The Disaster Accountability Project (DAP) is a non-partisan watchdog organization dedicated to improving disaster management systems. DAP was founded in 2007 by Ben Smilowitz as a reaction to the responses to hurricanes Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

 and Rita

Hurricane Rita

Hurricane Rita was the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico. Rita caused $11.3 billion in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast in September 2005...

. DAP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and is a 2008 Echoing Green

Echoing green

For the electronic band, see The Echoing Green , for the poem see The Echoing GreenEchoing Green is a twenty year-old global non-profit organization operating in the area of early-stage social sector investing...

 fellowship organization.

Mission statement

Improving the nation's disaster management systems through public accountability, citizen oversight and empowerment, whistle-blower engagement, and policy research.

Initiatives

• Disaster Accountability Project Hotline - a toll free hotline through which survivors of a disaster, relief workers, and whistle-blowers can report gaps in relief services.
• Federal Emergency Management Agency
  Federal Emergency Management Agency
  The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders...
  
  's ice policy - an effort to pressure FEMA to reverse its decision to only deliver ice for "medical emergencies" following a disaster.
• FEMA Structural Reforms - among other reforms, DAP has advocated for the elevation of the FEMA Administrator to a U.S. Cabinet-level position.
• Report on Southern Louisiana Emergency Preparedness - a study conducted in 2009, which evaluated the emergency preparedness plans of 22 Southern Louisiana
  Louisiana
  Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
  
   parishes based upon their comprehensiveness and accessibility to the general public. The study revealed that 11 of the 22 parishes surveyed could not or would not produce copies of their emergency plans when requested.
• ReliefOversight.org - a website created as a response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake
  2010 Haiti earthquake
  The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks...
  
  . ReliefOversight.org monitors the activities of relief organizations in disaster zones during the aftermath of a natural or man-made disaster.

External links

• Disaster Accountability Project website