re: #416 Big Steve

This is a really good point about FEMA and it always drives me a little crazy when there is an emergency and FEMA is blamed for not having shelters open, or bottled water, or the power back on. By law and statue the management of all emergencies is local. FEMA’s role really comes after the initial stabilization phase.

As it ought to be! One wouldn’t expect a federal agency to do a very good job of handling the lowest-level, most detailed and granular local emergency tasks anyway. They’re not, y’know, locals. They don’t know the area, the people, or the intricacies of the local situation. They will be good at medium- and high-level coordination of logistics and different organization of agencies, because that’s something that has more to do with practice and experience than locality, and it’s not something at which the locals will be practiced.

Large organizations handle the big picture, small organizations handle the small picture, because that’s what they’re both good at. It’s just basic common sense, or at least it should be.

RABBLE RABBLE GRUMBLE.