What Happens During Disaster Response? What's the Government Responsibility?

Howdy, it's Kyle talking about the field of emergency management. With so many natural disasters going on in the past several years, I thought it would be interesting to talk about what goes on in that building, the government

facility that's supposed to protect you before, during, and after a disaster.

You've all heard of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. For three

and a half years, I worked for the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, which is the state version of FEMA. And

then after that, I worked three years for the Monterey County in California emergency management. So, I got to work

emergency management. So, I got to work for several years at both state and local levels. And at at both places, I

local levels. And at at both places, I worked also with FEMA at the national level based on things that were going on. So, what I want to discuss in this

on. So, what I want to discuss in this video is just kind of what goes on in that field. So, I'll discuss what I did

that field. So, I'll discuss what I did on a day-to-day basis, my normal type job, and then what would happen when we went into emergency mode with when there was a disaster going on, the response of

it, and what went on afterward in terms of the recovery. And I'll talk about some specific things that I went through working there, but also some more hypothetical type examples and also what

we might do now if we were faced with some of the disasters going on as I, you know, record this video. So, what is emergency management? There are four

emergency management? There are four phases. Mitigation, preparedness,

phases. Mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Mitigation are

the actions you can take before something occurs to lessen the impact or reduce the damage of a disaster.

Preparedness is what you're actually going to do. You can't go blindly into an event. You have to be prepared for

an event. You have to be prepared for it. Response is the first responders,

it. Response is the first responders, the things that are going on immediately as the event is occurring. If it's a weather event, it'll be while the storm is going on. And then recovery is after

the event, the rebuilding process, just getting things back to normal. So, a

little background on how I got this job.

I was living in Columbia, South Carolina. I have a degree in geography

Carolina. I have a degree in geography with a specialization in climatology.

So, I have knowledge of weather and climate type stuff. So, I got hired on at the emergency management division. My

day-to-day job was a natural hazard mitigation and preparedness planner. So

I would do things involving, you know, natural hazard planning and I'll get into some of the details of that. But

you would switch mode when you went into a when there was a disaster going on after emergency declaration. So I'm

going to talk about some of my day-to-day type stuff working in mitigation planning. So what is

mitigation planning. So what is mitigation and preparedness planning? So

working at the state level, there are 46 counties in South Carolina. So about

five of them are maybe capable enough to do a lot of the things on their own.

Maybe 10 other ones have some capabilities but need some help. But

most of the counties in the state are very small, rural, and the state has to provide a lot of the resources uh for these counties. So what I would do is

these counties. So what I would do is coordinate with some of the local officials at the the county or city level to see what they needed in terms of mitigation and preparedness for a disaster. So one of the main things I

disaster. So one of the main things I would do is work with local officials for the coastal counties where what I want to do is make sure that every public building, every important

building would have hurricane shutters for their windows. So, I mean, and it could be a minor hurricane type storm that just maybe has some wind and some rain, but with some debris flying

around, if it hits into a window, the window goes out, it can be a relatively minor storm, but once water gets blown in there and it can get flooded, you can have millions of dollars of damage. So,

that was an important thing for me with getting hurricane shutters onto all these public buildings. So, uh, we would write grants for getting these things on there. And another thing was having

there. And another thing was having hurricane tie down straps. This were

basically just essentially this rubber straps would connect the roof to the uh the the frame. So, you know, you can have a you know a brick building that can, you know, by the chinny chin chin, you know, can withstand a big storm, but

the roof might get torn off. So, you

have a beautiful brick shell but was flooded. So, hurricane straps tying

flooded. So, hurricane straps tying things down, shutters on the windows and doors. And these are great grants

doors. And these are great grants because this is a really cost-effective way to reduce damage. So, that's a big deal with getting FEMA grants. So that's

something I would do is write the grants for these small counties. So you often hear about how maybe a small county these rural areas don't get the funding that the bigger cities get that the bigger counties get because what's going

on is say FEMA, you know, there isn't enough money to go around to put hurricane shutters and tie down straps to the roofs of every single building in the coastal south. So maybe they have

money for 500 buildings, but there maybe 5,000 buildings that need that. So no

one's going to agree to pay enough taxes increased to so that FEMA can put um you know hurricane shutters on every house.

