<br />Sept. 8, 2005 -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency has received much of the blame for the government's slow response to victims of Hurricane Katrina. <br /><br />In a post-9/11 era, some say, the government let preparedness for natural disasters take a backseat to terrorism. <br /><br />FEMA was an independent agency, answering directly to the president, until it was folded into the Department of Homeland Security two years ago. <br /><br />However, the latest government figures show that 75 cents out of every $1 spent on emergency preparedness goes to anti-terrorism programs. Well before Katrina, FEMA insiders were sounding the alarm. <br /><br />...[On Sunday, August 29] President Bush listened in on a FEMA conference call during which Mayfield [director of the National Hurricane Center] warned of a storm surge of more than 20 feet of water rolling over levees. <br /><br />FEMA had 1,300 disaster assistance workers pre-positioned, and FEMA Director Michael Brown assured Bush they were ready for the storm. <br /><br />"FEMA is not going to hesitate at all in this storm," Brown [FEMA director] said. "We are not going to sit back and make this a bureaucratic process. We are going to move fast, we are going to move quickly and we are going to do whatever it takes to help disaster victims."<br /><br />...<br /><br />"All of us were just shaking our heads and saying, 'This isn't going to be enough, and the director has to know this isn't going to be enough.' But nothing more seemed to be happening," said Leo Bosner, president of the FEMA Headquarters Employees Union. <br /><br />Bosner has been with FEMA since it began 26 years ago. He says the agency has been systematically dismantled since it became part of the massive Department of Homeland Security. <br /><br />"One of the big differences I see," said Bosner, "besides taking away our staff and our budget and our training, is that Homeland Security now, in my view, slows down the process." <br /><br />The union warned Congress in a detailed letter about FEMA's decline a year ago. State emergency managers also warned Capitol Hill and Homeland Security just weeks ago that DHS was too focused on one thing terrorism. <br /><br />"We've had almost zero support for a natural disaster and an all-hazards approach," said Eric Holdeman, director of the King County Office of Emergency Management in Washington State. "It's been terrorism only." <br /><br />The Department of Homeland Security insists FEMA has been enhanced by being part of a large department with vast resources, but critics say that was not evident in the response to this disaster. <br /><br /><br />ABC News' Lisa Stark filed this report for "World New Tonight." <br /><br />
<br /> Today, she wants to know what went wrong and who's responsible and to put it back as a cabinate position.