BN> Again you are not getting it. FEMA does not do the direct care
BN> and damage control. They are the facilation agency. they pull all
BN> the police, fire, and relief agencies together
 MS>     FEMA wasn't even successful at _that_ during and after Fran (or
 MS> the hurricane in the Virgin Islands).
 MS>     "You can delegate authority but not responsibility" is an old GI
 MS> saying.  If FEMA chose lousy agencies to delegate work to, it's FEMA's
 MS> fault.
As far as Red Cross and Salvation Army the orders to operate as a
disaster relief agency does not come from FEMA but directly from
the President and Congress. FEMA only directs the flow of
information between the agencies. If you wanted to start a new
disaster relief agency you would have to wait for Red Cross to
come in and set up disaster relief operations before your agency
could respond under Federal Law didicated by Congress.
 MS>     The civil-preparedness coordinator in neighboring Guilford County
 MS> had a far different view years before Hurricane Fran.  She complained
 MS> that FEMA endlessly wanted her agency to structure its disaster plan
 MS> around preparing for a nuclear war, rather than preparing for the
 MS> natural disasters that commonly occur here.  (She even ended up
 MS> testifying before congress about it.)
You are correct about this statement but that was many years ago
and actually before FEMA. That was back when the disaster agency
was called Civil Defense and it was under complete control of the
Defense Department. Now FEMA is a government agency of its own
that reports directly to the President and not a semi-matilairy
agency that was operated by the generals in the war-department.
That is why all they wanted was disaster in case of war as it was
war was the only training that they had.
 MS>     No, it is a FEMA that is more interested in preparing for and
 MS> dreaming up continuity-of-government plans for nuclear war than
 MS> preparing to handle hurricanes.
I used to review disaster plans for local governments and I have
not seen in many years government suggestions for nuclear war in
disaster plans. Yes there are some plans that require terrorist
plans but that is because of the types of business in the
community. Here in Rochester area yes there are some plans in
effect that show some topics of in case of war. But remember that
Kodak is located here and they have many government projects.
Actually ALL disaster plans have to cover natural and manmade
disasters and if they do not then they are rejected and have to
be started all over again. Revisions of disaster plans are not a
small item. They take many years to write and test and write
again. You will find that there in the past 10 years have been
passed more requlation on hazardous materials and flooding then
on any other disaster topic.
Bill
... Bill Newman -- Rochester, NY  --  wtnewman@rochgte.fidonet.org
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