Chertoff: FEMA taking on more challenges than ever

[September 02, 2008]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is telling The Associated Press that he can't remember a time when FEMA was juggling so many major disasters at once.

In addition to Hurricane Gustav, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is also dealing with tropical storm Hanna, more than a dozen major uncontrolled fires across the country, flooding in eastern and northern Florida and heavy precipitation predicted later this week over the panhandle and southern coast of Alaska.

Chertoff said Monday the same agency that was castigated in 2005 for bungling its response to Hurricane Katrina is, so far, showing it can handle all these simultaneous new challenges.

[Associated Press; By EILEEN SULLIVAN]

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