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I highly suggest every one who maintains some level of interest in how FEMA, DHS, and other federal agencies acted (and what they did right/wrong) take the National Response Framework and National Incident Management System online courses. It was ... interesting to read and reflect back to what happened in Katrina. You can find them here.

First FEMA is more the paperwork end of things - they are *not* the ones that are to blame for NO even if all that is blamed at the feds was accurate - it was then (and still is) the DHS. So blaming FEMA is as worthless as blaming your secretary because her boss made a bad decision. So strike number one against the reporting.

Second, they *can not* - by federal law - come in until and unless they are asked or the area is already a disaster area and the local govts are deemed incompetent. NO didn't ask for it as such they *had* to wait. Now, to be fair they were allowed (and were supposed to) pre-mobilize and that didn't occur and should have and that did cost some time so there is that to blame

Lastly the feds are *not* command - that is up to the states. DHS and FEMA are resources the state can use. In this case we mobilized (late) a great deal of resources, DHS said "what do you want us to do" and NO incident command said "Dunno - you decide". The feds are *not* trained to command, they are trained to provide resources (indeed, how can someone that is from another state, never been to the emergency site, supposed to walk in and, take over local projects, and properly co-ordinate/assign state wide resources in a matter of hours?). There is a big difference, so the DHS sat around doing nothing and/or did a piecemeal job of applying resources to a job. FEMA got a lot of blame for the when they had nothing to do with it, DHS was the department and NO was the one that didn't follow their guidelines. The feds do not (and really still do not - again by federal statute and the reality of what has to be done) have command personal and are resources. If it were to happen to today and NO did the same thing it would, again, be a total failure.

We can compare this to Mississippi - which was actually hit MUCH harder. They pre-requested aid so it arrived quickly. They had a decent command structure in place so the feds resources were coordinated. And when they did hit problems they didn't turn to the feds and say "fix me". Indeed, even Louisiana outside of NO did that and things worked quite well. It was just the cesspool that is NO that this occurred, not because of the Corps (they have tried to upgrade the levies for decades but the state has decided to spend that money on other projects), nor was it FEMA or the DHS. The main thing FEMA suffered was a political leader that said some godawfully stupid things.

The blame for NO falls almost 100% on the shoulder of NO - I suspect that nothing has changed about that either. WHen the next one occurs (and it will) they will be in the same boat all over again. I see none of them learning their lesson, just more rants at the feds in an effort to shift blame.

Full Disclosure: I work for a (Great!) data center provider (ViaWest ).

Infrastructure:
- What is the UPS run-time?
- What is the generator startup time?
- What is the genset capacity in relation to UPS demand? (i.e. is the UPS demand larger than the genset capacity - you'd be supprised!)
- Does the provider have multiple refueling contracts?
- Are the refueling contracts high priority?
- Can the provider detail out green initiatives to improve PUE?
- Does the provider have sufficient capital resources to expand the data center?
- How much investment has the company made - this year - into the data center?
- Is the data center in a flood plain? Check http://msc.fema.gov/

Compliance:
- Is the data center SAS-70 type II audited? Type II means they're serious about it.
- Are the results of the audit available for review?
- Are a list of control objectives available?
- How does the provider assist with customer audits? (i.e. PCI auditor requests for info)
- Can the provider demonstrate servicing other companies where compliance is a requirement?
- Will there be additional charges for audit related work or requests?

Network Remote Hands
- Does the provider offer managed hosting / hybrid hosting options
- What is the expertise level of the NOC staff?
- How are remote hands charged?
- What is the response time for a remote hands event?
- What monitoring options are available?

Corporate
- Does the company have a business continuity plan documented?
- Are the company financials available for review?

But suddenly I say: and some people want this same government in charge of our military and now I'll be modded troll into oblivion.

Fixed that for ya. Oh wait, still a dumb thing to say...?

The government is a very large and diverse group of people. Some of those people do legitimately deserve to be criticized, but many, many, many of them do not. They do their jobs daily and with excellence, often for little compensation.

To infer that the government would be bad at managing health care because of a single instance of idiotic training materials is an example of woefully poor logic...

http://www.tsa.dhs.gov/press/happenings/amateur_radio_operators.shtm

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/06/24/2/

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=3412

http://www.fcc.gov/pshs/services/amateur.html

It's almost as if you're speaking out of your ass...

