The Biden administration has promised billions of dollars to help Hawaii recover from its deadly wildfires this month \u2014 but not a federal investigation into what went wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even if the administration wanted an independent inquiry, there is no national disaster investigator to dig into unanswered questions about the response to the Lahaina blaze. Among those questions: Why the island\u2019s siren system wasn\u2019t used to cue evacuations, how water lines ran dry in fighting the fire and whether the White House was quick enough in deploying federal help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A handful of lawmakers from both parties has already proposed creating a federal team to scrutinize the causes and handling of natural disasters, however. They see an opening for potential movement on their idea as Congress reviews Biden\u2019s request for $12 billion in extra cash to help FEMA respond to the Maui fire and other disasters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHawaii \u2014 maybe this is the trigger that we need,\u201d Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said in a phone interview from her district this week.
\u201cMaybe this is the impetus to get it moving through this Congress. We don\u2019t want things to happen in vain,\u201d Mace added, noting the rising death toll and that more than 1,000 people are still considered missing on Maui. \u201cIt\u2019s such a huge tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The House passed a version of the disaster investigation plan that Mace backs during the last Congress, but it stalled in the Senate last summer. The bill would give its new board subpoena power to dig into deficiencies in response, including some that were alleged during the Maui fires that killed more than 100 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said this week that she would \u201cdefer\u201d questions about any Maui investigations to leaders in Hawaii, whose attorney general has announced a probe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is \u201cobviously a role\u201d for state leaders in disaster investigations, Mace added, but she contended that it wouldn\u2019t compare to the overarching authority of a single national oversight team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo you want to have the same entity that might have caused harm to investigate the harm? There is a role for the federal government,\u201d said Mace, the only Republican sponsor of the House proposal to create what would be called the National Disaster Safety Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Biden prepares to visit Maui on Monday, the White House is facing tough questions about how to achieve \u201caccountability\u201d for potential failures that could have contributed to the unprecedented loss of life in Lahaina. After meeting with Biden this week, Criswell was asked if the president has directed FEMA to \u201cget to the bottom\u201d of questions like why evacuation sirens weren\u2019t triggered and how faults in the island\u2019s utility grid could have exacerbated the disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe always want to make sure that we understand what happened and how we can continue to improve so we can minimize the impacts that other communities may have,\u201d Criswell said. \u201cThis is still going to be part of the state\u2019s response to determine what level that they want to assess the cause and any of the initial response.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), House author of the national disaster board bill, lamented that the \u201cstatus quo\u201d approach to disaster oversight has failed to effect change. The Maui fires are \u201ca tragic reminder,\u201d she said, that the country needs \u201cthe strongest possible leadership to review natural disasters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lack of an agency empowered to perform comprehensive reviews following disasters, Porter added, \u201ccan dilute accountability and make it harder to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Porter\u2019s bill passed the House last summer, when Democrats ran the chamber, as part of a broader package aimed at preventing wildfires and boosting resources for firefighting. Then the measure sat untouched on the other side of the Capitol. But the disaster board bill boasts some bipartisan support in the Senate, where Hawaii Democrat Sen. Brian Schatz and Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy are taking the lead on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their legislation could garner more attention this fall as Congress weighs disaster response efforts through the lens of Biden\u2019s $12 billion request to replenish FEMA\u2019s dwindling coffers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Federal emergency response cash is set to run dry next month, and Biden\u2019s aid request is certain to get lawmakers talking about the rising cost of U.S. disasters \u2014 both in dollars and human lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wildfire wreckage is shown Aug. 10, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Death toll from Maui wildfires reaches 99, as governor warns there could be scores more
Natural disasters have cost the U.S. an average of almost $150 billion in damages annually over the last five years, according to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. Wildfires in particular are growing more intense and frequent in the U.S. amid a rise in temperatures and severe droughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe lesson from Maui: The loss of life is just off the scale. But as much as people want to make this out to be this singular isolated event that\u2019s just unimaginable, unfortunately you better be imagining this in a lot more places,\u201d said Craig Fugate, who ran FEMA under former President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lahaina fires are \u201ca perfect example,\u201d Fugate said, of why the country needs a National Disaster Safety Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo what we need to do is go in there and go: \u2018Why did it happen?\u2019 without necessarily looking to blame people,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd then go: \u2018What do we need to do differently?\u2019 And more importantly: \u2018Where else do we see similar characteristics that have not been addressed?\u2019\u201d
He now serves on the board of Pacific Gas & Electric, the power company that pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for causing the 2018 fire that burned down the town of Paradise, Calif.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Maui, state officials are already grappling with alleged missteps in the immediate response to the disaster, including claims they initially denied requests to divert water to fight fires on private land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), a co-sponsor of the bill that would create a national disaster investigation team, said the destruction in Hawaii is reason enough for the federal government to deliver on \u201cthorough, objective updates on all underlying causes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd if local negligence contributes to death and destruction, we need the facts to prevent future losses,\u201d Doggett added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To bolster their goals for an objective disaster board, proponents of the bill point to the National Transportation Safety Board, created more than 50 years ago to investigate major transportation accidents like train derailments. Jim Hall, the board\u2019s chair for most of the 1990s, contended that the megaphone wielded by NTSB as a well-known federal oversight team has forced federal agencies like the FAA to act on many of its post-accident recommendations, mostly through public pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe credibility of the NTSB has evolved in such a way that it has the respect of both Congress and the public,\u201d Hall said in an interview, adding that \u201cI can\u2019t think of an issue that is more like aviation in our present society than what\u2019s happening with climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Key to the transportation board\u2019s success is its investigative teams\u2019 quick deployment to accident sites such as highway collisions or plane crashes to start gathering information on the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rich Serino, who served as deputy administrator at FEMA until 2014, lauded the NTSB\u2019s \u201cgo teams\u201d as a model for the kind of immediate probe that a national disaster investigator could launch alongside other federal responders working to help survivors in the wake of major disasters like the Maui fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter a disaster, it\u2019s always tough to talk about doing something like this,\u201d Serino said. \u201cBut at the same time, we know from our past experience that we need to learn from this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n