A major mistake was made when FEMA was made a agency within the DHS... That was wrong because it adds an extra layer of people between the president, who sometimes has to act quickly, and FEMA... It should reorganized as a separate agency that reports directly to the president...

Secondly, FEMA isn't like an army of first responders... It is there to maintain contracts with all the various vendors so that when something does hit, it has folks within private companies that perform... And, yes, it is kinda like a big insurance company that pays out large claims to state and local governments for fixing stuff and providing temporary shelter, food and water to victims of disasters...

Katrina was badly bungled because folks really were in positions that were clueless... Brownie was clueless... Actually, Bush was clueless and his people had to force him to fly over New Orleans just so that Bush would believe it actually happened...

Things are much different now since Katrina evidenced by the quick response to a much larger disaster...

B~