I did the "blind test" and searched for "NLE 2009", which is the National Level Exercise FEMA is conducting right now on my home turf, using foreign military troops and mercenaries....practicing gun confiscation, random car searches and other 4th amendment violations, and generally committing our own gubbmint's brand of 'domestic terrorism'. :-/ (See http://www.fema.gov/media/fact_sheets/nle09.shtm for more.)

GOOGLE was the clear winner.

While Bing might have cool bells and whistles, it fails as a serious search engine.

God Yes, NIMS training was by far the most useful and relevant training I've received in the fire service...in the current era, the problem with interagency communications is not *tech*, it's *rules*, and I was thoroughly impressed by NIMS' common sense, 6th grade reading level, scalability, and "rules for new rules". It's a very realistic framework that accomodates, among other things, the fact that you and everyone else has other things to do and to remember, that your personnel are going to have IQs from maybe 85 on up to 150, that if you don't figure out how everyone gets paid you can't figure out anything else, etc. I kid you not, FEMA's NIMS 100 (or -700) training is the best free mini-MBA you could give yourself. Pushing old, unsexy NIMS will do more than any amount of shiny radios or infinite numbers of useless "command center" RVs,

Also, don't forget that FEMA is planning major exercises around the country in late July.

Indeed. The curious can read about it here: https://www.fema.gov/media/fact_sheets/nle09.shtm

FEMA conducts exercises all the time. The Federal Emergency Management Agency wouldn't be very effective if they never practiced managing emergencies.

Many may say that I am being too conspiratorial in this, but are there not many examples of our country doing similar things throughout history to start a war?

Are there?

"Use something to do something"

Most nuclear plants have been running in the U.S. and France for more than 30 years without issues.

Most, without issues?. Not all? What does most mean to us?

1. 1. -- There is NO safe dose of ionizing radiation, and also economic viability
2. 2. -- Nuclear power plant incidents at home and abroad
3. 3. -- Nuclear power plant incident preparedness documents
4. 4. -- A little alarmist media, because sometimes we should be alarmed

1. -- Some exerpts from "The Politics of Power: Risks and Costs of Nuclear Power Plants": http://www.garynull.com/The%20Politics%20of%20Power%20Final%20&%20Final%20Footnotes.pdf

The NAS (The National Academies of Science (NAS) report, Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation,) finding had long ago been discovered and presented by John Gofman, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California and Chairman of the Committee for Nuclear Responsibility (CNR). Dr. Gofman said the following in 1994:

The lowest dose of ionizing radiation is one nuclear track through one cell...Either a track goes through the nucleus and affects it, or it doesn't...I came up with nine studies of cancer being produced where we're dealing with up to maybe eight or 10 tracks per cell. Four involved breast cancer ... it's not a question of 'We don't know.' The DOE has never refuted this evidence. They just ignore it, because it's inconvenient. We can now say, there cannot be a safe dose of radiation. There is no safe threshold. If this truth is known, then any permitted radiation is a permit to commit murder.

and

Critics complain that nuclear energy is expensive because of (1) the time and resources it takes to build and decommission nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities; (2) the hidden costs of mining the uranium ores, reprocessing and storing the waste, and purging the environment of radioactive pollution; and (3) costly health problems from exposure to low level radiation. The Department of Energy (DOE) has admitted that, "economic viability for a nuclear plant is difficult to demonstrate."

Thomas Cochran, a nuclear physicist and Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) says that nuclear power is "uneconomical, it has a safety problem, it has a horrendous proliferation problem on the global level, and it has a long-term waste problem that hasn't been solved."iii He notes that "nuclear power would be a great solution to greenhouse gases" that cause global warming, were it not for those four problems!

2. -- http://www.atomicarchive.com/Reports/Japan/Accidents.shtml This link is a list of "Major Nuclear Power Plant Incidents" from around the world, including the US.

Here's another one from last year in Michigan: http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/02/palisades_nuclear_power_plant.html

3. -- http://www.redcross.org/images/pdfs/code/nuclear_power_plant.pdf and http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/nuclear_power_plants.shtm are links to the Red Cross and FEMA nuclear power plant incident preparedness documents.

4. -- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7553564094124690254

While some internal agencies have had access to spy satellite imagery for purposes such as assisting after a natural disaster

The difference being that Gulf coast hurricanes happen every year, almost like clockwork. The fires that burned rural San Diego and rural Los Angeles, while perhaps inevitable, had not occurred until that point. Ever year there are hurricanes that either hit the gulf coast, or are a near miss. Consider the juxtaposition between the rich casino owners who have lived in the hurricane-prone region of Mississippi for so many years, and the disgustingly poor, predominately Hispanic population of rural San Diego, who have lived there because their parents lived there, and because they cannot afford to move or live anywhere else. It all boils down to wealth disparity, and who benefits from it. I would encourage everyone to consider that.

