Hurricane costs surpass 9/11, ex-FEMA chief says

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The price tag for the damage done by recent hurricanes adds up to $9,000 per person in the areas affected — more than 20 times as much as the 9/11 attack, a former Federal Emergency Management Agency boss told western governors Wednesday.

"There is no state that can come up with that kind of funding," James Lee Witt, who headed FEMA under President Bill Clinton, said during a presentation to the Western Governors' Association. "It's impossible."

Witt urged the governors to lobby for an increase in the amount of money the federal government provides for disaster relief, now calculated at about $110 per person, as well as to better plan for how they'd handle a similar crisis.

"No state is immune," said Witt, who recently spent four weeks in the New Orleans area surveying the damage done by Hurricane Katrina and the storms that followed.

Utah Homeland Security Director Verdi White, who attended the session in place of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., said Utah is better prepared than most states because of the work done to secure the 2002 Winter Games.

Still, White said in an interview at the end of the two-day WGA meeting, "we can always do more." For example, Utah could not afford to upgrade its emergency communications system statewide even with extra help from the federal government for the Olympics.

"There is always room for improvement," White said. "But I believe we are prepared to respond to anything that happens. The question is, who's going to be there to help."

In New Orleans, the world watched the slow response to deadly flooding that drove more than a million people from their homes and caused billions of dollars in damage. Witt said much of the problem was due to the collapse of communications networks, including cell phones.

Utah and other states stood ready to help but were often unable to get authorization to deliver needed supplies. The first plane that Utah sent to the disaster area returned empty, even though the state was ready to take evacuees and later temporarily housed some 600 people fleeing the region.

The scope of the disaster was striking, especially to the governors who are responsible for safety of their states' citizens. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said after touring New Orleans, he realized that the 285,000 homes lost just about equaled the number of residences in his entire state.