Changes in the registration of the survivors were introduced inside program that the agency uses to manage applications to lend a hand disaster and pay people who survived, known as the National Crisis Management System (NEMIS). The current and former employees of FEMA said Wired that although they have grave concerns about the requirement of the E -Mail address in order to register for lend a hand, they believe that the system requires technical renovation. “
Agency officials also publicly expressed the need to modernize the way in which help in the disaster reaches people who survived. Former director Cameron Hamilton described Some agency goals during testimonies before the House Supervisory Committee in May.
“Idea [is] That when you order a pizza from Domino, you know when it was ordered when it goes to the oven, when he leaves the oven, when he is ready for pickup, chopped and in a box. However, we do not have the same approach to conduct and mentoring in the process of applying for public lend a hand or individual lend a hand, “he said.” We have individual survivors who are waiting for weeks for reactions, sometimes a few months before receiving payments who are in significant financial losses. ” (Hamilton was released from the agency The day after this testimony.) Twelve days after Hamilton’s testimony, the novel agency administrator, David Richardson, met with Doge members to discuss the novel portal system with disasters, according to the calendar information seen by Wired.
According to the document, FEMA has introduced a new “status tracker” in June to the Survivor portal on the federal website of the disaster assistance, which contains guidelines on what types of documents are needed to meet the verification requirements, as well as “visual presentation of progress in the FEMA process.”
Despite the agreement that agency technical systems require update, current and former FEMA employees said Wired that they are worried that exclusion of people without e -mail addresses from the application process may skip those who may need the most help. Meanwhile, only providing information and payments via the internet portal can be misleading even for people with -mail – especially since the FEMA employee tells seniors.
“E -Mail is already the main barrier for many survivors, especially for the elderly,” they say. “They have to employ E -Mail to create a profile on catastrophiesistance.gov, and there is their correspondence. They receive an e -mail message that they have a novel letter, but the real letter is in their online profile. They must do all these verifications to get access to it, and too much for many people. Many need mail, AE -Mail is a terrible option for them, even if they have an e -mail address, even if they To read their e -Mile. “
Changes appear among the wider pushing of the agency to change help after disasters from the federal government to state. As Wired reports in May, the agency withdrew this summer from the door to the door of the survivors. FEMA employees are worried about which it can mean even more obstacles to helping the needy.
“The end of door-to-door acquisition and e-mail requirement for registration is certainly trends in the disturbing pattern of changes in Trump administration, which abandon the most sensitive members of the community after the disaster,” says FEMA employee.