Obama's Response to Louisana Flooding compared with Bush and Katrina

[Benton]

(08-19-2016, 05:31 PM)PhilHos Wrote:  

 Not that it excuses it, but didn't Bush change FEMA because of all the criticism levied at him for the mishandling of Katrina? He may have made it worse, but does he do it if partisans in the media weren't so quick to blame Bush for anything and everything? I honestly don't think he does, which is surprising because one of the things I liked about Bush was how we would usually stand unwavering in the face of much of the criticisms levied at him.

https://training.fema.gov/emiweb/downloads/clair%20rubin%20-%20wp1.pdf
http://www.emergencymgmt.com/emergency-blogs/campus/9_11-Transformed-Emergency-Management-091011.html

Quote:The Department of Homeland Security was created to break down information-gathering silos, and when it swallowed up FEMA, it pushed the concept of all-hazard disaster management to the back burner.

Emergency Management – having developed higher education degrees, certifications, standards and associations that championed collaboration among different disciplines – found itself relegated to a step-cousin role, struggling with'Homeland Security' for recognition.
Until Katrina - when the balance began to shift back to the reality that large-scale disaster planning requires a great deal of collaboration.  Private agendas and silos of any flavor just don’t fit.

https://www.hsaj.org/articles/174

Theres more out there if you're interested. But, basically, in the post-9/11 lunacy, FEMA was intertwined with all the other government bloat (pre-Katrina). The same people guiding and coordinating military intelligence were suddenly tasked with responding to earthquakes and floods. On top of all the other duties, it made it impossible to react efficiently with that arm. The same way information on a flagged terror suspect sets on someones desk until it gets sent to the right department, action plans for ice storms and tornadoes wait around for someone to sign off on them.

The only thing I can say has improved is the preventative grant going to municipalities for gemerators, clean water supplies, tornado shelters, etc. But almost all that money was gone a few years ago.