(even the ones that worked so hard not to pay for water damage that was caused by floods, the jerks) Unfortunately that is outside of the scope of normal homeowners insurance. It is paid by Flood insurance which is a federally backed program run by http://www.fema.gov/hazard/flood/index.shtm

Reading from unclassified portions of a document developed by the U.S. intelligence community, Santorum said, "Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist."

According to Santorum, "That means in addition to the 500, there are filled and unfilled munitions still believed to exist within the country."

Reading from the document, Santorum added, "Pre-Gulf War Iraqi chemical weapons could be sold on the Black Market. Use of these weapons by terrorist or insurgent groups would have implications for coalition forces in Iraq. The possibility of use outside of Iraq cannot be ruled out. The most likely munitions remaining are sarin- and mustard-filled projectiles. And I underscore filled."

Santorum said the "purity of the agents inside the munitions depends on many factors, including the manufacturing process, potential additives and environmental storage conditions."

While acknowledging that the agents "degrade over time," the document said that the chemicals "remain hazardous and potentially lethal."

Usually, it isn't so easy. We know where the floodprone areas are. We've got FIRMettes [1], flood insurance rate maps that show where the floods are known to happen, and they show the high water marks for the design flood. The problem is that the design flood occurs more frequently now. The spread of suburbia means less agricultural and sylvan land for infiltration, and very efficient storm water management systems that dump right into the river at speed. The weather over the short term seems to favor concentrating precipitation into shorter periods of time. There are more floods of the design flood magnitude and thus the big floods are worse. As an aside, I have a feeling that there will be sweeping changes in what we're required to design for as previous high water events are classified as 50-year and 25-year floods instead of the 100-year tag they carry now.

Your second guy probably had a building on a river that used to wet the basement every twenty years or so. Now, he's gotten slammed with three 100-year events in less than 2 years and he's lost everything on the first floor down to sruds and foundations. The probability of these events occurring is very small, so the insurance people play their numbers game, assuming the hydrologists and statisticians know their stuff, and they write Guy 2 a check each time. Even if the hydrologists and statisticians are exactly up-to-date on their stuff, the probability is still small.

Where the real problems happen is when we have a historic structure or a thriving business. On the one hand, it sucks to fund constant money sinks. On the other, we shouldn't hinder the economic growth of the area or demolish our physical history. If the federal flood insurance program were more common-sense, we'd have a situation where an analysis determines the feasibility of rebuilding, relocating or rebuilding with floodproofing. I don't think the feds will pay for relocating or rebuilding with floodproofing, but they will pay for returning it to its pre-event condition. We're stuck in a cycle, and it's hard to make the choice about whether a building is historical enough to warrant moving or drastic renovation, as that's often a subjective choice (Lafayette slept here twice, so is it worth less that the place down the street where he spent a week?).

You are correct in saying that new construction should be held to stricter standards both in structure and location. Most places will make sure that new construction in a flood zone isn't an unreasonable drain on flood funds, even at the expense of additional tax revenue. In most places, that effectively means Guy 1 isn't building there, because if pimpin' ain't easy, floodproofin' is hard.

This network from the article seems redundant for the US. We've already got mostly real-time flow data from the USGS [2], posted to the web and freely available. The data's there, and using a hydrograph with the USGS data, rainfall data and Google Earth, you could do it all from a desk. The trick is to ensure that the all the localities along the river work together with a comprehensive plan to mitigate downstream problems. They're trying to do that on the Delaware, but you've got many large organizations that have to be forced to cooperate, like the New York City Water Department and the Army Corps of Engineers. They usually don't pay much attention the county and municipal governments along the lower river.

[1] http://msc.fema.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/info ?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&content=f irmetteHelp_0&title=FIRMette%20Tutorial
[2] http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/

Big changes always happen after a big storm. The FEMA and insurance groups study the wreckage and come up with new recommendations, which the various governments (fed, state, local) may enact through building codes. The FEMA keeps case studies, for other people to copy and learn. Hurricane-prone states have programs specifically to address construction in the hurricane zones.

