Posted on 09/02/2019 5:03:32 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
Former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Brock Long warned Sunday that Congress, local institutions and individuals must help FEMA for it to complete its mission effectively.
"FEMA faces unrealistic expectations by Congress and the American public," Long told CBS’s Margaret Brennan on "Face the Nation." "We’ve got to stop looking at FEMA as 911. This is a partnership."
Long, who served as head of FEMA from June 2017 to May 2019, said that “we have to refocus the training” to better equip citizens in terms of disaster preparedness, including emphasizing that “insurance is the first line of defense.”
“Until Congress starts to incentivize putting building codes in place and land use planning in place, incentivizing states and locals for ensuring their public infrastructure, FEMA's job is impossible,” Long said.
“We have to set realistic expectations for the agency and really bolster the capability from neighbor helping neighbor all the way to the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” he added.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Brock Long is correct.
FEMA is EMERGENCY aid AFTER a disaster.
FEMA is NOT responsible for building and maintaining infrastructure to mitigate storms and other natural and man-made disasters.
FEMA is NOT responsible for local PRE-PLANNING and coordinating emergency preparedness.
State and local governments continue to fail to take pre-emptive action to safeguard communities from disasters.
FEMA is NOT responsible for the failures of local and state governments to build emergency infrastructure for threats from known disaster risks.
Simply put: FEMA is NOT a first responder.
I heard this guy on TV last night. He is so right. People need to take some responsibility, and prepare, for their own safety and survival — as much as is humanly possible. The “E” in FEMA is for “emergency”.
Had a Governor of NC, think it was Hunt, who said that anybody who stays in an evacuation area has to expect and be ready to be on their own for three days.
Rat states and their political controller always point the finger toward Washington only when their is a republican in office. Bush was to blame for Katrina while nagan and the gov sat by purposely and watched and walked away free and clear.
I’d make that a week.
And have a mindset that is prepared for longer.
FEMA seems to be a Hurricane response team
100+ years ago, few people lived near the beach. The land was bad, usually far from civilization, and of course, the occurrence of disasters were common.
FEMA is no subsidizing all of them.
These people are building houses, hotels, and businesses on the beach and local and state governments are allowing them to do it without building infrastructure to mitigate risks or requiring building codes for disasters unique to a community.
The result is we pay FEMA to clean-up the mess state and local governments fail to plan for.
Actually, Florida counties have very good building codes that require new buildings to be hurricane resistaant. Construction is monitored to asssure compliance.
The problem is with older structures that were not up graded to code
As a case in point, the news video concentrate on a wrecked gas station canopy and a trailer park with damages. Adjacent to the gas station was a “newer”motel apparently unscathed.
How ever, there is Staten Island. New York bent to realestaate developers and allowed residential construction in known flood zones and then bitched because “the government” did not make them whole after the hurricane
In costal Alabama,there are blocks of wiped out, bare lots. The house of Jefferson Davis is apparently ubscathed and it is 150+ years old. New construction is to code and on stilts to allow the storm surge to pass through the structure.
I’m okay with reasonable emergency rescue (not putting others at risk for improper preparation), but rebuilding and restoring stuff that shouldn’t have been built on the ocean’s edge or in flood plains to start with has been a decades-growing moral hazard.
If insurance companies won’t cover it, the property damage has to be the owners’ risk—including the cost of replacement/temporary housing.
These municipalities cannot even run a water treatment system.
Having been upgraded, there are buildings and homes in Charleston SC that have survived 200+ years of hurricanes
Is she the ding bat who called preppers evil hoarders?
““Until Congress starts to incentivize putting building codes in place and land use planning in place, incentivizing states and locals for ensuring their public infrastructure, FEMA’s job is impossible,” Long said. “
It’s not the Feds place to do this.
” People need to take some responsibility, and prepare, for their own safety and survival “
Millions of people have been raised by the government and we’re importing millions more absolute sheep.
When we moved to TN, I was so impressed by the women I came in contact with who are TN born-and-bred. They are tough, self sufficient, sharp shooters, and have knowledge and common sense that comes from generations of surviving. I told DH that if the time comes when the SHTF, I’d rather be with my quilting group than home. They can take care of business without a second thought.
Back in ‘64 I lived awhile in Charleston. We had to make ready our construction sites for 7 hurricanes in August and September. Most did not hit Charleston but I have pictires of hurricane flags flying down on The Battery on two separate hurricanes that summer.
I agree but I believe the point he's trying to make is Congress needs to make it clear to local and state governments FEMA is not responsible for the failure of communities to take preemptive action to safeguard homes and businesses.
After Katrina, FEMA became the punching bag for Democrats.
FEMA is not the problem. Local and state governments that fail to recognize and prepare for disaster prone areas are the problem.
FEMA is not the problem. Local and state governments that fail to recognize and prepare for disaster prone areas are the problem.
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