Blah3.com: Shorter New York Times: FEMA Still Sucks.

Saturday, September 17 2005 @ 02:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Contributed by: Stranger

NYT has a lengthy article about how FEMA is unable (or unwilling?) to get their shit together and help people. It's a long read, so I boiled it down for you.

FEMA - the same federal agency that botched the rescue mission - is faltering in its effort to aid hundreds of thousands of storm victims, local officials, evacuees and top federal relief officials say. The federal aid hot line mentioned by President Bush in his address to the nation on Thursday cannot handle the flood of calls...

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Federal officials are often unable to give local governments permission to proceed with fundamental tasks to get their towns running again. Most areas in the region still lack federal help centers...

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FEMA...is an agency with limited federal money that must quickly expand its operational capacity only after a major disaster strikes. It has not won a large chunk of the new federal homeland security dollars, that have been dedicated to terrorism.

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The president of St. Tammany Parish, Kevin Davis, is praying that it does not rain in his sweltering corner of Louisiana, because three weeks after the storm severely damaged his drainage system, FEMA has yet to give him approval to even start the repairs.