
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, November 1, 1993                   TAG: 9311010025
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Short

AID AGENCY TRIES TO HELP ITS IMAGE

The federal disaster relief agency, frequently criticized as slow and inefficient, is determined that the Southern California wildfires won't be another public relations catastrophe.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency opened four service centers over the weekend in areas hit hardest by the fires to take applications for loans and aid.

In town to open the centers, FEMA Director James Lee Witt acknowledged the agency had a reputation to overcome. He promised a new can-do era of cooperation with local governments and the insurance industry - and prompt delivery of aid checks.

"We are reorganized," Witt told reporters Saturday. "We are a new agency."

The fire recovery will mark some FEMA firsts:

Insurance industry representatives will staff the service centers to advise people about private insurance and coordinate claims.

The agency is promising to deliver checks within seven to 10 days of a claim's approval. FEMA has made this commitment before and failed to deliver; Witt said this time would be different.

FEMA will write checks to people for some losses covered by private insurance in cases where the insurer can't pay promptly, said agency spokesman Oscar Brooks. The insurer can then reimburse FEMA.

Criticism of FEMA generally follows disasters nationwide as predictably as mudslides follow hillside-denuding brush fires in California. But the agency drew favorable reviews for its quick response to the floods last summer in the Midwest.

by CNB