FEMA is beyond repair, say senators

HURRICANE Katrina turned the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) into a “symbol of a bumbling bureaucracy” so far beyond repair it should be scrapped, senators said yesterday.

The push to replace the agency was the top recommendation of a Senate inquiry which concluded that top officials from New Orleans to Washington failed to adequately prepare for and respond to the storm, despite weather forecasts predicting its path through the Gulf Coast.

“The first obligation of government is to protect our people,” said Republican Susan Collins, chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs investigation.