FOIA Request to FEMA: 884 Days and Counting

From the Society of Environmental Journalists' excellent FOI newsletter:

Suppose there were a catastrophe and you needed information fast. Would you call FEMA?

If FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency)'s performance under Freedom of Information Act is any measure, the journalists and the public could have zero confidence in getting timely warnings. Asking FEMA for information, it seems, is still the equivalent of calling for a lead life preserver.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans in Sept. 2005, triple-Pulitzer-winning reporter Mark Schleifstein of the New Orleans Times-Picayune filed a FOIA request with FEMA asking for specific records about how FEMA had responded to the disaster. The original request was filed Oct. 5, 2005.

Now, some 884 days later, Schleifstein is still waiting for the information.

Schleifstein had asked for records on the activation of "Rapid Needs Assessment Teams" for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the reports from those teams about populations and areas affected and their recommendations of help needed, and records of resulting actions.

And he had asked for "expedited" handling of his request.

Schleifstein told FEMA a response was needed quickly because the situation was "life-threatening." Without adequate levee protection, New Orleans and other Gulf areas were vulnerable to a Katrina repeat — and they urgently needed to know what kind of preparedness and response to expect from FEMA.

FEMA put Schleifstein on hold.

A year later, they wrote him to see if he was still interested in getting the information he had asked for. Schleifstein wrote back, saying "YES" (in capitals).

Another year went by, and FEMA wrote him again, asking if he still wanted the information. Schleifstein answered "YES" again in a Jan. 29, 2008, letter, adding:

"It is now 884 days since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, flooding 80 percent of my community, killing more than 1,500 people. Last week, New Orleans Homeland Security Director Terry Ebbert, in an address to the American Meteorological Society, said he still has grave concerns about the ability of this nation's emergency preparedness preparations and their potential to respond to a Katrina repeat in New Orleans."