So they have limited funding so you're competing for it. So a lot of times these rural counties don't get the funding that because maybe they don't have the capabilities to write the grant. So that's again that's what I

grant. So that's again that's what I would do. I'd write some of these grants

would do. I'd write some of these grants for things to get um the stuff funded for these smaller counties. So, you

know, you might have a great proposal.

You might have, you know, this wherever county, you know, one I worked with closely was Williamsburg County, so really, really poor rural county. So,

they might have the right cost benefit, but they don't know how to put it together. And FEMA is not going to just

together. And FEMA is not going to just award you a million dollars to do something when you haven't put together the right cost benefit analysis. And

that's a big deal with it. So, and so people can complain about the federal government, but they have to rely on your ability to put that grant together.

So, and if FEMA came down to your small town to do it, to try to big time that small county, you wouldn't want that either. So, FEMA relies on the people

either. So, FEMA relies on the people being able to say what they want in the way that needs to be said because you again, you can have the right proposal, but you can't show it costbenefit

analysis. So, I would do that. That was

analysis. So, I would do that. That was

a big deal for um the coastal counties, but some of the other counties, a big deal was to make sure we had really good generators for all the important buildings. So, not just the hospitals

buildings. So, not just the hospitals and the police stations, but also um just any kind of facilities where you might need to have a emergency shelter.

So, large gyms or things, you need to make sure that everything has good, you know, good generators, not the $50 one from Home Depot. You got to have the good ones that really expensive. So,

that's a big part of reducing damage because when power goes out, those areas that have the big facilities you really need are the ones that going to get the power back on first. So if these

facilities already have their own internal power being generated, you know, that's one less power crew that has to go to that facility. They can go to this neighborhood instead. So it's

good if you know, everybody has their stuff up front. Um you you it's less you have to respond to when it when it all hits the fan. So um so that's some of the stuff that I would do on a

day-to-day basis, just work with some of these local people to get what they need. um because they might oft might

need. um because they might oft might not often be able to get the funding they need because they might not have the people able to write the grants.

Okay, so what about preparedness planning? So something else I did was

planning? So something else I did was involved with preparedness. So that's

what are you going to do when a storm or whatever type of event hits. So a big one for us in South Carolina would be hurricane evacuation. So we we got to

hurricane evacuation. So we we got to prepare for this up front. You can't

just wing it when it hits. So we need to get an idea of how we're going to move a ton of people off the coast inland. So

in 1999 before I was working there, Hurricane Floyd was a major storm that came up the east coast did tons of flooding. None of the states on the east

flooding. None of the states on the east coast were prepared for it, you know, but that was the catalyst to the Virginia and the Carolas to do a better

job with the response. And um so every state had to come up with, okay, we need something better than what we we we screwed up the response there. So I was there when they were in the process of

improving that. So a big one was

improving that. So a big one was interstate lane reversal. So you have two lanes in east direction, right? But

during an evacuation, those two going to the coast do no good. So the reversal has the two lanes are going to go to the coast also head back inland. So that's a big coordination because you have to

make sure every onramp is blocked. I

mean it's it's pretty complicated. But

Georgia was really smart. So even though they were not they were the least affected by by Floyd, they came up with the idea to make the reverse lane way way way easier. So normally what you

would do is have cops or public works have to go to every single on-ramp and even leave a car there or a K rail or something or public works or just even if it's just some pencil pusher with a county going to all the exits putting

police tape around is still resources being used. So what Georgia did very

being used. So what Georgia did very smart they put the railroad crossings.

