I Prayed have prayed
Lord God, we pray that we would be responsible to prepare, willing to help, and quick to respond in times of crisis.

As Hurricane Dorian leaves devastation in the Bahamas and now threatens the Southeast coast, the Federal Emergency Management Agency says its team of 4,000 people is ready to respond.

But former FEMA Director Brock Long, who dealt with hundreds of emergency events, including the record flooding in Houston and the hurricane devastation in Puerto Rico in 2017, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, “I think FEMA faces unrealistic expectations by Congress and the American public.”

Long said FEMA’s emergency managers “bust their rear ends to serve other people.” But he also said the criteria for what constitutes a major disaster needs to change, along with people’s expectations about what FEMA can do:

You know, if you look at 50 percent of the disasters that FEMA has historically declared, they’re less than $7.5 million. And, in some cases, you know, we’ve got to stop looking at FEMA as 911. This is a partnership.

You know, if we want to get better and become more resilient and respond better, then we have to refocus the training upon how we ask citizens to be prepared, not just going out and having supplies for five to seven days, but be — you know, teaching them how to become more financially resilient, teaching them that insurance is the first line of defense, not FEMA, teaching them tangible skills like CPR, that when they face active shooter events.

But we also have to bolster state — state and local capabilities. But, more importantly, until Congress starts to incentivize putting building codes in place, land-use planning in place, incentivizing states and locals for insuring their public infrastructure, FEMA’s job is impossible.

So it wasn’t a knock on FEMA, it’s just we have to set realistic expectations for the agency and really bolster the capability from neighbor helping neighbor, all the way to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

(Excerpt from CNS News, article by Susan Jones.)

 

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Bill Tobey
September 7, 2019

I worked with FEMA during Hurricanes Rita, Katrina & Harvey.

In so many instances homes and particular mobile homes didn’t stand a chance of surviving because they were built cheaply and in many instances knew if they were destroyed FEMA & SBA would loan them low-cost taxpayer money to rebuild.
Finally, FEMA & SBA are limiting what areas they will provide low-cost loans for. For instance, the Outer Banks are no longer eligible for low-cost loans. The homes would be destroyed every few years and the owners would get new homes at discounted interest rates.
SBA has also put in place much tighter building codes particularly for mobile homes so they will survive most disasters.
The people who live in the disaster zones are building more and more homes close to the ocean. They are dommed to be destroyed but the cities and states refuse to put in place building codes that prohibit such building. Then when a disaster happens everyone expects the Feds to be the solution.
I remember in my small hometown in upstate New York when a home was destroyed, we didn’t look to solutions outside the community we came alongside and rebuilt the home.
My heart goes out to those who are impacted but the Feds are not the solution.

marilyn Leahy
September 7, 2019

I feel this is confirmation of an answer to my prayer for the church to get this. I don’t have a lot of time to share but the Lord gave me Zeph 3 and pinpointed certain verses but all are fine and pertain putting in the Bahamas name and also Isa 23 when I was seeking Him about how to go about handling the Bahamas.
The church needs to go in and evangelize if the FEMA and insurance companies go in and throw money at the people there will be no repentance or change such as what happened in New Orleans. He loves the people and so do I but helping to bail them out mainly financailly will not help them for eternity. thats all people mostly care about and its got to stop. We can’t keep rebuilding these places and expect different results. He wants the people to turn from their sins not be enabled by spirit of mamon. I don’t think this will be very popular but I believe it is right.

Pat
September 5, 2019

I have always wondered how/why it is “assumed” that FEMA can fix all disasters. As much as any one individual or organization WANTS to do, there is a limit as to what they CAN do. Human and financial resources are not limitless. If we are involved in a disaster, let us individually do whatever we can to help. Many small efforts can have a large impact.

Laura
September 5, 2019

I agree that training is necessary as stated in this portion:

…. and become more resilient and respond better, then we have to refocus the training upon how we ask citizens to be prepared, not just going out and having supplies for five to seven days, but be teaching them how to become more financially resilient, teaching them that insurance is the first line of defense,

Lord please let these comments be heard by those in senior positions and actions taken for it to be so. Amen

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