[SaraJohnson]

I agree, if a homeowner does not have insurance, they made a bad decision and have to live with the consequences.

What FEMA can and should do is help get the infrastructure back up after a disaster. The roads are often covered in debris and wrecked after disasters, and schools are often demolished, for example. Cities and towns are not financially equipped to rebuild all that quickly.

Private utilities rebuild all their equipment and infrastructure. FEMA did well in coordinating utility companies in regions to work as a team with others to help get utilities back up quickly.

But property and business owners have to insure their own properties and stuff or they will lose it. FEMA has way too much money and power.

[RockinRight]

I generally agree except for the “flood” issue.

Regular insurance won’t cover floods, for reasons I won’t get into, but basically because floods are almost always large-scale damage, whereas, a house fire (a more typical reason) is usually isolated to a single property.

Flood insurance is generally only purchased by people in a flood plain, but when disasters like this happen a LOT of people are affected who normally wouldn’t have a reason in a million years to have flood insurance.

[PeterPrinciple]

FEMA did well in coordinating utility companies in regions to work as a team with others to help get utilities back up quickly.

---

I remember the utility companies doing this on their own before FEMA.

[Arthur McGowan]

Cities and towns are not financially equipped to rebuild all that quickly.

They, too, should carry insurance.