Living in a "Windstorm II" area, our bigggest concern is wind-blown debris smashing a window, which lets the wind blow inside, which can then rip the roof off from the inside. That's why hurricane shutters are a big deal. (We're still saving up to buy nice shutters for our house.) Our stick-built house, with brick "veneer", is built to withstand winds gusting to 110 MPH. Note that the above Louisiana success story added $12K to the cost of the house, and would probably violate most planned-subdivision regulations.

That said, a friend from Puerto Rico was shocked when she first moved up here. She nearly put her hammer through the wall trying to hang a picture. "What! The walls aren't made of cement blocks?!"

Big changes always happen after a big storm. The FEMA and insurance groups study the wreckage and come up with new recommendations, which the various governments (fed, state, local) may enact through building codes. The FEMA keeps case studies, for other people to copy and learn. Hurricane-prone states have programs specifically to address construction in the hurricane zones.

Living in a "Windstorm II" area, our bigggest concern is wind-blown debris smashing a window, which lets the wind blow inside, which can then rip the roof off from the inside. That's why hurricane shutters are a big deal. (We're still saving up to buy nice shutters for our house.) Our stick-built house, with brick "veneer", is built to withstand winds gusting to 110 MPH. Note that the above Louisiana success story added $12K to the cost of the house, and would probably violate most planned-subdivision regulations.

That said, a friend from Puerto Rico was shocked when she first moved up here. She nearly put her hammer through the wall trying to hang a picture. "What! The walls aren't made of cement blocks?!"

"But you have taken it to a whole new level by not reading an article you are telling us about "

*Ahem*. As guygee already pointed out, they were storing the AP in aluminum shipping containers as well as plastic drums and open bins. And not only have I read the WP article, I've read a couple of reports on the PEPCON distaster. This one is from the United States Fire Administration, and covers the fire and emergency response in detail. This one is mainly concerned with how the blast wave and projectiles, and the resulting damage, progressed.

I believe you owe me an apology.

Another thing, engineers design their buildings/bridges/etc. to withstand known threats, or specific levels of specific threats (i.e. a "100-year flood").

And failure to meet those specifications can sometimes be life-threatening.

They'll conduct the exercise, discover that there are serious problems--just as every other evaluation of our cybersecurity has discovered. They'll make a report, the report will note that to fix things it would be necessary to spend money. And involve uncomfortable decisions like reducing our dependence on a monoculture of Microsoft Windows.

The decision-makers will decide (as they have so far about everything involving actual defensive measures involving the homeland that they would prefer to spend the money in some other way. They'll appoint yet another cyber defense "czar" as evidence of action, he will start with the clear understanding that the one thing he can't do is get the funding to implement the measures recommended in the report.

And when the actual attack happens and is devastating, they'll say nobody could have anticipated it.

See also Hurricane Pam

It appears that you still don't believe me. You still seem to think that Travelers is doing this of their own accord. There is only so many times I can say it, the Flood program is a federal program. Yes, Travelers will sell to areas that meet the federal requirements. But, Travelers is participating in a program set up by federal government. If they hadn't signed an agreement with the Feds, they wouldn't be selling flood insurance:

If you still don't believe me, then buy a house in a flood zone and talk with your insurance agent about how the flood insurance program works. You might be dealing with a Travelers Agent, but the program is a government program.

It may even be more appropriate to declare martial law. Surely, if some sort of nationwide crisis or panic ensued because of the bird flu, this will be first thing done. Any government will do what is necessary to contain any substantial outbreak and justify it. They will take your land, your liberty, and your freedom in the process.

In the U.S, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) may effectively have the power to suspend the Constitution. This power was granted, not by Congress, but by the President of the United States. He is the command-in-chief of the military, and will use it to enforce of this policy. Now, FEMA's use of power has not gone that far yet, but tinfoil hat aside, it may come down to this if big emergencies occur. Katrina will be a drop in the bucket compared to an disease outbreak or a nuclear / biological / chemical attack occurs. Violating obscure patents will not be even a blip on their collective radar.

The mayor of New Orleans was an incompetent boob, and that changes absolutely nothing about how dreadfully slow and stupidly organized the federal response was.

You forgot the state of Louisiana. Every level screwed up, mostly by not mobilizing the response *before* the hurricane hit. The response was slow and badly-organized... what do you expect? It takes time to organize and deploy a large-scale response, and there's likely no way it could have been done much faster. If the wheels had been set in motion two or three days earlier, however, things would have gone much more smoothly.

