Fema a big joke.

[powderman]

I just talked to my  brother. His daughter is helping out in NJ after the big storm. She said that fema came in all big and important bringing food for the hungry that she and others were told to hand out. They brought pasta in the pkg and canned pasta sauce. Kate was very upset. She said, these people have no home or heat and dang sure don't have a stove to cook the pasta on. What are they supposed to do with this?? Crunch the pasta and drink the sauce?? POWDERMAN. 

[BUGEYE]

LOL, yeah fema and the prez are all about photo ops and nothing else.

[bilmac]

FEMA has never worked even when Republicans were in charge. It needs to be managed and staffed by real emergency people rather than beauracrats. Alaska Fire Service is one of the best emergency outfits I know of. They can do things fast and do it right. I'm sure there are other outfits that breed quality people too.

[SHOOTALL]

FEMA has never worked even when Republicans were in charge. It needs to be managed and staffed by real emergency people rather than beauracrats. Alaska Fire Service is one of the best emergency outfits I know of. They can do things fast and do it right. I'm sure there are other outfits that breed quality people too.

Local is always better , they know what works and what does not . But anyone should know open and eat food is best in the first days after a crisis 

[powderman]

What is the purpose of having fema at all, other than to waste more tax $s?? What can they do that each states natl guard couldn't do better?? Seems to be a huge waste to me. POWDERMAN. 

[SHOOTALL]

What is the purpose of having fema at all, other than to waste more tax $s?? What can they do that each states natl guard couldn't do better?? Seems to be a huge waste to me. POWDERMAN. 

gives the federal govt. more power and conditions people to look for them to provide instead of local authority taking care of problems.

[powderman]

What is the purpose of having fema at all, other than to waste more tax $s?? What can they do that each states natl guard couldn't do better?? Seems to be a huge waste to me. POWDERMAN. 

gives the federal govt. more power and conditions people to look for them to provide instead of local authority taking care of problems.

 
SHOOTALL. Thats the way I see it too. POWDERMAN. 

[magooch]

Isn't this why Romney thought it would be good to turn some of the responsibility back to the states?  The federal government probably will always need to have a roll in large disasters, but maybe that should be on the financial end of things.  That is not to say that I believe the federal government should just be there to hand out free money; it should be paid back.  When the Mt. St. Helens disaster affected this area, I know of some people who took advantage of the low cost loans through the Small Business Administration to remodel their homes that weren't even affected in any way by the disaster.  That is abuse and should not have been allowed.  They did have to pay the loans off though.

[BUGEYE]

Isn't this why Romney thought it would be good to turn some of the responsibility back to the states?  The federal government probably will always need to have a roll in large disasters, but maybe that should be on the financial end of things.  That is not to say that I believe the federal government should just be there to hand out free money; it should be paid back.  When the Mt. St. Helens disaster affected this area, I know of some people who took advantage of the low cost loans through the Small Business Administration to remodel their homes that weren't even affected in any way by the disaster.  That is abuse and should not have been allowed.  They did have to pay the loans off though.

off topic
my wife and I flew into Portland right after the eruption and rented a car to drive down to Coos Bay.
the rental guy said please don't turn on the wipers unless it's pouring rain or you've rinsed it with a garden hose.   I wonder how many windshields were ruined??

[Conan The Librarian]

It's not in FEMA's charter to be a big joke. Their charter is to spend money. That's what they do best.

[ChungDoQuan]

It's 15 days since Hurricane Sandy hit. Almost all the power is back on. The cleanup and rebuild are in progress, and temporary housing has been and continues to be established. Rightys, FEMA is working like it is supposed to FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, WITH A DEMOCRAT AS PRESIDENT. Spin it in your heads all you want. Y'all might as well--- nobody else is listening. 

[powderman]

ching. WOW, maybe now they can COOK that pasta and heat up the sauce. POWDERMAN. 

[ChungDoQuan]

Next I'll be hearing complaints about them supplying drinking water to the flooding victims.  Y'all are grasping at straws.

[magooch]

As the Obama administration swiftly takes this country down the path of total ruin, soon there will be nothing left for anyone to grasp at, but straw.

[bilmac]

Perhaps the criticism wouldn't be so stridant, but we all remember how Bush was treated after Katrina by democrats and their lackies in the media.

[ChungDoQuan]

The fact that it took Bush eight weeks to actually DO anything except enact martial law might have something to do with that. 

[Conan The Librarian]

The way I remember it, there were federal resources available for New Orleans immediately, but the mayor and governor had to request them as required by law. They didn't. Bottom line is that the poor Katrina response is due to local and state incompetence (including the squandering of federal money that had been intended for fortifying the dikes that eventually broke). When FEMA did start to act, they did more than is being done now. For example, places to live, relocation services, reliable fresh water, etc. If anything it was comical how much they did, and how much of it was ineffective.
 
Bush was a pretty bad president, but I think he's been unfairly blamed for the Katrina response.  It's become clear that blaming Bush for that was a political narrative intended to make him look bad to minorities, and it worked.
 
There was no martial law, but there were curfews intended to reduce widespread looting.
 
 

[ChungDoQuan]

Ok, I'll buy that. Just remember whose plan it was during the campaign to give emergency response to the states and private industry...

[Conan The Librarian]

I think a lot of the aid was well applied. But I'd like to see a lot of the aid simply denied in cases like this. Some of those New Jersey towns were built on what amounts to sandbars just slightly higher than a normal high tide. Now we're in there bailing them out, literally and figuratively.
 
I also heard a lot of conservative pundits complaining that Gov. Christie of NJ was a backstabber to Romney for having been so lavish with his praise of Obama. What was he supposed to do? His state got timely and evidently caring aid after it took a hit from a very damaging storm. If I were him, I'd have done the same thing, publicly thanking anyone who tried to help. It also sent the message that the federal government cares, and the people of NJ needed to hear that at the time.