Cory Marks Individual Speech Preparation Outline

Cory Marks Individual Speech Preparation Outline

I. Introduction

- Attention Grabber: Hurricane Katrina was one of the most powerful and deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. Damages-$75 billion and 1,836 people dead. The storm hit New Orleans and created breeches in the levees of the city which meant almost the entire city was under water.

- Critics believed that the federal government especially FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) was unprepared, not ready for the hurricane, and did not place some of the citizens in New Orleans in proper evacuation centers to protect them from the storm.

- Bush prepared $105 billion for repairs and reconstruction in the Gulf Coast area. With giving all this money to the South it affected everyone across the country because oil prices were increased due to the oil refineries being damaged and the decline in the economy.

- Even though I was not part of any big natural disaster, after intensive research on the topic, I feel the pain that some Americans go through by not receiving any proper care from the federal government.

-Thesis: Today, people are still repairing the damaged region in the Gulf Coast; therefore, the government needs to place more money into FEMA for natural disaster relief and to make FEMA its own agency that solely is responsible for natural disaster relief so the agency will be more effective if another disaster would occur in the near future.

- In my presentation, I will cover the topics of where all the money of FEMA actually goes to help out victims and what could be done to fix everything that is going on.

II. Body 1

-FEMA is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security within its Emergency Preparedness section. Their main objective is to set up the response when a disaster occurs which is too much for the local authorities to handle on their own.

-FEMA has been around since the early 1800s when deadly fires hit a small town in New Hampshire and the government did not have any funds to give toward the citizens for relief.

- Before 2003, FEMA was an independent agency in the federal government and the head of the agency was actually part of President Clinton’s cabinet. But after September 11, 2001 when President George W. Bush created the Dept. of Homeland Security he decided to place FEMA in that agency and they would deal with terrorist and natural disaster attacks.

- According to the Dept. of Homeland Security’s website, “The President’s budget clearly demonstrates the continuing priority placed on Homeland Security in requesting new resources for FY (fiscal year) 2005 of $40.2 billion.” This was the budget for the entire agency to share and FEMA barely received any because the government was still worried about another terrorist attack and as I stated before the President gave $105 billion to the Gulf Coast so extra money needed to be placed into the agency for their use.

-Based on numerous reports around Washington, DC, FEMA spent over $10 billion for themselves for housing, rental cars, and office supplies for the agency and only $8 billion has been spent for housing of all the displaced victims. If FEMA spent all the money given to them by the government which is actually from all of the taxpayers of the country, then they could have used less than given to them to finish the job of repairing the damaged areas.

-If FEMA was an agency all by itself then it would not have to share its money with the DHS.

III. Body 2

-Now the government is taking change to fix all their problems with FEMA and the DHS, from a July 2006 New York Times article, “The new agency called the Emergency Management Authority would remain in the Homeland Security Department into which FEMA, which once had cabinet status, was merged in 2003. But in times of major disasters, the new agency would report directly to the President.” The Senate is trying its best to rectify its mistakes with all of the criticism they received after Hurricane Katrina but they still need a House vote and the DHS permission to have these changes in place.

-This would be much better in the past because the head of FEMA would not have to report to the head of DHS but instead to the President in times of crisis.

-Also in the hardest hit regions of New Orleans, FEMA has not taken a role in rebuilding all of the homes because they are still under the control of Homeland Security.

-In a June 2006 article of the New York Times, “No one really knows exactly how the $10.4 billion in federal housing aid will be spent, and guidance for residents in vulnerable areas has been minimal.” Many politicians say that it could take almost an extra year to actually develop a plan to start rebuilding the residential areas of the city.

IV. Conclusion

-Restate Thesis: The government needs to place more money into FEMA for natural disaster relief and to separate FEMA from all other agencies so they can report solely to the President to make sure that natural disaster relief plans will be heard right away.

- If the government gives more money to FEMA and places it as its own separate agency like in the past then America will not have to worry in the future if FEMA will be ready for another natural disaster that hits the United States.

- Right after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast region, the head of FEMA Michael Brown resigned after questions were placed about his qualifications and his response to the disaster. He also resigned because the Head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff sent Brown back to Washington, D.C. from New Orleans and replaced him as head of the Katrina relief efforts. Many politicians felt that Brown’s job was extremely ineffective and it was Bush’s mistake to make him the head of FEMA in the pre-Katrina times.

- Nothing can ever be perfect and sometimes it is tough to admit that you did something wrong, but in a CNN article in September 2005, “‘Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government and to the extent the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility.’ Bush said”