I still think the single biggest mistake, though, was that although the Mayor of New Orleans ordered a mandatory evacuation, he didn't provide any transportation for those who didn't have it, and didn't take any precautions to preserve the transportation assets he had. If more of the people had gotten out before the hurricane, the scale of the required response would have been much smaller, and smaller is easier. If the city had moved its own transportation assets to higher ground, they would have been available to start providing assistance much more quickly.

The state and Federal governments have to shoulder their share of the blame, but the main responsibility for preparation and planning for local disasters is (and should be) on the local government. They know the problems, the people and the options. They may not have the resources, but it's their job to figure out who does and make the arrangements in advance with those who do have them.

For example, my little town of about 10,000 people, situated in an area where the possibilities for natural disaster are few has very complete disaster plans. There is an extensive and well-organized CERT organization with trained volunteer coordinators all the way down to the block level.

The block coordinators have surveyed their blocks to find out what emergency related resources (chainsaws, pumps, ATVs, medical supplies, trucks... a list of nearly 100 different resources are categorized) and skills (medical training, survival skills, construction skills, etc.) are available in all of the homes in their area. This information is forwarded to area coordinators and made available to the city.

City and volunteer planners have worked with county, state and federal agencies to develop contingency plans for every concievable disaster. Most of the information about plans and resources is computerized, and all of it is kept in hard copy in multiple locations to ensure its availability.

Once or twice a year, the city has simulated disasters in which the volunteers are mobilized, along with city and county emergency teams. The pre-established communication chains through the volunteers are tested. The ability of the city and CERT teams to provide all necessary information to emergency agencies is validated. The official agencies learn the strengths and limitations of the volunteer organization.

I'm sure that the same program couldn't be applied directly to a much larger city, but a much larger city should also have significantly more resources and much less need to depend on volunteers for the planning and preparation. It's pretty clear that New Orleans had not put enough effort into preparing for this sort of disaster, which is absolutely amazing given how obvious it was that it was eventually going to happen.

Currently to complete your application online you must be using Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6.0 or above.

Let's not be so hasty: "FEMA can trace its beginnings to the Congressional Act of 1803. This act, generally considered the first piece of disaster legislation, provided assistance to a New Hampshire town following an extensive fire. In the century that followed, ad hoc legislation was passed more than 100 times in response to hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters." http://www.fema.gov/about/history.shtm

Since its founding in 1979, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) mission has been clear

According to this newsrelease http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18686 FEMA is visiting shelters and setting up centers so people don't have to have access to a computer in order to receive aid.

Before people start freaking out that the only way for a person to receive aid is through an online method maybe you should do a little research. Just because FEMA has a method setup online does not mean that the agency is waiting for everyone to go to their website. True, given the response to the hurricane itself it is easy to believe that FEMA would expect people without water, food, or electricity to get online in order to receive any aid, but that does not appear to be the case.

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="0; URL=IAC/">

Their server is probably getting pounded by clients reloading the page endlessly. Whoever designed this site deserves to be fired.

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="0; URL=IAC/">

Their server is probably getting pounded by clients reloading the page endlessly. Whoever designed this site deserves to be fired.

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="0; URL=IAC/">

Their server is probably getting pounded by clients reloading the page endlessly. Whoever designed this site deserves to be fired.

That's quite okay. I'd rather FEMA spend resources getting their arses to help the people instead of designing a better web portal.

Well, so you're arguing that the web portal is a non-essential system. By that logic, why spend any money on a web portal at all?

The answer of course is that it's obvious that getting information to and from people who have suffered in a disaster like this is a critical task. What we're talking about is them doing a sloppy job at a mission critical task.

Now consider this: http://www.fema.gov/kids/. Now don't get me wrong: I think it's great that they went through all that effort to education tweeners on dissaster preparedness. But a tiny fraction of the cost of one of the flash games might have ensured that many refugee families could get the help they need to get back on their feet faster.

I'ts all about priorities.

Look, this is a well known operating priniciple of venal and morally corrupt political hacks: never spend money where it doesn't show. For years here in my state, we had an agency that was in charge of recreational resources like skating rinks and beaches on one hand, and essential infrastructure like water supply and sewerage treatment on the other. Guess where the money went? Of course the sewage treatment plants were dumping pathogens onto the beaches they maintained, but since you couldn't see the pathogens, it didn't (politically) matter, until they got their ass sued and we went from having the cheapest water rates in the country to the most expensive, because of all that rotting infrastructure that had never been maintained. We had water distribution mains that were over a hundred years old and made of wood. Nobody did anything about them because you'd have to spend money and people would complain about the streets being torn up.

