FEMA
spent six months studying the governor's request, then turned it down
hours before fires began, saying state was already getting funds.
By Gregg Jones and Dan Morain
Times Staff Writers
October 31, 2003
SACRAMENTO — The Bush administration took six months to evaluate Gov.
Gray Davis' emergency request last spring for $430 million to clear
dead trees from fire-prone areas of Southern California.
The request was finally denied Oct. 24, only hours before
wildfires roared out of control in what has become the largest fire
disaster in California history.
Rep. Mary Bono (R-Palm Springs), a leader in the effort to get
federal assistance for fire prevention, questioned Thursday why the
Federal Emergency Management Agency did not rule sooner.
"FEMA's decision was wrong," Bono said. "The timing couldn't have
been worse.... We knew this disaster was going to happen with
certainty. It was only a matter of when, and we were trying to beat the
clock with removing the dead trees."
If Davis had received the denial earlier, Bono said, he would have had time to wage an appeal.
FEMA spokesman Chad Kolton said the agency denied Davis' request
for an emergency declaration because California was already receiving
more than $40 million from the departments of Agriculture and Interior
to deal with a bark beetle infestation that has damaged thousands of
acres of forest in the San Bernardino Mountains.
"Federal agencies were already engaged in a very substantive way,"
Kolton said. "Federal assistance was already being provided."
Davis' request, made in a letter to President Bush dated April 16,
took months to process, Kolton said, because "we obviously wanted to
consider this issue very carefully."
Members of the California congressional delegation were informed
of FEMA's decision in an e-mail last Friday, after some of the fires
were already burning. Kolton said Davis' Sacramento office was also
notified of the decision verbally and in a faxed letter.
In that letter FEMA offered no explanation for why it had taken six months to rule.
"FEMA recognizes the difficulty that the state of California and
affected local governments are facing," wrote Michael D. Brown,
undersecretary for emergency preparedness and response.
"After a careful review of the information contained in your
request, the authorities granted to [Department of Agriculture] and
[Department of Interior], and the resources they have already committed
to the state, it has been determined that the federal assistance
through FEMA is not warranted."
Bono said she had no warning that FEMA was poised to reject the
state's request. She said the Southern California fires — which so far
have killed 20 people and destroyed 2,612 homes in San Diego, Ventura,
Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties — underscore the need for
changes in forestry management policies to more easily allow dead trees
to be thinned from fire-prone forests. She said that even if the
emergency declaration had been made and money approved, "there was no
infrastructure in place to remove the trees quickly."
Jim Specht, a spokesman for Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), said
FEMA's reluctance to approve the request may have stemmed in part from
the fact that the agency was being asked to declare an emergency
essentially to remove dead trees — something that hadn't been the basis
for any previous emergency declaration.
Lewis, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, said
he lobbied Davis to seek the federal emergency declaration and $430
million.
"It's almost classic government," Lewis said in an interview
outside the House chamber. "When you get below the third level in a
bureaucracy, they don't believe it's going to happen until they see a
fire rolling.... It's not a Democratic or Republican problem. It's a
government problem."
Davis press secretary Steven Maviglio said the state's request was
unusual in that it sought aid to prevent a fire disaster rather than
respond after one occurred.
"FEMA is more of a reactive body than proactive body," Rep. Ken
Calvert (R-Riverside) said. "We need to start putting resources into
preventing these things before they happen."
Bono added: "Part of FEMA's charter is to mitigate for disaster
and in this case they thought it wasn't the case, it wasn't part of
their job — and look where we are because of that."
FEMA has the power to declare an emergency — clearing the way for
federal relief — if a situation is deemed to be "an immediate threat to
lives and property," Kolton said.
That was what Davis and other California elected officials
maintained existed because of the large number of dead and dying trees
caused by the beetle infestation.
"The point is we were searching for help from every possible angle we could get it, and FEMA was one," Bono said.
"The declaration, if FEMA would have given it, would have loosened
up other money and made it easier for us to appropriate money, I
believe. It would have been a starting point, sort of a triggering
point for other money that would have been helpful."
Bono and Lewis followed up on Davis' April 16 request during a meeting with FEMA head Brown in July.
Davis administration officials became aware of the denial Friday,
when Jeff Griffin, a top FEMA official in Oakland, called George
Vinson, the Davis administration official who oversees homeland
security.
In his letter to the president, Davis called on Bush to proclaim
an emergency in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties
because of "the severe fire threat caused by dead and dying trees
resulting from several years of drought and a major bark beetle
infestation."
The request followed Davis' declaration in March of a state of
emergency in the areas where the fire threat had soared because of the
dead trees.
Davis estimated that the cost of removing dead trees would be $125 million.
He also said the U.S. Forest Service needed $300 million to deal with the bark beetle problem on federal lands in the area.
"Most observers of the situation would agree that we are
confronting an almost unprecedented scenario that demands immediate and
concerted action from federal, state and local government agencies,"
Davis wrote.
Times staff writer Richard Simon contributed to this report from Washington.