So, um, all they have to do is push a button from the state capital and all those arms come down. You don't have to worry about people coming backward onto the interstate that's going the other way. So, Georgia was very smart. That's

way. So, Georgia was very smart. That's

a really good costbenefit way to, you know, spend a few million to have major benefits. So, um, that's part of

benefits. So, um, that's part of preparedness. We you brainstorm, you

preparedness. We you brainstorm, you know, because not everyone has all the ideas. Um, my my thing one thing that I

ideas. Um, my my thing one thing that I came up was really cool was coordinating with churches. So the Bible belt, we

with churches. So the Bible belt, we have a lot of churches there. So you

know these churches that have a large congregation, maybe they have three or four church vans and on the weekends maybe they have to pick up, you know, Miss Jackson, Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins. So

they need to pick them up because they don't have transportation. Well, if you need to pick them up to get to church on Sunday, then if there's an evacuation, they need to get out as well. So we

would work with these churches. Hey, you

have, you know, four vans that can hold, I don't know, 40 people combined. you

have 20 people that need to get out in the evacuation. Can we use your other

the evacuation. Can we use your other two vans? So, you need to keep track of

two vans? So, you need to keep track of who you need to get out. If you don't need those other two vans, let us know.

We need to keep a resource checklist of every van, every bus we got on the coast to get people out. Um, so I that was pretty cool. I proud of myself for

pretty cool. I proud of myself for coming up with that to work with the churches because they have transportation vans and that was 20 years ago. So, if your state is not

years ago. So, if your state is not doing that now, 20 years ago, South Carolina, we were doing that.

Um, something else was with horses. A

lot of, you know, you forget about animals and disasters, right? So, South

Carolina is a popular state for people to winter their horse. A lot of folks from upstate New York, uh, Vermont will come down to South Carolina to winter their horse. Well, hurricanes occur in a

their horse. Well, hurricanes occur in a time of year when you're not wintering a horse. They happen in the summer and

horse. They happen in the summer and fall. So, you have a it's near a town

fall. So, you have a it's near a town called Aken, and that's near Augusta, Georgia. So, a lot of folks winter their

Georgia. So, a lot of folks winter their horses there. A lot of stables, a lot of

horses there. A lot of stables, a lot of horse infrastructure, trailers. So maybe

there's a guy in Charleston with two horses or say he has four horses and he needs he only has a trailer that can hold two. He's like, "What am I going to

hold two. He's like, "What am I going to do?" So we would coordinate with people

do?" So we would coordinate with people in Aken. Okay, you have trailers there.

in Aken. Okay, you have trailers there.

You don't need them right now cuz your horses are up in Vermont or whatever. So

can you get your trailers down there to get this guy's two horses or his four horses in your trailer, but then that guy that had didn't need it, now he has a trailer with two that can be used

somewhere else. So this is what we're

somewhere else. So this is what we're kind of doing preparedness-wise. You

have to do this upfront. You can't wait till the disaster to happen. You have to have theseus, these uh memorandums of understanding in place before. You have

to be you you can't just oh call them up on the day of the disaster. Hey, can we use your van? You have to know about it before. So these are the types of things

before. So these are the types of things you have to work with. And a big part of preparedness is also going to be training. So you can imagine a job like

training. So you can imagine a job like this probably 25% of what we did was just training. We were always in

just training. We were always in training. So whether it be, you know,

training. So whether it be, you know, here's we're going to plan for this is a okay, we're going to pretend it's a category 5 hurricane making landfall at Charleston, the biggest possible hurricane in our biggest city in on the

coast. So or maybe a category 2

coast. So or maybe a category 2 hurricane make landfall at Myrtle Beach.

A what are we going to do if it's smaller? Or maybe it's a category five

smaller? Or maybe it's a category five that makes landfall at Jacksonville or Savannah. You know, that's you know,

Savannah. You know, that's you know, we're going to get it pretty bad, too.

or you know there were ones where you know it looked like it was going to go east. It probably it probably wasn't

east. It probably it probably wasn't going to hit us but we still had to be ready for it cuz what if the storm turned it and hit us. So we had to still be in the office ready for it even though let's be honest we were sitting there on our phones doing nothing but

you need us there sitting on our phones doing nothing in case that storm does turn. So mitigation is you know when it

turn. So mitigation is you know when it hits hurricane shutters less damage preparedness you know training what are you going to do when it happens. Okay,

response is hit the fan. We're going go.

