FEMA response (or lack there of) to the hurricane disaster

[Ken]

Perhaps agencies like FEMA should first foster a close relationship with some local people, then hire local folks to do as much of the actual wok as possible. (That is, instead of sending in thousands to outsiders, who not only do not know their way around, but also do not know the culture.) The local people will already know the area, and personally know many of those they are going in to help. It would also inject much needed income into the community, as it struggles to recover.

What you are describing is actually what FEMA does. They have major disaster preparedness programs in which they work with local governments and other non-profit organizations to do local disaster preparedness BEFOREHAND. Not just drills, but disaster planning and training and funding for those sorts of activities. FEMA has a whole office of National Preparedness in which they work with local communities in every area of disaster planning and provide grants for that sort of activity. But this is a very big country with tens of thousands of communities everywhere, and FEMA is not that big of an agency. So they obviously aren't going to get everywhere, and a lot of this work is going to fall to state and county level disaster preparedness agencies.

I'm not sure where you all are getting the notion that FEMA does all this stuff first-hand and brings in outsiders to do stuff. If, for example, a hurricane washes out a bridge or highway in X-county. FEMA doesn't bring in its own Federal highway construction workers. If there is a Federal disaster declaration then FEMA can provide grant money to the local county highway department to fix that bridge or road and they hire whatever local contractors that they normally use. The Federal disaster declaration which must be requested by the governor and approved by the president is what unlocks those funds so they can be used.

[Neto]

Perhaps agencies like FEMA should first foster a close relationship with some local people, then hire local folks to do as much of the actual wok as possible. (That is, instead of sending in thousands to outsiders, who not only do not know their way around, but also do not know the culture.) The local people will already know the area, and personally know many of those they are going in to help. It would also inject much needed income into the community, as it struggles to recover.

What you are describing is actually what FEMA does. They have major disaster preparedness programs in which they work with local governments and other non-profit organizations to do local disaster preparedness BEFOREHAND. Not just drills, but disaster planning and training and funding for those sorts of activities. FEMA has a whole office of National Preparedness in which they work with local communities in every area of disaster planning and provide grants for that sort of activity. But this is a very big country with tens of thousands of communities everywhere, and FEMA is not that big of an agency. So they obviously aren't going to get everywhere, and a lot of this work is going to fall to state and county level disaster preparedness agencies.

I'm not sure where you all are getting the notion that FEMA does all this stuff first-hand and brings in outsiders to do stuff. If, for example, a hurricane washes out a bridge or highway in X-county. FEMA doesn't bring in its own Federal highway construction workers. If there is a Federal disaster declaration then FEMA can provide grant money to the local county highway department to fix that bridge or road and they hire whatever local contractors that they normally use. The Federal disaster declaration which must be requested by the governor and approved by the president is what unlocks those funds so they can be used.

From a news interview with a high level FEMA person, who stated how many thousands of workers had been sent in. So if what you are saying is correct, then this top level person was mistaken, and giving out false information. (Probably with good intentions, but still false.)

[Sorry that I cannot find the exact newscast where I heard this interview. I was listening to lots of different one. The interview video feed showed the FEMA official's actual title on the screen for just a bit at the beginning of the interview, but unfortunately I didn't make note of it. That one I saw after the one I linked to above, so what he said seemed to be confirmed by what the FEMA rep stated - that they were using their own personnel. (He had also mentioned that the government is using a list of pre-approved construction companies, thus excluding small local companies who would probably not generally have any reason to apply for this special government status, because they are not seeking contracts for work far from their base of operation or home location.)]

[Ken]

Perhaps agencies like FEMA should first foster a close relationship with some local people, then hire local folks to do as much of the actual wok as possible. (That is, instead of sending in thousands to outsiders, who not only do not know their way around, but also do not know the culture.) The local people will already know the area, and personally know many of those they are going in to help. It would also inject much needed income into the community, as it struggles to recover.

What you are describing is actually what FEMA does. They have major disaster preparedness programs in which they work with local governments and other non-profit organizations to do local disaster preparedness BEFOREHAND. Not just drills, but disaster planning and training and funding for those sorts of activities. FEMA has a whole office of National Preparedness in which they work with local communities in every area of disaster planning and provide grants for that sort of activity. But this is a very big country with tens of thousands of communities everywhere, and FEMA is not that big of an agency. So they obviously aren't going to get everywhere, and a lot of this work is going to fall to state and county level disaster preparedness agencies.

I'm not sure where you all are getting the notion that FEMA does all this stuff first-hand and brings in outsiders to do stuff. If, for example, a hurricane washes out a bridge or highway in X-county. FEMA doesn't bring in its own Federal highway construction workers. If there is a Federal disaster declaration then FEMA can provide grant money to the local county highway department to fix that bridge or road and they hire whatever local contractors that they normally use. The Federal disaster declaration which must be requested by the governor and approved by the president is what unlocks those funds so they can be used.

