WTF happened to FEMA in the last year?

[ohio_liberal]

At this time last year I had nothing but good things to say about FEMA. They were there when I needed them. They gave me money in three days to start emergency repairs when I had a foot of mud in my basement, my roof was all but gone, and it was raining in my living room. This was in the middle of disasters in FL, OH, WV, PA, KY, etc. etc. I talk to people every single day when I'm out and about and none of us can imagine why they can't help like they did here. Nobody here died because they needed a drink of clean water.

Is it just because the disaster area is so much larger? I don't understand. It seems so...incompetent.

[merwin]

1. Could have something to do with them getting rolled up into homeland

security and completely defunded.

[Vincardog]

2. aWoL's incompetence. His cronies get the leadership positions without

the skills. This is what happens when you reward incompetence.

[anarchy1999]

3. Hmmmm. they went to shit in a handbox.

Are you really surprised? This has been planned for quite some time.

Be sure to have lots of "tin foil" all around you, including your head.

[phantom power]

4. This article has some things to say about that:

SEATTLE -- In the days to come, as the nation and the people along the Gulf Coast work to cope with the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we will be reminded anew, how important it is to have a federal agency capable of dealing with natural catastrophes of this sort. This is an immense human tragedy, one that will work hardship on millions of people. It is beyond the capabilities of state and local government to deal with. It requires a national response.

Which makes it all the more difficult to understand why, at this moment, the country's premier agency for dealing with such events -- FEMA -- is being, in effect, systematically downgraded and all but dismantled by the Department of Homeland Security.

Apparently homeland security now consists almost entirely of protection against terrorist acts. How else to explain why the Federal Emergency Management Agency will no longer be responsible for disaster preparedness? Given our country's long record of natural disasters, how much sense does this make?

What follows is an obituary for what was once considered the preeminent example of a federal agency doing good for the American public in times of trouble, such as the present.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/29/AR2005082901445_pf.html

[Dogmudgeon]

5. De-funded. Gutted.

The body parts of the corpse distributed to the military for Bush's little Iraq debacle.

The levee program in N.O. was de-funded. People and supplies evaporated. Most of it was because of Iraq, and some of it was because Bush's philosophy dictated that charitable relief was the sole province of religious organizations.

Five million people have been directly affected; FEMA now is only equipped to handle little more than a township-wide flood or a tornado.

--p!

[Sydnie]

6. It was an election year. They needed the votes. They don't WANT

these votes. I seem to recall from last year that PA was one of the last to see FEMA because it was not polling as well for blivet**.

[xray s]

7. This is a great article recapping BushCo looting FEMA

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_09/007023.php