1. "the US is not set up well for responding to more than one catastrophe at a time."
So true. Not only from a response resource standpoint, but from an emotional/attention span issue. Think about how we were all cheering for one little country in eastern Europe, single-handedly holding back the world's second most powerful army. Until Oct 7. Then poor Vlad couldn't buy his way onto anything more pressing than page 6. And as our attention faded, so did support.
2. "we have no established process to adjudicate the requests, competition, and conflicts for critical disaster response resources"
This may be a factor in FEMA's push for Lifeline reporting -- so they can see how many red lights are flashing (literally), but since FEMA plays a role in very few of those 12 overlapping systems, even a perfect Lifeline reporting system won't help much. What you're saying is that there are many "marketplaces" for localities and states to "shop" for help, and with not much of an "invisible hand" those marketplaces become competitors as much as they are collaborators.
You won't be surprised probably but I was involved in some of the lead-up to the critical lifeline work. It's so cool to see what it's become.
I'm not sure that the lack of a system to adjudicate the resource competition is a reason for all of lifeline integration mostly because in my experience, FEMA still struggles to understand this big picture. When our office talked to higher up folks at FEMA, the general consensus was that this was stuff that Congress and/or the National Security Council needed to address, and at the time it was not a priority for FEMA. Which at the time was limited I think by the high number of political appointees at the top in FEMA, and how their priorities tend to tie to the very short presidential terms.
I definitely know more of the backstory behind some of what's become the critical lifeline work, but I'm missing the parts after I left FEMA and then DHS. Lots of different groups were eventually pushing for something like what it's become so it's really gratifying to see.
1. "the US is not set up well for responding to more than one catastrophe at a time."
So true. Not only from a response resource standpoint, but from an emotional/attention span issue. Think about how we were all cheering for one little country in eastern Europe, single-handedly holding back the world's second most powerful army. Until Oct 7. Then poor Vlad couldn't buy his way onto anything more pressing than page 6. And as our attention faded, so did support.
2. "we have no established process to adjudicate the requests, competition, and conflicts for critical disaster response resources"
This may be a factor in FEMA's push for Lifeline reporting -- so they can see how many red lights are flashing (literally), but since FEMA plays a role in very few of those 12 overlapping systems, even a perfect Lifeline reporting system won't help much. What you're saying is that there are many "marketplaces" for localities and states to "shop" for help, and with not much of an "invisible hand" those marketplaces become competitors as much as they are collaborators.
Thanks Rick. Spot on as always.
You won't be surprised probably but I was involved in some of the lead-up to the critical lifeline work. It's so cool to see what it's become.
I'm not sure that the lack of a system to adjudicate the resource competition is a reason for all of lifeline integration mostly because in my experience, FEMA still struggles to understand this big picture. When our office talked to higher up folks at FEMA, the general consensus was that this was stuff that Congress and/or the National Security Council needed to address, and at the time it was not a priority for FEMA. Which at the time was limited I think by the high number of political appointees at the top in FEMA, and how their priorities tend to tie to the very short presidential terms.
I definitely know more of the backstory behind some of what's become the critical lifeline work, but I'm missing the parts after I left FEMA and then DHS. Lots of different groups were eventually pushing for something like what it's become so it's really gratifying to see.
Thanks for the thoughts!
-Vanessa