FEMA F UP

Okay, I did a little investigating. Here is an excerpt from a speech by FEMA director Michael Brown outlining FEMA's successes...
Just a few quotes, you can read the full speech at : http://www.fema.gov/library/speech_brown04082004

2004 National Hurricane Conference, Orlando Florida, April 7,

Last year, those of us living in the Mid-Atlantic experienced the impact of Hurricane Isabel. This was a fierce reminder of the importance of hurricane preparedness and mitigation and the many services provided by the federal, state and local emergency management community.

The importance of both timely and accurate hurricane forecast information provided by the Tropical Prediction Center in Miami was again demonstrated. A special thanks to Max and the dedicated staff at the Center for all your continued hard work and exceptional forecasting.

During Isabel, we also conducted action planning/reporting with each state in an attempt to better synchronize our increased readiness efforts.

We opened multiple Staging Areas and Mobilization Centers in anticipation of needs, including pre-positioning of NDMS teams, USAR teams, MERS assets, EPA hazmat teams, and USACE teams.

We deployed ERTs to every state EOC which was expected to be significantly impacted by the storm.

We had DHS ICE and US Coast Guard aircraft identified and pre-positioned to provide aviation support.

Our DHS’ colleagues at IAIP co-located with us to provide better access to critical infrastructure operators.

We crafted an expedited declaration policy for this storm which was communicated to the states in advance of landfall to ensure they understood how to obtain access to federal resources and to assist with cost recovery for their readiness actions.

We pre-positioned newly developed "shelter packs", containing equipment/supplies needed to support shelter operations -which weren't requested - previously our equipment/supplies for this mission were not packaged for mission-specific tasks.

And, last year while making preparations for Hurricane Isabel, we pre-deployed Urban Search and Rescue teams to strategic locations so they would be able to immediately mobilize in case rescue efforts were needed just after the hurricane made landfall. It’s also worth noting that since last fall all 28 of our US&R teams have completed training to become WMD ready.