Feds ramping up for Ernesto

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dozens of federal emergency responders headed to Florida on Monday as Tropical Storm Ernesto barreled over Cuba on a path too erratic for authorities to plan where to set up a strike-zone command center.

Ernesto was forecast, over the next two days, to return to hurricane strength and the government sought to assure the nation that storm preparations were under control -- in stark contrast to the sluggish federal response to Hurricane Katrina one year ago.

Those assurances came even as a Homeland Security Department report concluded that federal search-and-rescue teams that respond to major storms and other disasters lack sufficient staff, funding, and training.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Director R. David Paulison said he was rushing tens of thousands more pre-made meals and bottles of water to Miami and Jacksonville in advance of Ernesto's arrival. That was in addition to hundreds of federal truckloads of supplies, ice, tarps and plastic sheeting already in the state.

But Paulison said Florida officials haven't yet asked for federal help.

"They haven't seen anything that would exceed the capacity of the state right now," Paulison told The Associated Press. "We're still moving stuff down in case it gets to be a huge hurricane. But we're just there to help them."

Search-and-rescue teams were sent to Jacksonville as medical personnel set up in a temporary recovery center in Orlando while FEMA waited for Ernesto to pick a path before opening a full-fledged command center to monitor the storm's destruction. Paulison said 11 additional medical teams were scattered outside the state's potential strike zone, "just kind of waiting to see what happens."

President Bush was briefed Monday morning by Paulison and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Additionally, Chertoff will meet with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday in Tallahassee about storm preparations.

The Navy said so far there are no plans to move any of its ships from the Gulf of Mexico or any aircraft from Florida military bases. But Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said a defense coordinating team was sent to the state emergency operations center in Tallahassee, and other regional liaisons have gone to a center in Atlanta.

Whitman said U.S. Northern Command also has been preparing for the hurricane season and is keeping a close watch on the storms.

The storm prep came as Homeland Security's internal watchdog noted that funding for FEMA's urban search-and-rescue teams has dipped in the last two years, stretching thin the staffing and training levels for most major disasters.

While the teams improved in preparing for catastrophes involving weapons of mass destruction, the urban search and rescue system "has not collectively attained the level of response capability envisioned in the strategic plans," the report by Inspector General Richard L. Skinner found.

Six of seven search-and-rescue task forces surveyed failed more than half of the standards for operational readiness, the report found. Many staffers "had not received all the training required by FEMA," and some teams were not keeping track of supply inventories, it concluded.

Funding for search-and-rescue teams began surging annually after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, peaking at $65 million in 2004. But it dropped the next year to $30 million, the report found.

Paulison, the FEMA director, said Monday he had not yet looked at the report. But while ramping up for Ernesto, "we have deployed quite a few teams already, and they seem to be in good shape," he said. "I haven't heard any complaints personally."

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)