I'll just get to the point here. The NOLA hurricane disaster has made it clear to me that the federal government under GWB has already been hollowed out and crippled by cronyism, fraud, waste and abuse. This diminishing/crippling of the federal government apparatus is part of the Neocon agenda, and it's proceeding nicely for the benefit of the corporatists.
Until there's a thorough house cleaning, and functionality has been restored to FEMA and other government service department, it's clear to me, we need to be prepared to go it alone in our local communities. Hurricane season is just underway, and in many places, weather patterns are becoming more severe and unpredictable. Then there are the other local considerations of earthquake, fire, disease, or "terrorist" sabotage to consider.
Is our government prepared at the moment to assist communities and states in any of these cases? The answer is obviously "No".
Until further notice, I think it's probably smart to proceed as if we are, for all practical purposes, on our own. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Earthquake country! In fact, our little apartment complex (which we affectionately refer to as "The Palms") sits right on the San Leandro fault line.
My wife and i have been looking at our own disaster preparedness, and are making plans to improve our knowledge and readiness to survive a major earthquake disaster here in the Bay Area, as well as to better help our neighbors in such an event. Now, I found out that FEMA actually gives online courses to the general public on a variety of topics, and I thought I'd pass this on to the board in case anybody else has been thinking along these lines and might find it useful.
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/downloads/ISBrochure%20011805.docMore specifically for CA earthquakers, here's a few we've been looking at:
"Life along the fault line" S.F Exploratorium
http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/index.html California Office of Emergency Services
http://www.oes.ca.gov California Seismic Safety Commission
http://www.seismic.ca.gov California Division of Mines & Geology
http://www.consrv.ca.gov/dmg Association of Bay Area Government
http://www.abag.ca.gov Federal Emergency Management Agency
http://www.fema.gov American Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org US Army Corps of Engineers
http://www.usace.army.mil/inet US Geological Survey World Wide
http://www.usgs.gov US Geological Survey Western Region
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov The Community Preparedness Website Project
http://www.PrepareNow.org 
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