Virgin islands. The Senate Committee rooms of committee runs about 2. 5 hours. Good morning. This hearing has come to order. I would like to say on the one hand, it is nice to see senator carper acting as my Ranking Member. The circumstances are unfortunate, to say the least. Senator mccaskills husband is in the icu. Senator mccaskill is with him in missouri. We certainly want to send her thoughts and prayers. I just mentioned, i saw how he was doing. Apparently he had a massive heart attack, i think it was an internal defibrilator that mayiy have saved his life. There are still blockages to worry about and additional surgery and additional surgery work that needs to be done. To what the chairman said, keep them in our thoughts and prayers. I want to thank our witnesses, not only for being here and your testimony, but for the last two and a half months. I have been to femas response center. I have talked to the men and women working with you. I think doing an extraordinary job, working 12 hour shifts for weeks, months on end. This has been unprecedented. Starting back in late august with harvey, then irma and maria, literally within a span of 30 days, we have not seen anything like this. I think it is heartening, really. After katrina, the Lessons Learned, and a lot of those lessons have been put into place and used to great effect. When you have hurricanes and disasters of this magnitude, you cant just snap your fingers and make it all well again. This is going to be a recovery effort that goes on for years. I think the response what we have heard in testimony today has been extraordinary. Nothing is ever perfect. You can have continuous improvement. I think the men and women that work with you in your agencies need to be commended. Your management of them also needs to be commended. This Committee Thanks you as well. This will be first in a series of hearings. From my standpoint it started with the high risk hearing, when i asked Inspector General roth to take a look at problems in fema grant lending, how we spend money in emergency situations, what kind of controls. General roth responded quickly, made a number of recommendations, which we have turned into a piece of draft legislation, working with senator mccaskill. Starty else that wants to working with us on that we have been talking to appropriators, and how to marry that with the emergency funding requests, supplemental funding requests that were passing here. We are spending a lot of money, it needs to be controlled. The issue with whitefish is exhibit a of how careful we need to be in terms of how we spend taxpayers hard earned money. We do need to review and lay out femas proper role in the Emergency Management response. It is a subordinate role. If we could quickly put up the chart. Everyone has this as well. This is a history put together by the heritage foundation. It only goes up to 2011. It just shows the history of fema declarations of emergencies. It is really striking. Back in the 1950s, there were between seven and 18 a year. In 2011, 242 federal disaster declarations, or fema declarations. There are a number of reasons for that. Certainly, we continue to build. We have left moral hazard. That moral hazard. We continue to build and rebuild in flood zones. Property values are increasing dramatically. More and more often, states are looking to the federal government to do what i believe was probably more suited toward state and local response. A result, it puts a great deal of stress on federal disaster resources and fema. Director long, you have felt some of that pressure over the last couple of days. I think it is appropriate for this committee longterm to look at what is the the proper balance between state and local response, and the federal response in these situations. From my standard point, as much as we can rely on the state in terms of preparation, standing up those Emergency Centers response before these disasters occur, the better off we are going to be. Want to make sure we are talking about that. I did go to puerto rico. I was down on the seventh, about two and a half weeks afterwards. I will say that my initial response, having flown over a quarter to a third of the island, i was first relieved the Property Damage was not as extensive as i was expecting it to be. There is no doubt there is devastation, some property totally destroyed. I have seen pictures of st. Maarten. And the basic stats, 2. 5 weeks, 22 ports have been opened. 70 of gas stations and Grocery Stores opened. A third of the roads were opened. As we flew over, it looks like in excess of 90 were clear, but blocked in certain chokepoints. Cell phone companies responded pretty appropriately. Kind of share the burden, fixed each others towers. It will be interesting to see what percent of Cell Phone Service is back and operational. All 72 of the municipalities back then were accessible by road. The logistics problems was being eased. The biggest problem was 12 of the electrical power had been brought back online. I returned, convinced, and i think i continue to be convinced that the primary problem longterm in puerto rico even before the power grid even before the disaster was the power grid. It was weak and fragile before the hurricane, now it is offline. We are going to be spending an awful lot of money. From my standpoint, that has got to be controlled. What money we spend hopefully can be spent in a manner that we create a more resilient power grid that will power a vibrant economy for puerto rico for generations to come. My last point i have been in contact with the chairman of the financial oversight management board. I just received an email, a text from him last night. They