Archived Discussion Main / PointyHairedBoss

This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.

Nohbody: Without getting into political stuff, the FEMA entry is showing quite a bit of ignorance of how things actually work. By design, FEMA only steps in after the emergency, and even then their job is more one of coordinating with the local resources to handle the disaster du jour. Application of said local resources, in the case of Katrina, was woefully inadequate, and beyond FEMA's control.

(And no discussion page for PHB until now? I'm surprised. Seriously.)

Wordcasters: . What local resources??? New Orleans was underwater. Almost the entire city was underwater; New Orleans had no resources. As for Baton Rouge, I don't know if you've ever been to Louisiana but we have a lot of trees and at the time of Katrina many of those trees were suffering from dry rot from the recent droughts which made them fall much easier than they should have. So the entire state was without power, the largest city was underwater and the capital's roads were blocked by fallen trees. We did everything we could. Oh yeah, and the North part of the state that the residents of the coast had evacuated to got hit just a few weeks later by Hurricane Rita!

BritBllt: I don't live in that area, but I've always thought the same thing about the complaints that it was the state and local governments who failed rather than FEMA. The local governments were practically wiped off the map! That's what FEMA's for, to roll in and handle the relief effort if Mother Nature decides to turn a formerly functional region into a wasteland. Blaming the states for not properly preparing is one thing, but saying they didn't successfully handle the aftermath of the very disaster that crippled them in the first place is contradictory.

But that "Real Life" section really shouldn't be there, since the initial FEMA entry is pretty much just a politically charged Take That! against the state governments, and flame-bait for all the natter beneath it. The Dilbert link's dead, and the Troper Tales link is unnecessary with the current page format.

...a person who hangs inspirational posters unironically...

That can just be a sign of idealism or naivety, not necessarily incompetence. I've had a boss who used motivation posters unironically: she was a good manager, just almost pixie-like in her lack of cynicism.