What happens then? Okay, so when an event happens, I'm not at my desk writing grants for hurricane shutter. So

what am I doing? We're in what's called the EOC, the emergency operations center. So what happens is the governor

center. So what happens is the governor will sign an emergency declaration. So

that activates the EOC. So now we're in official disaster mode. So everyone

that's a planner or whatever you do, you go into whatever you do disaster mode.

and it responds. I'm not a first responder. I'm not a, you know, law

responder. I'm not a, you know, law enforcement, fire, EMS, public works, the people that are out there in it. I'm

in the EOC. So, you might have seen on movies that big room with all the TVs, giant monitors. There's a big one in the

giant monitors. There's a big one in the middle, uh, the bunch of tables.

Everyone's got a phone on each ear. It's

the old school landline phones with the SWY line rubber cables. That's it.

That's exactly how it is. So, we're in there coordinating with what's going on.

And when I was at South Carolina, there was never a major disaster. There was a couple of minor ones. So, the biggest one that I had to deal with was an ice storm, actually. So, it didn't get much

storm, actually. So, it didn't get much press. It didn't seem like that big of a

press. It didn't seem like that big of a deal. And it certainly wasn't dire at

deal. And it certainly wasn't dire at the time. But what happened, it was just

the time. But what happened, it was just it was just really cold. It got down to single digits temperatures as the highs, I believe, and the overnight lows were like just they're like -2. And this is

South Carolina, so the trees aren't ready to handle that. Trees would

freeze. big limbs would snap off, snap like off, land on frozen power lines that would snap and I mean it was massive destruction. Not just there

massive destruction. Not just there wasn't just power out the destruction to the power infrastructure. So the

immediate response wasn't the recovery was gnarly. So but what was I doing on

was gnarly. So but what was I doing on the two nights of the bad really bad ice storm? So um so I'm at a desk. I've been

storm? So um so I'm at a desk. I've been

assigned to some of the counties. So the

main counties that were affected were uh the ones in the upstate the mountainous counties near the part of the state that's been hit you real recently with some of the floods. So um so I was assigned to I don't remember all the

counties but maybe three or four small counties but one called Abavville was the one that I was working with the most. So what would happen here? So a

most. So what would happen here? So a

lot of trees down. So I'm in contact with the Aville sheriff you know people the public public works. So they're

saying, "Okay, State Route whatever 47 has these many trees down, power lines down. We need to get this was an

down. We need to get this was an important road." And so we need this

important road." And so we need this here. So somebody else is calling,

here. So somebody else is calling, "Okay, County Highway 56 is the same thing." So you know, the power crews say

thing." So you know, the power crews say they have three crews, but there's five spots they need to be. You know, they know where the power's at. The power

crews are doing the dispatching and stuff, but where are they going next?

Normally they go with who has the most like the most people. So say there's 10,000 people out of power here, 2,000.

Well, you're in that 2,000. You better

have to wait. But in this type of case, it wasn't just the population. It was

also uh you know the road. So I would be okay 57 connects this to this. The

hospital's here, the ambulances are here. This is where the road is screwed.

here. This is where the road is screwed.

We need this one cleared first because the ambulance substation is different than the hospital. So, it'd be my job to kind of figure out, you know, what where, you know, I'm not I'm not again, I'm not the dispatcher for the the

electronic electric company, but they need to know which road is more important. Not they know the people, the

important. Not they know the people, the number the number of people out of power. It's all on their computer and

power. It's all on their computer and stuff, but which road needs to go first.

