Volume 10,3 Disaster Recovery Journal Articles- Summer 1997

Volume 10, Issue 3
Summer 1997

Private/Public Partnership

By David Robert Smith

During the past few years, the severity of natural disasters has re-opened public discourse on the role of the Federal Government in preparing its citizens for large-scale emergencies and in financing the recovery from those events. At the same time, the current administration’s attempts to reinvent government (REGO) and the conservative movement to reduce Federal agencies are shifting the emphasis from public safety to fiscal responsibility. The resulting problem for the nation is how to provide adequately for the safety and welfare of the populace while reducing the size and expense of the government.
Prior to 1928, federally funded or assisted flood control engineering, disaster relief and health programs were virtually non-existent. Similarly, prior to the Great Depression of the 1930s, federally funded economic and social programs were equally rare. Then two events, the Great Flood of the Lower Mississippi River in 1927 and the economic depression, caused the nation to rethink the role of the Federal Government in disaster recovery. Following the flood, the private sector was unable to finance infrastructure repair or to provide adequately for individual recovery. Moreover, state and local governments could not, or in some cases would not, create recovery programs for the agricultural community of the Delta. Sadly, those decisions were often based upon cultural or philosophical grounds as well as financial ones.
Earlier floods, hurricanes, wild fires, and earthquakes have established precedents providing guidance for preparedness and recovery actions. Although the increase in population and economic growth have made recovery more costly than in the past, recovery from disasters and lifesaving measures have improved with each successive disaster. For example, the Great Flood of 1927 changed flood protection methods and attitudes toward economic and infrastructure recovery which saved lives in the extensive Mid West flooding of 1993 and also in the more recent flooding of the Red River of the North.
Within the REGO initiative is a mandate for the private sector to be more proactive in providing services which enhance public safety and extend recovery efforts. That initiative creates a problem for federal agencies such as the National Weather Service (NWS) as REGO gives impetus to a growing effort to privatize functions of the NWS previously considered a federal mandate.
This move toward privatization began in the early 1980s with a series of commissioned reports designed to decrease functions of the federal sector which could possibly be performed by private industry. For the NWS that meant redefining its core mission to exclude services to the agriculture, forestry, transportation, and recreational industries, services which have historically aided efforts which reduced major crop failure, kept small contained forest fires from flaring into wild fires, and reduced weather-related air carrier accidents. Understandably, if these responsibilities were shifted totally to private industry, private concerns would indeed become lucrative and profit driven. The question remains if they would continue to maintain quality and to focus on community service.
The success of agencies like the NWS in providing emergency services derives from its advanced technology and trained personnel in the community service model. Such advanced technology, weather satellites, radar systems, communication networks, and extensive computer hardware, all needed to provide a service national in scope, are not within the financial or administrative grasp of private industry. For example, the latest technological development for the NWS during its modernization and restructuring was deployment of a $4 billion network of Doppler Radars. Additionally, deployment of equipment providing extensive improvements in data acquisition and dissemination are scheduled to begin this fall. Those improvements in technology are high-priced items which understandably increase federal budget figures. Moreover, it is incumbent upon the NWS to actively share technological information and real time data with other Federal Departments (primarily the Departments of Defense, Agriculture, Interior, and Transportation), the news media, and the academic community. This sharing of technology is on-going, in real time, and in most cases, with no cost, other than line charges, to the user. In addition, research and development efforts are routinely shared with the academic community.
In spite of these efforts to share technological advances for the common good, there are some politicians and the Commercial Weather Services Association, who suggest that the NWS restrict its mandate and provide cost-free information for information for “value added” merchandising only to private companies, not to any community resource. In deference to that proposition, private industry can, and does very well to some degree, add value to federally developed technology. For example, site specific marine weather forecasts for offshore drilling rigs, aviation forecasts for fixed-based operators at small airports, weather support for sporting events, preparation of satellite photos for commercial use, and navigational chart production have served a public need since the late 1970s. The argument is flawed, however, when private industry seeks Congressional legislation to limit the scope of federal activity which indirectly results in a reduction of Federal funding for public safety programs. The need for partnership between federal agencies, FEMA and the NWS, and private enterprise becomes evident: Private industry can perform value added services adequately while the federal government provides for the safety and economic welfare of the nation.
Given the nation’s current economic condition, and the social change from an industrial base to a service provider economy, there is an ever increasing need for a private-public partnership initiative. REGO and need to downsize federal government provides an excellent opportunity for cooperative effort in disaster planning, preparation and recovery. A synergy of dedicated, well-trained public and private emergency management professionals working with federal agencies and the private sector can make disaster recovery more cost effective and efficient in saving lives and property while decreasing the economic demand on the federal government. On the other hand, the current administration and the 104th Congress, as well intentioned as they may be, must tread carefully the path to a balanced budget. The goal of public safety must remain paramount and not be sacrificed to policies which support to eliminate the national debt and decrease the size of the federal government.

David Robert Smith is the Senior Service Hydrologist for southern Louisiana and southwest & coastal Mississippi.

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