HOUSTON -- A top official of the Federal Emergency Management Agency reportedly has admitted that the agency has been sluggish in responding to Texans’ needs after Hurricane Ike.

Deputy FEMA Administrator Harvey E. Johnson Jr. says he intends to improve the help the agency provides to Texans left damaged and homeless by the mid-September hurricane. He says the agency will deploy mobile homes to the hardest-hit areas more rapidly, review rules that might be resulting in premature denials and provide more resources to Texas.

Johnson also tells the Houston Chronicle that he’s put more personnel into Texas housing assistance programs.

He’s invited energy company officials into FEMA’s Texas field offices to help provide electric power to mobile homes housing storm victims. He’s also started a review of procedures that result in relatively few families being approved for assistance when they first apply.

Johnson met this week with local officials in Galveston, the Beaumont-Port Arthur area and Houston to learn about their concerns.