And I don't I mean, I don't want to make it sound like I was like, do this and that, but it kind of was. In a in a disaster like this, the chain of command, it's not different, but things happen very fast in government when

there's an emergency. So, normally

something like this, I would put it together and have to go through a process up. But in this, I would go,

process up. But in this, I would go, "Hey, Steve, you know, we need we need this road cleared first. There's a

hostel, ambulance here. We This one needs to go before this one. There are

more people here, but it's I'm sorry.

It's just residential." So, and those are the type of things we have to decide sometimes. But this is what I was doing

sometimes. But this is what I was doing during the course of the night. So, all

right. So, we'd be like, "All right, this truck, this they have a bulldozer and a backhoe and a and a dump truck here. They got the same thing over here.

here. They got the same thing over here.

These guys are going to be done in an hour. This spot needs it. So, we'll get

hour. This spot needs it. So, we'll get these. This will be done first. These

these. This will be done first. These

guys are going to go here. They're going

to go here. These guys don't need the backhoe anymore. They they just need the

backhoe anymore. They they just need the other stuff. But, you got to have the

other stuff. But, you got to have the flatbed truck that gets it the the back hoe there. So, they got to Okay, these

hoe there. So, they got to Okay, these guys, you need the bulldozer for two hours. It'll take you an hour to get the

hours. It'll take you an hour to get the backhoe there and back. So, then, you know, it's that kind of stuff. So you're

just like, you know, phone here, phone here, got riding with your I mean, and this is a minor event in South Carolina, an ice storm. I mean, it wasn't a huge

deal. So, but you know, I was on the

deal. So, but you know, I was on the phone. I'm doing stuff like this,

phone. I'm doing stuff like this, relatively minor stuff. So, think about a huge huge event. Um, I mean, it's Yeah, it it it's a mess. And I'll get to the recovery that because that one the

recovery was the nightmare. Um, so the other one where they activated the EOC was Hurricane Charlie in 2004. So what

happened here, this was a huge storm that hit Florida, 04 was a gnarly year for hurricanes. It was, man, really,

for hurricanes. It was, man, really, really bad. So Hurricane Charlie, you're

really bad. So Hurricane Charlie, you're probably thinking South Florida. What

are you talking? It hit us and it did.

It hit South Florida, came back out and rehit uh, South Carolina, but it wasn't anywhere near as strong. So we knew the storm was coming. It was, you know, we can see the map. We can see the the

radar. It's coming, but it's probably

radar. It's coming, but it's probably going to go east. It's probably going to hit North Carolina more. And even if it does, it's not going to be a major storm. It's not one we're going to

storm. It's not one we're going to evacuate for. So, but I mean, it might.

evacuate for. So, but I mean, it might.

So, we have So, again, we're going to be in the EOC being prepared for this in case it turns and we do have to do a quick quick evacuation. That'd be tough.

But this particular storm, it didn't it I mean people in the Carolinas, if you live on the coast, you're resilient to up to a category 2 hurricane for the most part. There's always lowlying area,

most part. There's always lowlying area, always mobile home parks that can flood.

So there's always going to be issues.

But if you live in the south on the coast, category two, you're going to be fine. It's kind of like in California, a

fine. It's kind of like in California, a fivepoint earthquake, you're fine. So,

but category three, okay, now we're getting up to where, yeah, we might have to start moving people. And you know, South Carolina, the the people on the coast, it's way more than the population because you got Charleston, half a

million people in the county, you know, but there's so many Airbnbs, hotels, there's so many tourists there.

Those beach houses, they're for rent.

