[LambSlave]

Because disaster relief is not a Constitutional power of the federal government (as stated by early presidents) without an amendment that outlines limits to the power.

[hinckley buzzard]

Correct. And well into the turn of the twentieth century, private charity was expected, and widespread to aid the "deserving" needy such as the innocent victims of the storm. The Progressives of the early twentieth century sought to eliminate private charity and replace it with government funding. Politicians, seeing the opportunity to buy votes, never looked back.