[PapaBear3625]

Fema unprepared to deliver bottled WATER? What the... Water is the #1 most important thing to deliver to people in a crisis.

FEMA is ill-suited to this mission, due to its need to place bids for relief supplies and then make contracts for delivery.

The US Army is much better suited for this. They have people trained in how to deliver supplies through rough terrain, in any weather, and adverse security conditions.

They have mobile water purification units

They have mobile field kitchens

They have fuel trucks that will go anywhere.

They have warehouses full of MREs.

And the military's supply and logistics units are mostly National Guard and Reserves, and much of the stuff is distributed all over the country.

A competent solution would have involved mobilizing Army and National Guard support units, which could have used their ready supplies, stores, and equipment immediately, and then replaced used-up stuff at leisure.

[dirtboy]

A competent solution would have involved mobilizing Army and National Guard support units, which could have used their ready supplies, stores, and equipment immediately, and then replaced used-up stuff at leisure.

Great post. Where was the wargaming for this happening? The planning off that wargaming? Sandy gave several days warning. That is sufficient time to get equipment and personnel from any National Guard facility in the lower 48. Instead, several days AFTER Sandy, they still are slow to react.

[txhurl]

Oh, so mankind DID invent desalinization/purification machines!?!?

/s

[Freedom4US]

There are macro issues and micro issues here. Part of the problem, actual leadership has been deemphasized in our culture, in favor of “consensus building” that of course is just nonsense and by definition a lack of leadership.

Today we have multiple layers of parallel organizations that have overlapping duties but don’t seem to do much of anything, except spend ridiculous amounts of money.

Right off the top of my head, the friggin’ Post Office could have a National Food and Water drive for Hurricane Impacted Areas, just like they do annually for the food bank drive. I probably have a case or two of bottled water and canned goods laying around. Multiply THAT by everybody in the country, and USE THE INFRASTRUCTURE WE HAVE already in place. There would be a massive supply in place and delivered door to door, that’s their job.

Instead everybody just stands around and waits for somebody else it’s not my department to “do something”.