"FEMA, along with the federal government in general, has done a fantastic job on both storms."
Umm, right. We responded to Katrina much worse than we responded to the tsunami, but that was a fantastic response in your estimation. Our response to Rita was much better, but that probably is because they felt their feet were being held to the fire. Which is often the case when you publicly screw the pooch in front of the whole world.
Hurricanes aren't earthquakes. We can see them coming and have some idea of where they will make landfall. Positioning equipment, materials and people isn't rocket science, it is merely and exercise in emergency management, FEMA's middle name. Pulling the trigger on that stuff also isn't rocket science, we've been doing that for a while. FEMA is supposed to be staffed with professionals, something that can't necessarily be expected of the locals. In addition, FEMA can also override the locals if they think the disaster can affect national security. That is explicitly spelled out in the NRP. Not that seemed to make any difference, both Chertoff and "Brownie" seemed to be clueless with respect to the details of the NRP, which they were responsible for.
Frankly, I don't think the American people are nearly as stupid as you paint them. Especially the ones who experience these storms on a semi-regular basis. They know what kind of response they have seen in the past, and they have seen the response we got during Katrina. Now true, you can pretend that no one could have predicted a hurricane landing close to NOLA and the levees breaching like Bush did. Heck, let us even assume that is true, despite the fact that at least some universities were teaching that scenario 30 years ago. It is still irrelevant because FEMA still didn't respond to NOLA, much less the other affected areas, like they should to a hurricane sans a breach. Even without a levee breach, NOLA was in dire need of food, ice and some form of shelter, as was the other affected areas. Yet none of that was provided, despite the press releases claiming it was positioned.
Look, I was a kid in Beaumont when Carla blew through. Carla was a strong Cat. 4, maybe Cat. 5, and the response was better than what was experienced during Katrina. It was only a couple of days before there was a government presence providing aid. And Carla tore up a lot, roads were out through much of the Texas Gulf coast and power was down for days. But even 44 years ago, with a more primitive communication and transportation infrastructure, we could respond better. |
