There is so much damage control to be done from eight years of total incompetence running our country that we end up forgetting where all the broken pieces are. Well Barack Obama hasn’t forgotten and he is working to fix them. One big piece is FEMA:

The Federal Emergency Management Administration, a tragicomic disaster since Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 — and even before then — looks to be getting a facelift under the Obama administration, sources tell us.

First off, the likely plan is to break off the agency from the Department of Homeland Security, a move that would in itself help restore the pride FEMA folks felt when it was an independent agency.

Second, there’s increasing talk that former director James Lee Witt, who took over the then-troubled agency at the start of the Clinton administration and left it eight years later with a much enhanced reputation for getting things done, is coming back in from retirement to run FEMA for maybe six months to a year and whip it into shape.

After Katrina we heard how there would be major restructuring of FEMA. Congress even said it should be totally rebuilt. Bush ignored it. President Ego once again thought he knew best. Of course FEMA hasn’t been really tested since Katrina, so a well thought out restructuring is the only way to help insure they are ready to respond. Breaking them off from Homeland Security is an excellent start and brining back James Lee Witt will help make it all possible.