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The preceding is a direct quote from the beginning of the article. The writer supports his opinion with facts from lessons learned, published documents, and established emergency procedures. He is a voice of reason and clarity.

The link might require registration. I hope I have followed the right procedures for posting.

People in the US seem to expect federal disaster relief effort to be flawless, no mater the circumstances.

Federal emergency relief plans for hurricanes assume that the local and state governments would be competent, and that the federal government would play a supporting role at the request of the local governments. That model worked fairly well during 9/11, for last year's four hurricanes in Florida, and for the Mississippi and Alabama gulf coast regions during hurricane Katrina.

However, federal plans apparently do not provide for the contingency that the local and state governments would be worse than incompetent, and would, in fact, actually hinder response to the disaster. It took too long for the feds to adjust to the required change in role from "support of local efforts" to "primary responder" in New Orleans following hurricane Katrina.

Nevertheless, the US public expects the federal government emergency response to be flawless, no mater what the circumstances. Therefore, President Bush is, in effect, being bashed for not anticipating the inadequate performance of the New Orleans mayor and the governor of Louisiana.

At the risk of being flamed, that particular criticism may have merit. Federal emergency response, in the broad sense, should not depend on the competence of first responders. We need to rethink our model for federal disaster relief.

Right now, the feds are the third tier, following local and the state response. There needs to be the legal and structural mechanism for the feds to jump into the primary role quickly when it is apparent the the local and state governments are unable to act, or incompetent in their ability to act.

If Congress and the citizenry want the Federal government to cope with incompetent local and state government and be able to respond faster, despite local inadequacies, the need to do two things.

A. Put FEMA under DOD and Northern Command.

B. Allow the President to put an area under emergency status/martial law as soon as a natural disaster is anticipated. This would include putting all state and local resources under COMNORTHCOM.

I don't think this will happen in the near future.

Rush just mentioned another failure of local authorities in New Orleans. Apparently the federal money that was allocated to levee repair was not spent by NOLA. The federal money had to be matched, but the state matching funds for levee repair were spent on other projects. So, the federal funds went unspent.

Fellow Freepers:

At the suggestion of writer Michelle Malkin last Friday, I have cobbled together a blogsite called Texas Clearinghouse for Katrina Aid to serve as a clearinghouse for refugee efforts in Texas.

Texas is getting more refugees than any other state -- that's fine, we'll take them all -- but we need help providing them with food, clothing, and shelter.

If you are a refugee, you can information that will help you find relief. If you want to donate or volunteer, you can find someone who needs you.

Right now the site mostly covers Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio but I will add various churches, schools, and other charities in Ft. Worth and Lubbock tonight. My wife spent yesterday at Reunion Arena in Dallas handing out care packages and otherwise ministering to the refugees as a representative of her employer.

There are a lot of churches and other organizations in Texas that need help in dealing with the problem and I would greatly appreciate it if you would get the word out.

Many thanks,

Michael McCullough

Stingray blogsite