met. I am going to quickly read the text to the record. The federal Oversight Board unanimously has asked for a cheap transportation officer to take over the Administration Authority to reestablish power as quickly as possible. Moreover, we must transform the Energy Sector and must ensure lower costs. In order to do that, we have to depoliticize the authority and open up to attract private capital. Puerto rico does not want to return to d. C. With hat in hand in the future. The person of the board purse organizationals management experience, including projects signed by the manager of the finance Oversight Board. They recognize that we have a with the governance of, the Public Ownership of prepa. That was exhibit a based on the 300 Million Contract, which has been pulled back with whitefish. I want to thank the witnesses. I will turn it over to senator carper. Senator carper a couple weeks ago senator mccaskill called for a bipartisan hearing. I am glad this is not the last, but first of several. I want to express our thanks to those at the table before us, those who work with you and for you. I believe in the last 100 years or so, we have had a total of 33 category five hurricanes that have struck the United States. 33 in 100 years. We had literally 2 within a week of each other. Us friends at gio present to a high risk list every year, things we need to focus on. If we did, we could save some money and lives. One of our high risks is the incidence of extreme weather and the cost it is putting on the federal government. The cost is extraordinary. In terms of root causes, we need to keep that in mind. Im delighted to hear the chairman mentioned the electric grid in puerto rico. I often times quote albert einstein, who said famously in adversity lies opportunity. As bad as the adversity is here, there is opportunity. Been around the island a fair amount. My recollection is most of the power is generated in the south of the island. Most people live in the north of the island. Most of the power is generated from diesel powered generators and utilities. It is dirty. It is expensive. I am told of the cost is roughly twice what we pay in the mainland. I talked with the governor yesterday. His dad and i were contemporaries. We talked about his vision. It would be to move Power Generation for the south to the north where the people are, to transmit that electricity from one side of the island to the other. To use natural gas and bring down the cost. Right now diesel fuel comes from mostly south america, including venezuela. I heard that is a good place to be dependent on. Gas from theps wit north. The governor told me his goal in independencecrease on generation of electricity from renewables, solar and wind, things like distributed generation of electricity, things like fuel cell Power Generators for electricity to especially help hospitals and places like that. I want to go back to my prepared comments if i could. I am proud of our Delaware National guard. We have had Delaware National guard units deployed to texas, florida, the u. S. Virgin islands. We are grateful to the men and women, not just of the Delaware National guard, but the National Guard everywhere as part of this team effort. Easier in near the very near future we can have governors of texas, the governors of florida, puerto rico come before us so we can hear their perspectives on what worked well, what did not how we can be more helpful, sometimes include mayors. Sometimes we dont always want to hear from people who were going to be critical that we need to hear folks that are critical, as well as those that think a good job has been done. It isnt perfect, make it better. We can hear from governors and some other leaders, that would be helpful. I think we are at the beginning of a difficult rebuilding effort. The cost of devastation may well exceed 300 billion. More than double the total economic damage of both hurricanes katrina and rita in 2005. We must ensure the federal government is meeting the needs of the survivors of these disasters and ensure funds are ensure that federal funds are being used efficiently and effectively. Every dollar of waste is a dollar that will not help other americans in need. We have already heard about risk and questionable contracts. This has been discussed quite a bit, and i dont think it can be discussed too much. A lot of us were shocked to hear that the 100 Million Contract to repair the electric did was awarded by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, a company with two fulltime employees existed. It ends up getting a 300 Million Contract. Heaven help us. That is unbelievable. I cannot overstate the urgent need to quickly restore power to homes, structures, and to ensure the availability of safe and clean Drinking Water for all citizens of the United States. We talked about the electric generation. I wont go into that further. Looking forward i think senator murkowski will lead a delegation as early as this weekend. I would love to be a part of that with her. They have a fair amount of jurisdiction. This committee, as does the committee of public works, where i serve as will. Finally, i understand the time under which people can apply for individual assistance has been extended to march . Can somebody nod if that is correct . If you could address that when you speak, that would be great. Says right here, fema extended the deadline to march. We will be happy to hear of that. Mr. Chairman, in closing i just want to say a few words about the obligations our federal government has to rebuild when disasters strike any part of our country. When extreme weather like this hits, it is scary, it is dangerous, often far more