From a news interview with a high level FEMA person, who stated how many thousands of workers had been sent in. So if what you are saying is correct, then this top level person was mistaken, and giving out false information. (Probably with good intentions, but still false.)

[Sorry that I cannot find the exact newscast where I heard this interview. I was listening to lots of different one. The interview video feed showed the FEMA official's actual title on the screen for just a bit at the beginning of the interview, but unfortunately I didn't make note of it. That one I saw after the one I linked to above, so what he said seemed to be confirmed by what the FEMA rep stated - that they were using their own personnel. (He had also mentioned that the government is using a list of pre-approved construction companies, thus excluding small local companies who would probably not generally have any reason to apply for this special government status, because they are not seeking contracts for work far from their base of operation or home location.)]

FEMA only has about 20,000 employees nationwide so they are scattered all over dealing with wildfires in the west, floods, hurricanes, ongoing recovery in Puerto Rico, etc. And a lot of them do things like preparedness training and planning, not disaster recovery.

Virtually all the money FEMA hands out is either individual assistance grants (to individuals) or public assistance grants to local governments and other public organizations. So most of the work by FEMA people on the ground is guiding this process. It isn't FEMA doing the contracting, but local governments and agencies. But since it is Federal money local recipients do need to do competitive bidding and follow Federal contracting rules which are actually supposed to prioritize local contractors. But there easily could be fly-by-night small operations that aren't properly bonded and such and so would have difficulty bidding: https://www.fema.gov/assistance/public/ ... ligibility Your on-site FEMA people are mostly guiding local agencies and groups through this process. Which yes, is complex and full of red tape. Mostly to prevent fraud and money being diverted to no-disaster purposes. They don't want to give say $1 million to a local police station for building repairs and see it instead be used for a new weight room for cops or some such.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Come on Ken, you know that money can be shifted between accounts and funds in a government agency. I spent most of my career in one, and have seen it done. This current administration seems to care more for these unwanted and uninvited “guests” than they do for rural America.

Actually, no agencies can't do that. Not from two separate statutory sources.

Sure if an agency has a set budget for operations they can shift money from office supplies to travel or some such. Those are just arbitrary subdivisions of the same larger budget that the agency has the authority to reallocate since the agency itself made those distinctions in the first place.

But here we are talking about two completely separate statutory pools of money from Congress that are from two completely separate laws. FEMA is a "pass-through" agency that administers (or passes-on) funds from various sources. It is part of the enormous Department of Homeland Security which gets both Disaster Relief money for natural disasters and humanitarian relief for migrants. DHS uses FEMA as the pass-through agency to disperse both pools of money. Neither are actually part of the operations budget for FEMA itself which would be separate as well.

You are repeating an allegation of government malfeasance on the basis of a single video of the press secretary talking about two separate programs on two different occasions? That claim ridiculous and the claim is without merit absent actual evidence that this is what FEMA is doing.

I have personally seen it done. Money moved from “university “ to “hospital “ accounts. All you need is a reason, and the right signatures.

[Ken]

Come on Ken, you know that money can be shifted between accounts and funds in a government agency. I spent most of my career in one, and have seen it done. This current administration seems to care more for these unwanted and uninvited “guests” than they do for rural America.

Actually, no agencies can't do that. Not from two separate statutory sources.

Sure if an agency has a set budget for operations they can shift money from office supplies to travel or some such. Those are just arbitrary subdivisions of the same larger budget that the agency has the authority to reallocate since the agency itself made those distinctions in the first place.

But here we are talking about two completely separate statutory pools of money from Congress that are from two completely separate laws. FEMA is a "pass-through" agency that administers (or passes-on) funds from various sources. It is part of the enormous Department of Homeland Security which gets both Disaster Relief money for natural disasters and humanitarian relief for migrants. DHS uses FEMA as the pass-through agency to disperse both pools of money. Neither are actually part of the operations budget for FEMA itself which would be separate as well.

You are repeating an allegation of government malfeasance on the basis of a single video of the press secretary talking about two separate programs on two different occasions? That claim ridiculous and the claim is without merit absent actual evidence that this is what FEMA is doing.

I have personally seen it done. Money moved from “university “ to “hospital “ accounts. All you need is a reason, and the right signatures.

Apples and oranges.

Money cannot legally be moved between two completely different Federal programs with someone's signature. It would take an act of Congress. And there is zero evidence that any of this is happening outside of some YouTube video talking about different programs in different years.

I'm not sure why you are doubling down on this. Some random person on the internet made a claim that was proven false. That should be the end of it.