On 8/6/2012 1:12 PM, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Stormin Mormon wrote:

I was listening to the AM radio out of Rochester, NY during Hurricane
Katrena. The Rochester, NY fire department had a boat to send, to help out.
Aparently, FEMA heard of this, and called them to tell them not to come.

I've heard plenty of other moments when FEMA prevented rescuers from
rescuing. I suspect they are the "Department of NO".


Put a team of engineers in charge of FEMA, not horse show
organizers. Personally, I would have regional warehouses under contract
with suppliers of critical materials. They would have to maintain
minimum levels of supplies, but they would sell the oldest inventory to
their customers, and new inventory would replace the FEMA stock. They
would be liable for any losses, and the sites physically inspected every
three months. For instance: A one year supply of wood power poles in
hurricane & tornado areas that the first truck can be loaded & on their
way in a under an hour. Enough spare aerial power cable, splicing
hardware, insulators & fuses to completely rebuild a medium size town.

Instead of RV type temporary housing, use converted 20' shipping
containers that can be stacked & stored if not needed. Use Federal
prison labor to do the conversions. They could be stored on military
bases, so they wouldn't have to pay rent to park trailers. There are
thousands of obvious ways to reduce response time, and costs, yet
provide what people need. Why truck ice cross country, when they could
pull a portable ice plant into an area, and make it on site? Tow a
generator behind a fuel truck to power it, if no local power is
available.

Require all new gas stations to have a transfer switch, whether they
have a generator, or not. That way a portable can be brought in to
access the tanks without rewiring the place for temporary power. KRW
was whining about making sure every station along a highway had full
tanks. A lot of them around here did, but couldn't pump it because
their electric was out. The county used a portable generator to get the
fuel for the horde of bucket trucks that were replacing poles, and
restringing damaged wire. The stations were paid with an agreement to
replace it with fresh gasoline as soon as it was available. This was
done, because FEMA wouldn't let any tankers of gasoline to cross the
state border.


Some years ago I came up with an idea for NDC, National Disaster Corps.
Young people who didn't care for the military could join The NDC and
get the same sort of benefits for serving the country armed not with a
gun but a shovel and a hard hat. Like The Peace Corps but with heavy
equipment. The corps could be organized like the military and even work
with the military for transportation and basing. Heck, there are empty
bases all over the place they could work out of. I would imagine that
The NDC would be more welcome in certain parts of the world than the
military in times of disaster. ^_^

TDD