Senators question how $151M hurricane plan went wrong

Orlando Sentinel, 12/14/2007

Florida’s golden reputation for its sure-handed hurricane response in 2004 may be tarnished a bit.
In a rush to gird the state for future storms, the Legislature devoted $151 million in state and federal funds last year to buy giant generators for special-needs hurricane shelters, open a central warehouse in Orlando that could quickly ship out supplies and “harden” local emergency centers.

Nationally, it was an unprecedented feat for a state to attempt. But nearly 18 months later:

*Most of the 52 generators are sitting in an Ocala warehouse — because the Florida Division of Emergency Management needs another $51.5 million to install them.

*Changing federal wind standards have led to higher costs and delays in retrofitting dozens of shelters and local emergency-operations centers.

*Some lawmakers say that instead of just opening a warehouse, the agency spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to equip a lavish “State Logistics Response Center” in Orlando with flat-panel televisions, communications equipment and a fleet of Segway scooters for workers to zip around the 200,000-square-foot facility.

*Finally, despite what lawmakers saw in 2006 as an urgent need to address weaknesses exposed by the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, most of the $151 million hasn’t even been spent and needs to be reauthorized by the Legislature.

“The expectations were not met, and I take full responsibility for that,” said Craig Fugate, director of the state Division of Emergency Management, who won national praise for his no-nonsense handling of the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes. “But this has never been done before.”

Fugate and his staff told stunned state senators Thursday that Florida ran into a succession of problems during the past 18 months — from the rising costs of concrete, copper and insurance to the refusal of many local governments to chip in to help finish installing the generators.

Though some of the problems resulted from bureaucratic delays that haven’t cost any money, they still mean that dozens of facilities won’t be refitted by the June 1 start of next year’s hurricane season.

And the senators who sponsored the money said it looked as if the agency had abused its spending authority in some cases.

“There has been a lot of money spent in areas that were never approved by the Legislature,” said Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Chairman Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey.

For example, Fasano’s office alleges the agency spent $417,000 on TV and computer equipment at the Orlando warehouse, $300,000 more than authorized.

Gov. Charlie Crist came to Orlando in July for the ribbon-cutting on the state logistics center, where commodities such as bottled water and ready-to-eat meals are stockpiled for distribution after disasters.

Fugate said his agency went through bids to purchase the center, which had been a pharmacy with office space attached.

“It . . . had a lot of office space attached to the facility,” Fugate said. “Our decision was to utilize that [office space].”

Fasano also took exception to the $16,000 the agency spent to buy motorized Segway scooters to whisk workers back and forth in the warehouse. Fugate said they were needed to efficiently move people around the giant facility, which can handle up to 100 flatbed trucks at a time, and that one was bought for an Orange County deputy sheriff to use while patrolling the site.

The generators, however, have been a first-class foul-up.

Fugate said that in the post-Katrina rush by governments and corporations such as Publix and Wal-Mart to buy generators, vendors told his agency it could face a longer backlog if the generator purchases were spread over several years.

So the agency bought them all — at $300,000 apiece — at once.

But once they tried to install them, their cost estimates proved wildly off the mark.

“Some sites, when we got there, we thought we would put up a 500-kilowatt generator; we realized it wouldn’t power the entire school the way it was designed,” said Ruben Almaguer, deputy director of the division. “So those costs escalated tenfold.”

Currently, 16 shelters will be ready by February. Thirty-eight generators sit in a warehouse with no money to install them.

The state also has paid for other generators at eight locally managed shelters — including ones at the University, Freedom and Olympia high schools in Orange County — that are scheduled for completion next July. The shelters didn’t want the warehoused generators.

“We’re giving them the money to put a generator in, but not one of the generators in the warehouse?” an incredulous Fasano asked.

“Do you see the absurdity of this conversation?” said Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, who co-sponsored the legislation.

Fugate told the panel Florida fell victim to its lofty ambitions.

“If we had not tried to do what is oftentimes the audacious,” he said, “we could not have failed.”

Lawmakers are planning another hearing on the problem next month.