Your assumptions about cost are way off base. It's maintaining the appearance of being on the ball when nothing is actually happening that's too expensive to do on multiple browsers. Providing the critical, essential functions without unnecessary bells and whistles would actually be cheaper and more robust in an emergency scenario. So what if your web portal that's dressed up like a cheap streetwalker is too difficult to get to display nicely on cell phone browsers? You probably shouldn't piggyback your disaster response systems with your PR stuff anyway.

Here. I already gave 'em my 2 cents.

Surely they can be nailed on the accessibility.
There is a nice helpful link on every page saying that they are committed to accessibility.
There is even a email address, to allow people who think that accessibility to this site is sub-optimal, to contact them.
If you know anyone who feels this way, maybe they should send an email to
FEMAOPA@dhs.gov
and I'm sure they will be pleased to sort it out.

Well, i clicked on
"Go to FEMA Online Registration/Individual Assistance Center" and disabled cookies, to see the page tries to load in an infinite loop.

Using Firefox and when prompted about cookies, set to deny.

"Loading..."
Refreshes
"Loading..."
Refreshes

The actual site is:
https://disasteraid.fema.gov/

Maybe they have been /.ed?

from the above link:

Written Correspondence: FEMA P.O. Box 10055 Hyattsville, MD 20782-7055 Fax: (800) 827-8112

Technical Assistance: (800) 745-0243 Monday- Friday, 8:00am - 5:00pm ET The technical helpdesk provides technical support for the on-line registration and user account creation applications and cannot answer disasters assistance related questions.

Please though, remember these people are a federal aid agency working overtime. PLEASE BE CORTEOUS when asking them.

Private insurance companies will be writing billions of dollars in claims checks to the victims of the flood

There is no private flood insurance in the United States. When your insurance company offers your flood insurance, they're actually offering you the taxpayer-backed National Flood Insurance Program, which is what the parent is referring to.

> But in Minnesota we don't consider ice storms natural disasters

Really? Apparently Duluth suffered a "disaster" in 1999 due to severe storms. I wouldn't be suprised if such declarations were reasonably common.

http://www.fema.gov/news/event.fema?id=374

Apparently you're woefully unaware that Lake Pontchartrain is (well, was) surrounded by wetlands on all sides. Oh, and in case you don't know what FEMA's job is and what they were *supposed* to be doing, here's a link:

DISASTER. It strikes anytime, anywhere. It takes many forms -- a hurricane, an earthquake, a tornado, a flood, a fire or a hazardous spill, an act of nature or an act of terrorism. It builds over days or weeks, or hits suddenly, without warning. Every year, millions of Americans face disaster, and its terrifying consequences.

On March 1, 2003, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). FEMA's continuing mission within the new department is to lead the effort to prepare the nation for all hazards and effectively manage federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates proactive mitigation activities, trains first responders, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration.

Certainly the local and state governments deserve a huge amount of blame for not having concrete evacuation procedures ready for the poor, but the federal response - FEMA's only serious duty - was outright embarrassing. And I know you don't want to fault the administration, but their vacation schedule while people were dying was outright embarrassing - Bush, flying over *two days* after New Orleans flooded, was among the first, with Cheney still vacationing in Wyoming, Andrew Card vacationing in Maine, and Condi spending the day shoe shopping at Ferragamo's and watching Spamalot.

The bomb wasn't just dropped - it was negligently tossed aside. As the city drowned and went to anarchy, no active duty military were sent in, and only a handful of poorly equipped national guard (the 256th's support brigade having most of their disaster recovery eq). FEMA toyed with the idea of getting school bus drivers to pick up people while squallor gathered at the superdome and thugs terrorized the convention center. Food and water weren't anywhere to be seen. Etc.

There's a lot of blame to go around. A damn lot. People have a right to be furious, at a lot of people - local, state, and federal. And I join them.

You can spend more and make it a dual-use room for more mundane purposes such as document storage or a wine cellar. Insurance may give you a discount, and you may be able to get funding to offset the costs.
Something to look into considering most Slashdot readers spend more than that on their computers.

