FEMA loses 7 years' worth of major official reports
The Federal Emergency Management Agency lost its entire database of post-disaster reports for 2003 to 2010 due to a computer server failure, according to a new audit.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's official post-disaster reports on lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina and other major events have been permanently deleted from the agency's database because of a server failure, according to a new federal audit.
FEMA lost seven years' worth of post-disaster official reports when a computer server failed in May 2010, and the agency hasn't been able to access the data since then, states the Feb. 8 report from the Homeland Security Department's Office of Inspector General. FEMA is an agency of DHS.
FEMA started creating the after-action reports in 2003 under the Remedial Action Management Program to cull lessons learned and pass on best practices to its staff. The official reports in the database included those on the Hurricane Katrina in 2005, California wildfires in 2007 and major floods in 2008, the DHS IG said.
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“Therefore, historical data on lessons learned and best practices are not available to all FEMA personnel,” wrote Matt Jadacki, DHS' assistant IG.
The report also found that FEMA did not distribute the reports broadly enough to all response and recovery personnel and senior leaders.
The IG made six recommendations that included urging FEMA to conduct after-action reviews for all disasters, appoint after-action review facilitators, disseminate the reports more widely, and develop an archiving plan so that data loss does not happen again.
FEMA officials agreed with the recommendations and said steps were being taken, or already had been taken, to implement them.