powerful than we imagine it would be. For those of us who have not had the misfortune of living in the path of destruction, it is hard to imagine. I have seen destroyers ive seen destruction off the coast. I have flown into monsoons in the pacific ocean, got run over by katrina with boy scouts on a sailboat coming down the coast of florida during that storm. Had a little bit a taste of this stuff. It is scary as can be. For the people whose reality became a nightmare, they just want to know there is a path to a better and safer future. Not half is a shared responsibility. The leaders of further recall must leaders of puerto rico must do their part. Our federal government has a moral obligation to help as well. Like the folks at home depot like to say, you can do it, we can help. That i think applies thank you sen. Carper i would like to make my to investment statement entered into the record. Without objection, i would also like to be entered. If you all would just like to raise your hand rise up. Do you swear the testimony you do use rather testimony you give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth . Please be seated. Mr. Brockwitness is long, the administered or of the federal Emergency Management agency. His work is overseeing a response to National Disasters and emergencies face of the United States including the Hurricane Harvey, irma, and maria. I just want to say thank you mr. Long. You have been doing Extraordinary Service over the last 2. 5 months. Thank you, sir. Before i get started, i would like to say that my prayers are with Ranking Member mccaskill and her husband. It is a pleasure to be here today, it truly has been on the dented. I am here to discuss anything you would like to in in regards to our response to Recovery Efforts. Been involved. Like me, i have seen i work with people who are truly dedicated, that come to work who want to save lives and help people get on the pathway to recovery and become more resilient. I have been in office 132 days. 478 of those days, we have been actively responding to harvey, irma, maria and the California Wildfires as well. Each one of these events that i spoke of could truly be catastrophic events, standalone events, but they happened in rapid succession, a 25 day period. Which is obviously unprecedented. Chairman johnson in regards to , this, i think it is important to point out before harvey heads, fema was responding to 30 different disasters in many states that you folks represent. Not only in addition to those major declarations, we were responding to 50 different Fire Management assistance grants due to the wildfires taking place. While there many improvements to be made to ensure whole community response, i do recognize that there are many challenges ahead, particularly when it comes to california, texas, florida the virgin , islands, puerto rico, i want to put a couple of things in context for this most recent response. If you start with harvey to the California Wildfires, 25 million americans have been impact. That is 12 of the population. Basically in a twomonth period, over a 50 day time. The fema search and rescue teams 50 day time period. The fema search and rescue teams saved 9000 lines, in addition to our dod partners, coast guard partners, First Responders to my neighbors helping neighbors like the cajun navy coming to houston, tens of thousands of lives have been saved. Four and a half million americans have been registered in the fema assistance program. That is greater than hurricane katrina, sandip sandy, wilma rita combined. We cant make you whole, but we can serve as a catalyst to help you recover. Over 3. 5 billion was expedited into our Flood Insurance program, immediately to our policyholders. That number is projected to grow to 60 billion to 17 billion for Hurricane Harvey and irma alone. Since the onset, we have worked with the red cross, to shelter 1. 1 million americans. The peak population in one night was 200,000. That is unprecedented. To believe reason that commodity mission and humanitarian mission to puerto rico and the Virgin Islands as well as all the states has then one of the largest humanitarian missions and the history of fema. While there is existing response and recovery challenge that need to be solved, chairman johnson, in regards to your opening comments, and optimal response and Recovery Process should be federally supported, statewhilee managed, locally executed. Each level of government has a Critical Role to play that we have to continue to define what the responsibilities are, what they target capabilities should be. In the case of puerto rico they , were hit by two major hurricanes in rapid succession, which created a diminished capacity. Not only were there responders disaster survivors, but also the ability to respond was compromised. That puts fema as the primary responder and the First Responder which is never a good , situation. When fema is the first and primary responder for many weeks, we will never move as fast as anybody would like. I recognize that. Moving forward we continue to , work to restore the power particularly in puerto rico. Restoring the power solved a multitude of problems. It will require our partners at the army corps working hand in glove with governor rick seo who i talked to on a regular basis. We have to restore hospitals and medical facilities to normal functions. Each one of the missions is going to be unique. From california all the way to the Virgin Islands. We are working to rectify those issues every day. Clearing roads, getting rid of debris is also a major mission. Theres 3. 5 cubic yards of debris in puerto rico alone. Communication and cell service, is something else. W