The document covers hurricanes as well as tornados, but living near Xenia, OH (Google devil winds) I haven't looked into that part.

http://www.fema.gov/fima/tsfs02.shtm

The NFIP is self-supporting for the average historical loss year, which means that operating expenses and flood insurance claims are not paid for by the taxpayer, but through premiums collected for flood insurance policies. The Program has borrowing authority from the U.S. Treasury for times when losses are heavy, however, these loans are paid back with interest.

So, I still don't see how this is a subsidy.

http://www.fema.gov/ has lots of stuff up, but dhs.gov doesn't. How weird.

That was indeed a powerful article. I had read it moments before you posted. And it got me thinking. What do we know about Mr. Brown, the head of FEMA?

Well he's a lawyer with no experience managing disaster relief, who was promoted when the Homeland Security department was created. Contrast that with his predecessor, Joe Allbaugh, also appointed by Bush, but who had overseen a number of disasters prior to coming to the position. Prior to him, James Witt, a Clinton appointee, has previous disaster management at the state level before being elevated to the national position.

The real question is: Why in the hell do we have, as THE man in charge of disasters, someone who's entire emergency management experience consists of "serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services"?

That was indeed a powerful article. I had read it moments before you posted. And it got me thinking. What do we know about Mr. Brown, the head of FEMA?

Well he's a lawyer with no experience managing disaster relief, who was promoted when the Homeland Security department was created. Contrast that with his predecessor, Joe Allbaugh, also appointed by Bush, but who had overseen a number of disasters prior to coming to the position. Prior to him, James Witt, a Clinton appointee, has previous disaster management at the state level before being elevated to the national position.

The real question is: Why in the hell do we have, as THE man in charge of disasters, someone who's entire emergency management experience consists of "serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services"?

That was indeed a powerful article. I had read it moments before you posted. And it got me thinking. What do we know about Mr. Brown, the head of FEMA?

Well he's a lawyer with no experience managing disaster relief, who was promoted when the Homeland Security department was created. Contrast that with his predecessor, Joe Allbaugh, also appointed by Bush, but who had overseen a number of disasters prior to coming to the position. Prior to him, James Witt, a Clinton appointee, has previous disaster management at the state level before being elevated to the national position.

The real question is: Why in the hell do we have, as THE man in charge of disasters, someone who's entire emergency management experience consists of "serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services"?

I feel certain that 100% of any and all donations will go directly to New Orleans.

Well, both of those organizations are recommended by FEMA.

AmeriCares:americares.org

Baton Rouge Area Foundation(BRAF): 877.387.6126 or braf.org

Episcopal Relief & Development: 1-800-334-7626 or www.er-d.org

United Methodist Committee on Relief: 1-800-554-8583 or gbgm-umc.org/umcor/emergency/hurricanes/2005

Salvation Army: 1-800-SAL-ARMY or www.salvationarmyusa.org

Catholic Charities: 1-800-919-9338 or www.catholiccharitiesusa.org

FEMA Charity tips: www.fema.gov/rrr/help2.shtm

National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster: www.nvoad.org

Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: www.la-spca.org

Operation Blessing: 1-800-436-6348 or www.ob.org

America's Second Harvest: 1-800-344-8070 or www.secondharvest.org

Adventist Community Services: 1-800-381-7171 or www.adventist.communityservices.org

Christian Disaster Response: 1-941-956-5183 or 1-941-551-9554 or www.cdresponse.org/cdrhome.html

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee: 1-800-848-5818 or www.crwrc.org

Church World Service: 1-800-297-1516 or www.churchworldservice.org

Convoy of Hope: 1-417-823-8998 or www.convoyofhope.org

Lutheran Disaster Response: 1-800-638-3522 or www.elca.org/disaster

Mennonite Disaster Service: 1-717-859-2210 or www.mds.mennonite.net

Nazarene Disaster Response: 1-888-256-5886 or www.nazarenedisasterresponse.org

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance: 1-800-872-3283 or www.pcusa.org/pda

Southern Baptist Convention - Disaster Relief: 1-800-462-8657, ext. 6440 or www.namb.net

Or hey! Maybe we can look at a map. And afterwards, look at the FEMA flooding statistics before saying that a large chunk of disaster aid doesn't go to the gulf states for specific areas.

Or hey! Maybe we can look at a map. And afterwards, look at the FEMA flooding statistics before saying that a large chunk of disaster aid doesn't go to the gulf states for specific areas.

(Disclaimer; I'm not associated with FEMA. Message copied from wwltv.com. AFAIA conserned this message is provided "as is".)