Disaster housing strategy

Saturday, July 26, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

The next president of the United States will inherit a pile of problems, both domestic and foreign, that the Bush administration has not had the competence to resolve. Iraq, oil prices and housing foreclosures are dominating the headlines, but there is another lingering sore that the administration appears in no rush to heal.

It goes by the name of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which turned in the worst performance of 2005 with an uninspiring response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The deadly storm, which devastated New Orleans and communities along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, revealed gaping holes in the nation’s ability to respond to massive disasters.

One would have thought a responsible administration would have spent the past three years devising a sound strategy to ensure a swift and comprehensive response to any future natural calamity. Then again, we’re talking about the Bush administration.

On Monday the agency released a draft disaster housing strategy for public comment a year after the deadline set by Congress. Obviously, there was no sense of urgency.

But as The Washington Post reported, the proposal includes many of the same ideas — including use of rental vouchers, mobile homes and travel trailers in the worst emergencies — that were implemented after Katrina. We all know how that worked out.

It appears as though many of the other major problems that need to be resolved, such as how to handle large numbers of evacuees, provide long-term disaster housing and serve disabled residents who have been displaced, will be left up to the next administration. Leave it to FEMA to come up with a housing disaster plan that is itself a disaster.

We had all better cross our fingers that no Katrina-like storms reach shore during this summer’s hurricane season. The agency’s administrators are still scratching their heads over the formaldehyde-tainted trailers they furnished to Katrina victims, and are shamelessly begging for immunity from the resulting lawsuits.

We can ill-afford a repeat performance by FEMA before the next president takes office.