Originally Posted By: gatormba
Originally Posted By: Susan
In the event of a deliberate nuclear event, what makes anyone think that FEMA will be operable? It's headquartered in Washington D.C., one of the most likely targets. Are the local ones in any position to take over, or are they also in a place that would be a likely target?

The trouble with government agencies is that they make plans for the best-case scenarios, not the worst-case scenarios. They do what is easiest and what is most politically expedient.

Sue


You bring up an interesting point. If the FEMA leadership were taken out by the attack, I think FEMA would still be operable but due to the chaos associated with the senior people being gone any response from FEMA would be delayed. For example, instead of 3 days for FEMA to you help it may be 7,10, or 12 days. This is just one more reason why I think everyone should be prepared on all fronts to shelter in place for at least 2 weeks or more. Government "help" will arrive eventually but I don't count on it in any of my plans for at least 14 days that way if they get here sooner they will have exceeded my expectations and my plans.


FEMA is divided into a number of regions, the Pacific Northwest for instance is in Region X (ten), and has independent leadership reporting to those in Washington DC. When disaster strikes, states turn to their FEMA regional leadership, not to DC, and they lead FEMA response unless / until the response is so large that DC has to step in with a national presence. The Red Cross and a number of other agencies operate the same way - all disasters are local, local response works well until resources are overwhelmed, at which point you call in state, regional and eventually federal (and even international) level response.

Like I said, I think the Region X FEMA has been pretty good so far - alot of Fugate appointments, folks working real problems, running realistic scenarios, and figuring out the logistics of response to different disasters. Apart from some critical administrative leadership, supplies and other resources aren't all located in the DC area. I would venture to say that if DC were taken out in some sort of nuclear attack, FEMA regional administrators could continue to be responsible for response in their regions.