They're supposed to have six people there, but there are 26 in there. I

mean, I I did that, too, when I was in college. Find a beach house, there's way

college. Find a beach house, there's way more in there. So, there's always way more people on the beach than you think there are going to be. That makes

because evacuations, hurricanes are summer and fall. That's exactly when people are on the beach, summer and fall. So, it was always just, you know,

fall. So, it was always just, you know, if it hits, it's going to be bad. I

never was involved again with a huge evacuation that had to be ordered. So,

but let's say hurricane Charlie, it turned. So, say a couple or say we it

turned. So, say a couple or say we it was looking like it was going to come and hit us. So, category say it's expected to be I don't know category four big storm when it's going to make landfall in Charleston. So, what are we

going to do here? So the first thing that's going to happen is the governor is going to give a a voluntary evacuation order. So based a voluntary

evacuation order. So based a voluntary evacuation order is a polite way of the governor saying if you're middle class or you're rich gtfo get out of here. You

can you can afford it. Get out. Get a

Best Western in Colombia, Spartanberg, Raleigh, Huntsville, Birmingham. Get off

the coast. You can afford it. They're

not going to say that. They're not going to come on TV and say, "Rich folks, get out of here." You know, we need the resources for the poor folks, people that don't have the stuff. So, voluntary

evacuation. So, then it gets bad. So,

then the mandatory evacuation comes. So,

what does that mean? You don't have to leave. Um, I start do the bunny ears

leave. Um, I start do the bunny ears over and over again, but you don't have to leave. What what a mandator they're

to leave. What what a mandator they're not going to come by and arrest you. But

what a mandatory evacuation means is while the storm is going on, they are not coming to help you. So if you have a heart attack or some or something falls on, you're not going to get an ambulance

coming to you during the hurricane. You

know, that's it's a mandatory evacuation. So again, you don't have to

evacuation. So again, you don't have to leave technically, but don't they're not coming for you. So, and you can't expect them, you can't expect fire crews or paramedics to have risk their lives in

the middle of the storm to help you who was told to evacuate. So, and that can be cruel, but you can't risk a paramedic crew in a disaster to you can't you have

to they have to be um hunkered down. I

mean, they have to be. So, that's what that means. Mandatory meaning they're

that means. Mandatory meaning they're not going to come and help you. So,

that's the response. So, I'm going to go talk a little bit about this event going on while as I'm recording this in western North Carolina, East Tennessee, the southern Appalachian general, Southwest Virginia. I mean, it's a

Southwest Virginia. I mean, it's a nightmare. It's really, really bad. So,

nightmare. It's really, really bad. So,

say this, say I say I was working in South Carolina, this storm, say I'm still working there right now. What

would we have done? And you're not going to want to hear this, but nothing. I

mean, there's nothing we could have done. And that that's a really

done. And that that's a really frustrating part of emergency management. sometimes because

management. sometimes because what could we have done? So, say you can't evacuate the mountains. What do

you say? I mean, you can't there's and there's no way anybody thought that storm was going to be as bad as it was.

People that live in the mountains know which creeks flood. They've been through a million storms. I mean, same thing here in Chattanooga. I mean, it's storm.

We know what that creek, that creek, we know. Don't go there. We know what areas

know. Don't go there. We know what areas flood. So, if you live in these

flood. So, if you live in these mountains, you know the haulers that flood, the ones that have the flash flooding, the creeks that rise. know all

that this storm nobody knew. I mean

there's nothing you can do and so it can be really frustrating because you know 50 years ago we are people walking on the moon and in 50 years of people walking on Mars but there's nothing we

could have done with this. It's and it can be frustrating when mother nature pulls out the trump card and in this case you you couldn't have evacuated the

mountains. I mean I hate to say it it

mountains. I mean I hate to say it it there's nothing we could have done. So

preparedness for that type of flooding in the mountains. We I mean and we would have things stationed in all throughout the state. So North Carolina probably

the state. So North Carolina probably has things in Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte. Um probably in Asheville as

Charlotte. Um probably in Asheville as well, but this up in Asheville may have been washed away. So maybe you got to bring in resources from Charlotte or Winston Salem, but the roads are closed.

