Why a Federal Emergency Management Agency?
Adam: Im still unconvinced. Why shouldnt the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana take full responsibility for “emergency management.” Why should there be a Federal agency charged with such tasks? Raul: For the same reason that cities have fire departments. Just as some fires can not be controlled by individual home owners, some disasters are of a scale that overwhelm municipal and state capacities. Often these disasters, like Katrina, affect several states, and in such cases the only political entity qualified to deal with multi-state disasters is the federal government. It is conceivable, of course, that each state might invest in massive, federal-scale, emergency response facilities, just as each homeowner might purchase and park a $100,000 fire truck in his driveway, “just in case.” But the irrationality of both procedures is immediately obvious. Neither is cost-effective. While a fire in your home is unlikely, the probability of fires breaking out somewhere in a city is
