Does FEMA Do Anything?

Michael "Brownie" Brown, in testimony before the congressional committee investigating Katrina divested so much responsibility for the disaster on others that one has to question what he believed his role was? He stated that the reason for all that went wrong was the ineffective and incomplete evacuation of the city, which he stated was not FEMA's job, "Those are not FEMA roles. FEMA doesn't evacuate communities. FEMA does not do law enforcement. FEMA does not do communications." Following the flawed evacuation of Houston last week we know this is an impossible task; not just a failing of Louisiana local government. If evacuation plans were as effective as FEMA assumes, would there really be a role for them? Would anyone notice if FEMA were disbanded? If FEMA in the future takes as much responsibility as Brownie, probably not.