My brother lives in southern Michigan and said they already had 27 tornadoes this year, and that this has been the most active season for them since 1950. He then went on to complain about the lack of FEMA help. Could be because of cuts to FEMA.
FEMA literally doesn't work how many thinks it does for the simple reason it's not designed that way. To see why, we have to go back to the 1970s, when Civil Defense was allowed to languish, and efforts to revive it were stymied by fears the Soviets would think the US was preparing for a first strike. The work-around was FEMA, which doesn't pre-position resources like CD did and wasn't self-starting. That's by design, so it couldn't function if there was a nuclear war. That way, it was thought, it wouldn't make the Soviets nervous.
I've worked at an electric utility for over forty years. In every natural disaster I witnessed, it took several days for FEMA to show up. I saw FEMA come around and reimburse utilities and likely others after the fact, and see to this and that afterward, but have never seen it immediately there following a disaster. That's not a criticism: that's how FEMA functions.
In the hours after Hurricane Helene, I tried to get to work only to find the roads blocked by trees and power lines. After someone ran into a downed wire and snapped it, was able to get out and went to check on a family member we couldn't reach by phone or cell service. Land lines and cell phones were out. This is a rural area, and more than once, where a tree wasn't contacting a power line, found locals clearing the roads. Being rural, we have tractors and chainsaws. Finally made it through, found the family member was okay (they had slept through it and had no damage visible from the house - they were in that "pocket" I may have mentioned before, and I attribute that to God. From that point was able to make it in to work only to find hardly anyone else could. By that time there were state highway crews on the main roads, and had some stuff moved where you could at least drive around them, though on the shoulder of the road in several places. What line crews could get in were working where the damage was least. We're talking about rebuilding things from the substations on out, and there were also transmission lines that were down.
Work-wise, it was a matter of getting help. We had some come in from as far away as Missouri. FEMA wasn't involved in this, but then, that's not FEMA's job. We did assessments. FEMA does like utilities to do those before getting someone in, likely to prevent fraud, unless there's a pre-existing agreements. On a personal note, the day after Helene, we had to drive elsewhere to get supplies we normally would have stocked up on had the forecast called for hurricane force winds. Note: Though I had filled up the vehicles prior to Helene, ever since I don't like them to get very low.
By Monday, I saw state officials. We had the first outside crews coming in. We had churches helping from I don't know how far away. I think the Salvation Army was set up by noon that day. I didn't see FEMA, but again, that's not a criticism. That's not what FEMA does.
From that point on, I'm not sure when FEMA arrived. It was that Monday or Tuesday that someone came by the house and let us know where we could get a meal, but that wasn't FEMA. My memory is hazy, what with all that was going on. By Thursday or Friday, I think that's when information signs started appearing at intersections with things like where to get emergency assistance and how to contact FEMA. I know that FEMA eventually did show up, but wasn't the first ones in. I know it's tiresome to read me write this, but that's not FEMA's job.
FEMA did come by the house. We were blessed and had very little damage, so we didn't file on insurance or apply for assistance. It could have been as much as a month later, but not sure. Those public information signs telling how to contact FEMA had been up two or more weeks, so I guess this was to help those who still weren't aware of it.
So, what did FEMA do? Remember how I characterized FEMA as coming around with a check after the fact? I think FEMA paid for the companies that came in and removed storm debris from the sides of the road. Given the level of destruction, that was a non-trivial effort. I know they gave assistance to some with homes, as I've seen the locate tickets for tie-down installation. You could apply for financial assistance for things insurance wouldn't cover. I'm sure they reimbursed utilities for the material and labor for power restoration, as they've done that before. I suspect they funded other things, but since I haven't talked with anyone from FEMA, I don't know for sure.
A few more personal notes: I'm very appreciative of the churches that came and helped. They helped with hot meals, and things you need during a natural disaster. It was a big help and very appreciated.
This was also the first time in over forty years that we had people appreciative of us getting the power back on. There's always some that are, but there's always some who complain. I guess they could see the damage and know what we faced, and could see the crews working as hard as they could. That, too, was very appreciated.
Do we need to go back to the CD model? It has some advantages as you have material and equipment pre-positioned ahead of disasters.
