Everything is Federal now. Nobody knows how we got by before them. /s
See my 15.
Emergency Response is broken down like this (In MA for example):
1. City/Town Emergency Management (usually attached to the FD)
2. Regional State Emergency Management. State have different zones.
3. The Umbrella State Emergency Management system which is connected to the Governors office.
4. The Feds, through FEMA.
Most “emergencies” that people never hear of are handled locally. This includes big fires (mutual aid stuff), haz mat spills, tornadoes, blizzards, etc.
The BIG stuff is coordinated locally through BIG EM Departments, or regional staff and FEMA deals through the state to the locals.
A lot of the Criticisms happens when something big happens where it shouldn’t—a big hurricane in New England for example. Pre positioned supplies take extra time.
Of course, when disasters happen on an island supply chain stuff delays reaction. Fema doesn’t have heavy lift and artificial harbor capabilities.
The last, biggest reason for poor local performance is lack of prep or pre-positioning on the locals levels. Budgets for communities eat into supplies and when stuff happens, your suppplies are expired or cannibalized.
The best example of this was the lack of PPE during COVID. Each hopspital is supposed to have 30 days supply in their warehouse for a pandemic/epidemic. The problem is most administrators dip into their stash during the annual “flu epidemic” and then plan to restore the warehouse. This allows them to eat their inventory for the end of the year quarter—and make up for it next year. Except this year they had eaten the inventory—and got shocked with the double whammy of going low on inventory, a delay in ordering, and then the shock of the supply chain.
The shortages would have happened—but about a month later after US plants were gearing up.
FEMA and Emergency Management can only do so much. Ignorant, Stupid, or criminally negligent local staff can cause a lot of issues—as we saw in PR.