FEMA Poll

[nageov3t]

not a troll poll

my big question, though, is what role do you think FEMA should have in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. possible scenarios:

-catastrophic San Fransisco earthquake
-major act of bioterrorism in a large city (NY/LA)
-nuclear explosion

should they have any role? if so, how immediate or detached?

 

[conjur]

For a large-scale disaster that incapacitates or will incapacitate a city, the Feds should be the ones in charge of rescues, evacuations, and supplying aid. Law enforcement should fall to local police and State National Guard. When something major happens to incapacitate a city, how in the hell is a city supposed to handle getting everyone out and getting aid to those still in the city? It's impossible. And, for states with greater resources (say, Texas or California or Florida), those states can step in more quickly. But, for other states where most of the resources are located in the city that was just incapacitated, the State will be overwhelmed and will *have* to rely upon immediate Federal assistance.

 

[ExpertNovice]

FEMA appears to have done what they legally could. However, that has yet to be proven or disproven.

I am concerned about their ability to assist if they are unwilling to use their right to suspend the Constitution and override the President and Governors and do what is necessary and if the Governors won't give them permission to act, then we have a problem. It is obvious why FEMA didn't use their full powers but it is not obvious why the Governor refused help.

 

[NumbersGuy]

FEMA is called in and states of emergency declared when the governor asks for it, and some minimal verification. Normally the mayor asks the governor for the National Guard.

Unfortunately for NO, their mayor is an idiot (if somebody holds him, I'll superglue his big mouth) who couldn't handle the situation; the governor is another idiot. It's like having a fire, with people crying and whining but nobody dials 911.

Bush was, as expected, slow to react, but now he's has serious operations rolling (during which there will be screw-ups for highliting by the press); even 25,000 body bags have been shipped, each casualty the fault of the moron mayor.

Not a Bush admirer, but obviously there is a lot worse. I hope the whole state is not like that.

 

[MadRat]

A good FEMA director should have been prepared to move on the event of said breakdown rather than waiting for the whole operation to meltdown.

Sometime playing the bureaucracy to the "t" is the dumbest thing possible.

btw - If a barge is to blame on the first and most major break in the levee system then the port authority administrator has some serious explaining to do. The barges should have been locked down into retreats to prevent such an event.