Still cleaning up after FEMA

Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown insists that FEMA's response to Florida's four hurricanes will stand as a model for future disaster relief operations. He must mean a model for what not to do.

Evidence of FEMA ineptitude continues to turn up. Florida medical examiners have asked the agency to explain why it paid funeral expenses for dozens of people whose deaths appear not to have been hurricane-related. FEMA counted 306 storm-related deaths last year, but the medical examiners' commission found only 135.

According to a report last week in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, FEMA approved 319 hurricane funeral claims for $1.3 million -- including payments for deaths that occurred months after the storms or out of state. Apparently, FEMA must have believed that some people died from watching hurricane coverage on television. The agency wrote a check for a Palm Beach Gardens man who was recovering from heart surgery and died two days before Frances hit.

Mr. Brown has tried to convince Congress that his agency needs "tweaking," not major reform, but it wasn't until Wednesday that Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, told Palm Beach County that he expects FEMA finally to begin sending $30.2 million in reimbursement for debris pickup. The Solid Waste Authority had imposed a $50 fee to make up the difference. Martin County officials still are trying to figure out how to complete the paperwork for about $35.6 million in requests.

Three of the most useful reform proposals have come from Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and congressional conferees should keep them in the homeland security spending bill. Sen. Nelson's amendments would set new uniform guidelines for local governments on what hurricane debris removal would be eligible for federal reimbursements, prohibit FEMA claims inspectors from entering into contracts to buy items from people whose damage they inspect and require FEMA to report to Congress on what changes the agency has made in response to an inspector general's report critical of its payments to people who suffered minimal or no hurricane damage.

Responding to natural disasters is a difficult assignment that always will be subject to second-guessing and dissatisfaction. But by any objective measure, FEMA's performance has been unacceptable.