Seriously, what CAN we expect from government when SHTF?

Friday, July 14, 2017
By Paul Martin

by: JD Heyes
NaturalNews.com
Friday, July 14, 2017

On its website, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, says its “mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate all hazards.”

If that seems overly broad and even a little vague, that’s most likely by design. Because the fact is, it’s not possible for the federal government — or state or local governments — to adequately plan, fund and staff for major regional disasters or national emergencies.

Now, that’s not to say that smaller disasters — a tornado, localized flooding, limited social unrest — cannot be managed by state or federal agencies. In fact, state agencies, especially, handle situations like these nearly every week. America is a big country, and something is going on that local emergency and disaster response personnel must deal with all the time.

But it’s those major disasters and large-scale emergencies that state and federal agencies say they train for and are the reason why the exist that they are most unable to handle.

Take a look at a few case studies in recent years to get an indication as to how unprepared — and inept — state and federal agencies are in handling major disasters.

Remember Hurricane Katrina? The Bush administration, and President George W. Bush, in particular, were hammered over the federal government’s wholly inept and slow response, despite the fact that everybody had about a week’s notice the storm was approaching.

As reported by PBS in September 2005, shortly after Katrina made landfall and devastated much of New Orleans while damaging other Gulf Coast cities, the resulting failure to respond rapidly and effectively earned FEMA “some of the harshest criticism the agency has ever faced.”

It wasn’t as if the agency should not have been ready. Created by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and elevated to a Cabinet-level position in 1993, then incorporated into the Department of Homeland Security a decade later, the agency has been around for a long time. Its entire purpose of existence is major disaster response. And while the agency does defer to state and local agencies for initial disaster response, FEMA is supposed to provide rapid, effective backup after receiving a request for assistance from a governor and regional FEMA director.

The agency failed miserably in the aftermath of Katrina, PBS noted:

The delayed federal response to Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast has led many officials, including President Bush, who called the initial response “not acceptable,” to question FEMA’s preparedness for a natural disaster.

The Rest…HERE

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