So, you know, this these rural counties, again, same with South Carolina, they rely on the states to provide the major resources, but if the state can't get there, the road there's and there aren't that many

roads. So, that particular disaster, I

roads. So, that particular disaster, I mean, I hate to say it, but there's nobody's at fault. You can't there's no blame to be pushed. Now, everyone's

going to push blame on somebody else, but I mean, there's no blame on that one. That's just

one. That's just other nature is in control. So, I I mean, it's frustrating, but so the response is going to be weird. That's a

different, you know, you've seen the memes, something's different in in italics. Well, that's this for for

italics. Well, that's this for for emergency management. What's going on in

emergency management. What's going on in the Appalachins right now is it's different. That's not um so I can't get

different. That's not um so I can't get into the details with admin because of I I don't know what they're doing specifically, but it's a lot of a lot of work, a lot of road clearing just to you

got to I mean it's it's a mess. It's

unprecedented what they're doing there.

Um, so but yeah, so that's that would be that specific event. So, um, but yeah, if we were in South Carolina, I mean, we couldn't have ordered an evacuation for the mountains. North what North Carolina

the mountains. North what North Carolina can't say, "All right, guys, leave the mountains. There's a half million people

mountains. There's a half million people there." And even then, if you were even

there." And even then, if you were even if you were to do that, it wouldn't just be the areas affected because you wouldn't know the entire area that was affected. You'd have to evacuate

affected. You'd have to evacuate everything including probably here Chattanooga certainly Knoxville you would have had to evacuate because you wouldn't know where it would go. Rowan

Oak. So you'd have to evacuate couple of million. You can't do that. I I guess

million. You can't do that. I I guess technically there's a greater than 0% chance you could do that but you can't you can't evacuate. So I mean the best possible scenario in this exact

situation would be if people back there stockpiled water and but they you don't plan on this. So um

so yeah that's that's the response. So

I'm going to those are the types of things that we would do during the disaster. So obviously first responders

disaster. So obviously first responders are doing their thing. I I didn't have anything to do with that. You know

they're doing their own chain of command. Um and the power companies are

command. Um and the power companies are dispatching. I'm not doing dispatching,

dispatching. I'm not doing dispatching, but just kind of like shell game what to do with some of these resources during a disaster. That's kind of what I would

disaster. That's kind of what I would do. And it wasn't just me by any chance.

do. And it wasn't just me by any chance.

It was, you know, bunch of folks. So,

um, but yeah, so that was the response.

So, but then the storm ends, the tornado outbreak is over. What happens when we get through the response phase and we got to start going to recovery? Okay, so

the recovery phase is what takes by far the longest. This takes can take

the longest. This takes can take forever. It can be incredibly

forever. It can be incredibly frustrating. Um,

frustrating. Um, this is where it gets gnarly. So, this

is where you get into damage assessments. That's the first thing you

assessments. That's the first thing you do. You've already you've done the first

do. You've already you've done the first response. You've cleared the roads. The

response. You've cleared the roads. The

power's back on. The boil water advisory is over. Um,

is over. Um, okay. Time to clean up what's what

okay. Time to clean up what's what happened, what what what went on. So,

this is where damage assessment comes in. So, this is where the local, state,

in. So, this is where the local, state, and this is where FEMA finally comes in.

So, I'll get to FEMA's role when I talk about what does the government have to do in all this. But this is where FEMA this is the first part where FEMA kind of takes over sort of when we get to the

recovery phase. But so you got damage

recovery phase. But so you got damage assessments. So you got this is where

assessments. So you got this is where we're going through these areas like this this building's down, this building's down, this is that expensive, this was that this road took that this road took two crews two days to work on

this all night overtime extra people. We

had to bring in folks from a different county. Folks from Kentucky were coming

county. Folks from Kentucky were coming in. Everyone's getting paid. No one's

in. Everyone's getting paid. No one's

doing this for free. So, we all get not me, but I I did actually too. But the

first responders is the real people get overtime. But I want that to be a segue

overtime. But I want that to be a segue into what is the government's responsibility. What can you count on

responsibility. What can you count on the government to do? What should the government be doing? And where does that line of personal responsibility switch to government responsibility? Okay. So,

I'll start with the top, the president and your governor. And after a disaster, everyone's like, "Where's the president?

