Originally Posted By: Montanero
Another aspect of this is the legal one. Like with Louisiana in Hurricane Katrina, the federal government can't legally deploy military or federal assets without the request from the governor. In Puerto Rico, this was requested before the hurricane. In Louisiana, the governor did not request it until much later than expected, even refusing the offer and suggestion from the federal level at first. You generally see now that the governors will think about getting ahead of the problem, as Puerto Rico did, to avoid a Katrina disaster.
It is no longer the case that the federal government must wait for a request from a governor to deploy federal assets. One of the changes made after Katrina was to move FEMA to more of a "push" model (as opposed to a "pull" from the governor). Within certain limits, FEMA now has considerable authority to move assets and stage resources in advance of a predicted disaster such as a hurricane.

This was noted in the WaPo article:
"W. Craig Fugate, [----snip----] said that in a worst-case scenario, such as a tsunami, the federal government had long contemplated that Puerto Rico could be completely isolated, with its ports destroyed and all food and water needing to be airlifted onto the island or shuttled by Marine units that could land on beaches. Fugate said FEMA did not have to wait for a signal from Puerto Rican authorities before activating more military assets."(Emphasis added)
(Note that Fugate, a former director of FEMA, is very widely respected in the emergency management community, across the political spectrum.)
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