FEMA - Disaster Organization?

[josebach]

When I again told them NO(plus a few other things), they decided that for me to turn down their "fair" offer, I would have to sign a paper stating that I had given up my rights to a buyout and if a flood were to ever happen again, I could in no way ask or expect FEMA to bail me out.

Did you sign that paper?

Yea. They faxed a copy over to me later that day for me to sign. I signed it and faxed it back.

I hope your neighbors didn't cave into that intimidation either...

I actually had two of the people that live in my subdivision take their offer with one of them being my next door neighbor(that land is going to come in handy for me though, because I have leased it from the county at the cost of $1 a year and am planning on putting a batting cage on it for my soon to be born little boy). Of course they were older couples, but they still had to lose alot of money by selling to FEMA instead of just outright selling. They were scared of global warming, rising waters, and other stuff so they bought what FEMA was selling them. I wish they could have just realized that when 3 tropical storms come in 3 weeks and dump almost 40 inches of rain, that there will be some flooding for sure when the river is only about 500 yards from your house.

I looked online and couldn't find any instances of FEMA buying people out for that much less than market value. You'd think it would be all over the web. You don't still happen to have that fax, do you?

I did find this about the floods I believe you're talking about. http://www.fema.gov/mitigationbp/bestPr ... tssId=3228

Also, other references all have the local county and city governments doing the buyouts, not FEMA directly.
http://townofdauphinisland.org/hurrican ... Buyout.htm

Just makes me wonder if who you were talking to was the local govt or some scam artist and not really FEMA?

[RugbyD]

I saw a post on a message board once where a guy that I assumed was crazy said that FEMA was not supposed to save people. They were supposed to save gov't interests during a disaster. I'm wondering more and more if the guy wasn't actually on to something.

I would agree that that is what their purpose should be, but since they were folded into DHS their stated purpose is incredibly non-descript and overlaps with so many other levels of government that I don't find them to be of much use. Large multipurpose businesses are successful because they have grown under specific goals, detailed action plans, and accountable leadership. FEMA by nature can never experience more than one of these at a time, and even then only #3 is really possible but is far from happening.

FEMA should only focus on protecting the interests of the federal govt because that's all that a federal agency can be truly capable of handling. State and local goverments can much better serve state and local concerns. It is also incumbent upon people themselves to take responsibility for their own situation via insurance if nothing is arranged locally. If people can't secure private insurance for where they live its becasue there's a damn good reason they shouldn't be living there unless they are willing to bear that risk themselves. I shouldn't be on the hook for Johnny Dumbass just because he likes living on a flood plain no less than I should be on the hook for Mikey Millionaire who likes his oceanfront cliffside mansion-on-stilts-and-faultline property, yet I am.

[bigken117]

[ am planning on putting a batting cage on it for my soon to be born little boy).

Congrats

[raiders_umpire]

I looked online and couldn't find any instances of FEMA buying people out for that much less than market value. You'd think it would be all over the web. You don't still happen to have that fax, do you?

I did find this about the floods I believe you're talking about. http://www.fema.gov/mitigationbp/bestPr ... tssId=3228

I would wouldn't know where the fax is at now. This is the flood I am talking about though, a few states south of the one you found.


http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/floyd/damageindex.pdf

[Big Pimpin]

This is a topic I know very little about. But I was just talking to one of my friends last week, who happens to work for the Secret Service and in conjunction with the DHS fairly often, and he was saying that FEMA doesn't do very much on its own. Essentially they're an organization of about 3,000, who can really just show up and help out the locals. If the locals don't have a good infrastructure and action plans in place, then FEMA isn't going to be able to do anything (see New Orleans). Anyway, this seems bogus as well as what happened to RUmp, but I did find what I heard last week to be interesting.

[Simulacrum]

Here's an interesting story I came across slamming FEMA for hosting a fake press conference during the California wild fires.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/10/fema-stages-fak.html

[StlSluggers]

An amazing part to me of the "fake news conference to inspire confidence in FEMA " ordeal is that the guy who is responsible for the act isn't going to be fired. He is in line for a promotion!

Philbin's last scheduled day at FEMA was Thursday. He has been named as the new head of public affairs at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ODNI spokeswoman Vanee Vines said.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The man who oversaw public affairs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency when it held a fake news conference last week will no longer be taking over as head of public relations for the director of national intelligence.

[Simulacrum]

Read thread... then post... gotta remember that.