Now kids. Play nice. We can all disagree as to whether the poor response to Katrina was the result of mistakes and poor planning or a racial/political/class conspiracy. The point I think Martin (and the head of FEMA) is trying to make is that the person primarily responsible for taking care of you is you. Especially in the short run, where the authorities may be overwhelmed until reinfocements arive.

FEMA is working from the top down with programs shuch as the National Incident Management System, which provides a standardized system that allows different agencies and jurisdictions to coordinate responses to a wide range of incidents.

We as interested practitioners of preparednass can be working from the bottom up, starting with being prepared ourselves, then graduating to helping our neighbors prepare. Its obvious from this thread that some localities are better prepared than others, just like during Katrina. So there is still a lot of work to do. More in some places than others.