Speaking in New Orleans on the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, President Obama declared: What started out as a natural disaster became a man-made one—a failure of government to look out for its own citizens. He then, typically, dissembled the argument, pointing to a mish-mash of “economic inequality ... a country that tolerated poverty.”...
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In the age of ceaseless parroting for “transparency,” it’s astounding to me that government do-gooders are apparently immune. The Asbury Park (NJ) Press is reporting: The Sandy relief fund chaired by New Jersey first lady Mary Pat Christie has raised more than $32 million so far. But four months after the superstorm, none of...
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The new head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, former Florida firefighter and state disaster coordinator Craig Fugate, says he hopes to steer his organization in a different direction. According to Amanda Ripley’s dispatch in the September issue of The Atlantic, Fugate wants FEMA’s role to be less paternalistic and more modest and collaborative:...
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In 2003, in the aftermath of 9/11, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was placed under the Department of Homeland Security. The disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina two years later marked the first test of the new FEMA, and there is widespread agreement that the agency utterly failed. Much of the tragedy following Katrina...
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