MS>     If FEMA was so godawful powerful, how come there was two weeks of
 MS> outright anarchy in the U.S. Virgin Islands after a recent hurricane?
 MS> During that period, local _cops_ joined in the massive looting until
 MS> the National Guard was finally sent from Puerto Rico.
First, It takes any agency time to get to a disaster when there
is complete distruction like there was. Red Cross and Salvation
Army were not there very fast either if I can bring that back to
my memorry. I remember some reports that were issued that it was
four or five days before response from either ageny in the U.S.
made it to the island due to transportation problems. Taht is
very slow for either one of them.
 MS>     During and after Hurricane Andrew, Florida politicians griped
 MS> incessantly about the lack of federal response.  The failure of Bush's
 MS> Washington to do anything hurt Bush badly in Florida.
 MS>     After Hurricane Fran here, federal response was so klutzy that
 MS> politically-connected people got National Guard generators before
 MS> hospitals.     If FEMA couldn't handle a hurricane, how could it
 MS> handle a nuclear war?
Two different problems are seen above. Yes FEMA did not respond
as fast as they should have. The reason was that they did not
expect the problem to be as large as it was. I was working for
Salvation Army at the time in the disaster office and was on
vacation. By the time I was contacted and was able to get started
on assistance there was a couple of days that passed. I myself
did not think that there was going to be as widespread and heavy
a damage. Hurricanes have hit there before and have not done much
but this one made up for the problems of past.
With Hurricane Fran the reason that politically-connected people
went out on their own to get items was jsut that they would not
listen to the people like myself that had the knowledge of what
to do in a disaster. The politicians think they know all in a
disaster but they do not have the education or the knowledge to
look over a problem and then get the needed materials to where
they are needed most first. The generators that were rec'd from
the National Guards were used to provide power to the mayor's
private office and home. They were better to be used for the
communications centers and the shelters that had to wait because
of the pollitician butting in and doing what they thought was
right or what they thought would buy them some votes. That the
game with politics is votes and not the real needs of the people.
Bill
... Bill Newman -- Rochester, NY  --  wtnewman@rochgte.fidonet.org
--- PPoint 2.02
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