In many cases they sent 4 our five people into an area were they were no accommodations in one sub compact car. You sure are not going to be able to carry much in the way of survival supplies with a sub compact. I am not even sure how you get 5 people into one.

I ran into a couple of FEMA workers in an area where the cell phone systems were down, and there was no intention of getting them up any time soon. They had been issued new cell phones when they left for the site, and were required to leave behind all of their other communications tools. One of them was a ham radio operator and had been specifically ordered to leave behind any of his personal radio gear.

Look at that stuff from Katerina which was not passed out. Frankly I do believe the “we told the state and locals and they said they didn’t want it thing.” First the feds are in fact in general not allowed to provide aid without approval from the state and/or local government. The locals in a lot of that area seemed to be more interested in how it would personally help them to get the aid to their people as compared to how it would help the people they were supposed to represent. If they couldn’t get more money for their next campaign or more votes then they were not interested. How there were some that didn’t work this way, but most did. But the question is why did this stuff need to come from the feds.

Why not have the stuff come directly from companies. I know all of the procedures, and know more or less why it was done this way. The current procedures for responding to a disaster insist that the stuff be filtered through a bunch of levels. But my question is why do we allow the procedures insist on this?

A few years ago we needed so tools to we didn’t have to rescue some kids who had done something really dumb and were paying the price for it. We went to Walmart to get them. We were going to buy them, and get the cheap disposable kind, the manager found out and came over pulled the good ones off the shelf and said to go get the kids out and keep them for then next time they were free.

A couple years before that we had to spontaneously evacuate a grade school, and put over 200 kids out into bad winter weather. It turned out that it was possible that the buses were also a problem. (It also turned out the problem didn’t actually exist but better safe than sorry.) So we had to get the kids somewhere warm fast and the transportation was going to be the kids feet. Several places which were better equiped for children than Walmart and Walmart were within a couple of blocks. Walmart was the only one willing to take them without presigned paperwork. Not only that, but they shut the place down to keep the kids safe a secure. They fed them, broke out some videos and tvs for them to watch. We also had to wash down and basically strip and the give a blanket to eight kids as a precaution. They were eventually sent to the hospital as a just in case but that took time (More than it should have). In the mean time we had moved them to Walmart. The people there insisted on clothing them. They also insisted that all of the kids needed a stuffed animal, which they got to take home with them. We city got charged nothing for this. We left the place pretty much a mess, and they thanked us for letting them serve us.

I recently responded into one of the flood areas. The area was without water even for those who had not been evacuated. The local Walmart and Sam’s had been depleted of all bottled water. I was going by a Sam’s on the way, so was told to go by identify myself and pickup all the water I could carry. They filled me up and I had to start saying no. Now I was inside saying thanks to the manager, and he found out I had an SUV that I was responding to, but apparently had not been told that I was towing a command trailer. He told me they had some trailers ready to go and I could have one if it would help me carry more water into the area. I had to tell him I already had one I was towing.

So while the “your home for cheap plastic cr*p” comments and many more are fairly on target, Walmart and their companies are some of the best companies in responding to emergencies.