A bureaucracy is what it is, a bureaucracy.
Living in N. Californicator Land, we have floods, earthquakes, and serious big fires.
FEMA is even worse than the Red Cross re all talk and no show/real response.
The real responders re providing food, shelter, clothing and other needs have been the Salvation Army, local Churches and citizens collecting and just buying and bringing things to the needy.
A grandson of friends, lives in Sacramento. Recently they had a bad fire north of there. He and fellow teens pooled their money, got money from friends and relatives. Then, they negotiated deals with the discounters and bought Pampers, formula and other baby items. Then, they drove to where the dislocated people were and dropped off the baby goods with locals there to distribute to parents with babies.
Two summers ago, a county north of here had huge fires and entire cities were evacuated. Some ended up at a fair grounds out of the fire area. Our local Salvation Army sent its truck/kitchen up and served breakfast and lunch and had food going up for dinner.
My wife and I dropped by the Salvation Army’s local kitchen and asked them what they needed then or for the next day. They needed eggs, bacon, hash browns, bread for toast and salad for the non meat eaters for breakfast the next day.
Before, we got out to go buy some stuff, a local egg rancher and his wife dropped off a mini palette of eggs about 3.5’ high and 3.5’ across. So we bought bacon, hash browns, and bags of salad and took that back down to their center to go up to their truck/kitchen for breakfast the next day. Others did the same for the next few days.
In 4 decades of living in an earthquake, flood and fire area, I have never heard of anyone getting anything from FEMA!
Our local churches, the synagogue, the Salvation Army and other local non profits have fed the people and brought water, blankets and other necessities of life, that went directly to those in need.
I saw a study in a peer reviewed journal about the performance of FEMA vs. the private sector such as Walmart and Home depot during natural disasters. FEMA did not compare well. Walmart and Home Depot constantly monitor the weather in their own disaster centers, and can route materials within hours to areas before and after the disaster. The paper concluded that if you don’t die in the disaster, and you have a Walmart in your town, you will not die after the disaster.
Obama sent the money to Iran..