FEMA struggled to track commodities.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Federal Emergency Management Agency - Brief Article

The delivery of commodities, such as medical supplies, ice, food and temporary shelters, is both important to victims of natural disasters and a high-profile task for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Failures to distribute these items would be reported widely in the news media, and cause further embarrassment to the already beleaguered agency.

But FEMA's ability to track crucial items is being hampered by outdated technologies, according to one official.

Drew Douglas, operations manager of the agency's mapping and analysis center, said technologies such as barcode and global positioning system tracking, common in the commercial transportation industry, have yet to be fully implemented at FEMA. Instead, the agency relies on truckers and others in the supply chain to phone or e-mail in their whereabouts to headquarters.

"Truckers are truckers. They're not used to calling in every hour and telling somebody where they are," Douglas said at a homeland security conference sponsored by Market*Access International, Inc.

And during Hurricane Katrina, power outages and damaged communication infrastructure made using commercial...