The Bush Administration apparently gutted FEMA in the last couple of years:

Witt fought for federal funding to support the new program. At its height, only $20 million was allocated to the national effort, but it worked wonders. One of the best examples of the impact the program had here in the central Puget Sound area and in western Washington state was in protecting people at the time of the Nisqually earthquake on Feb. 28, 2001. Homes had been retrofitted for earthquakes and schools were protected from high-impact structural hazards. Those involved with Project Impact thought it ironic that the day of that quake was also the day that the then-new president chose to announce that Project Impact would be discontinued.

Indeed, the advent of the Bush administration in January 2001 signaled the beginning of the end for FEMA. The newly appointed leadership of the agency showed little interest in its work or in the missions pursued by the departed Witt. Then came the Sept. 11 attacks and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Soon FEMA was being absorbed into the “homeland security borg.”

This year it was announced that FEMA is to “officially” lose the disaster preparedness function that it has had since its creation. The move is a death blow to an agency that was already on life support. In fact, FEMA employees have been directed not to become involved in disaster preparedness functions, since a new directorate (yet to be established) will have that mission.

FEMA will be survived by state and local emergency management offices, which are confused about how they fit into the national picture. That’s because the focus of the national effort remains terrorism, even if the Department of Homeland Security still talks about “all-hazards preparedness.” Those of us in the business of dealing with emergencies find ourselves with no national leadership and no mentors. We are being forced to fend for ourselves, making do with the “homeland security” mission. Our “all-hazards” approaches have been decimated by the administration’s preoccupation with terrorism.

Gutting FEMA and taking it out of the business of preparedness planning are horrible decisions. Natural disasters cause damage on a scale that is simply too great for local communities and states to handle on their own. Without the aid of other state’s national guard units, FEMA, and the US military, New Orleans would have zero chance of recovery. FEMA had already proven its worth with projects like Project Impact. Those kinds of national preparedness programs are superior to local ones because they can bring greater resources to bear on the problem, spread the costs of risk abatement among the entire country, and involve experts from a national pool.

We live in a highly sophisticated, deeply inter-connected society of immense complexity and a certain fragility. Disasters are not localized events affecting only one area of the country. When they happen, their ripples are felt everywhere in the nation. Drowning the federal government in the bathtub may make a nice slogan, but it means that the federal government cannot then, among other things, help save the city and people of New Orleans. You will pardon me if I do not find that a desirable outcome.