compensate, regional staff create and maintain ad hoc databases, spreadsheets, 

and paper records to manage deployments.  During the Florida hurricanes, for 

example, the regional office in Atlanta, Georgia received from 300 to 400 

requests for personnel and supplies within a three to four day period.  To 

respond to these requests, the region improvised by creating a mission 

assignment spreadsheet that showed the dates and status of the requests, as 

well as the dates and times that the resources would be received.  The 

spreadsheet enabled the region to coordinate the response and identify those 

requests that had been filled and those which remained open.  

Further, the lack of integration between ADD and LIMS III hinders FEMA 

from providing the appropriate number and combination of people and 

supplies to meet the level of need at disaster locations.  Without adequate 

coordination, personnel might arrive at a disaster site and be unable to begin 

work because the supplies and equipment they need have not yet arrived, or 

the supplies may arrive without the necessary people to accept and distribute 

them.  Generally, to achieve the right mix, FEMA's Emergency Operations 

Center staff laboriously searches through ADD to identify available personnel.  

Likewise, the Agency Logistics Center must search through LIMS III to 

identify available supplies.  This approach was not effective during the Florida 

hurricanes when 600 to 800 tractor trailer trucks of supplies arrived at one 

staging area within a 24 to 36 hour period.  There were only five people at the 

staging area to accept the supplies because their arrival had not been 

effectively coordinated with personnel deployments.  The truck drivers were 

forced to wait at the staging area for hours until the goods could be unloaded 

and processed, a costly delay which hampered disaster assistance. 

IT officials agree that it is essential to integrate systems to better support 

mission requirements, and that this decision must be made in collaboration 

with the systems owners and program officials.  For example, in response to 

our report, the CIO acknowledged the need to upgrade and integrate IFMIS 

and FEMA's deployment systems.  Systems integration also should consider 

DHS wide direction and programs, such as 

eMerge

2

 and 

MAX

HR

.   

State Stakeholders Request Better System Links 

Office of Management and Budget Circular A 130

 requires that federal 

agencies integrate state and local government requirements with their 

information resource management strategies.  However, EP&R response and 

recovery systems do not share information with those used by major 

stakeholders in state governments.  States receiving disaster assistance need to 

maintain accountability for the federal support they receive.  Financial 

Emergency Preparedness and Response Could Better Integrate Information Technology  

with Incident Response and Recovery 

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