Where's the governor? Where's FEMA?" So,

governor, the pres the governor signs an emergency declaration saying, "Yes, there's an emergency here." Goes on to the federal government. The president

signs it. Yes, this is in fact a declared disaster. That's it. From that

declared disaster. That's it. From that

point forward, the president and your governor have absolutely nothing to do with the respon. They have nothing to do with it. They'll go on TV and take the

with it. They'll go on TV and take the credit or blame. That's it. They have

nothing to do with it. So, you think about the press conferences during a disaster. or they have the governor on

disaster. or they have the governor on TV blah blah blah what's going on blah blah blah but then always I'm going to turn the microphone over to the director of emergency management and they will answer the questions for you. So that's

about the only time you'll always see the governor hand the mic over to somebody else for a while. So in a disaster the governor should not be involved. You

need to be back doing nothing. So during

this ice storm event in South Carolina the governor wasn't even in the EOC. He

was at home in the governor's mansion.

And of course, you know, people are calling him, "Hey, governor, you know, here's the update. You know, this road's closed. The power's back on here." Blah,

closed. The power's back on here." Blah,

blah, blah. So, he's involved. It's not

like he's just falling asleep. I mean,

he was involved, but he wasn't doing anything. He was being updated, but he

anything. He was being updated, but he was doing what he was supposed to be doing, which is nothing. And when I was in California, of course, it's strange when the governor's Arnold Schwarzenegger. So, he, you know, he was

Schwarzenegger. So, he, you know, he was involved in training event. There was I was never involved with anything major at the state level. Um, when I was at Monterey, I'll get to that in a little bit about the county level, what you do

there. But for but for training, you

there. But for but for training, you know, he would just kind of sit back and do nothing. And that's what you're

do nothing. And that's what you're supposed to do because, you know, you were not the emergency manager. You're

not the meteorologist. You're not the soil scientists. You're not the

soil scientists. You're not the engineers. You're not the Army Corps of

engineers. You're not the Army Corps of Engineers. You're not any of that.

Engineers. You're not any of that.

You're the freaking governor. So stay

over there. Sign the thing that says emergency and that's it. So, um, don't blame the president. Don't blame the governor. I mean, Bush took a huge hit

governor. I mean, Bush took a huge hit for Hurricane Katrina response. I mean,

I'm sorry. It wasn't the president's fault. It wasn't George Bush's

fault. It wasn't George Bush's responsibility to make sure that the city of New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Jefferson Parish, you know, the state of Louisiana was ready. So, it's not the government's fault. And it's also not

government's fault. And it's also not your u you know, it's not the president or the governor. But also, you know, what about us? So, say I'm in that building. So, how much blame do you put

building. So, how much blame do you put on people like me in that office if something goes wrong? And that is lots lots and lots and lots of blame because we are literally the people paid an

above average state salary to work.

That's why we that's why we exist to be in that building to make sure things go as smoothly as possible. So we should get the blame during that even though it usually is going to be the people higher

than us. But um it's also very important

than us. But um it's also very important to know that FEMA is not your is not your your state and local response. FEMA is there to supplement

response. FEMA is there to supplement your state and local response. So you

may have seen on TV cop shows and stuff, you know, the Jim Bob, Billy Ray, Yoko local cop, and here comes the big bad FBI and their Cadillac SUV and they got

the dark shades and I will take it over from here, sir. It's not like that with FEMA. I mean, FEMA the go I mean the,

FEMA. I mean, FEMA the go I mean the, you know, the state, you know, under the governor's emergency declaration, FEMA is doing what the state's telling them to. We're here. FEMA is there to

to. We're here. FEMA is there to supplement the state. I mean, they're not there to be the response. People

will always blame FEMA. Where's FEMA at?

Well, I mean, they're there, but FEMA is not there to do all the nuances of where you live. FEMA doesn't know where the

you live. FEMA doesn't know where the which which, you know, gullies get flooded, which you know, if Miss Johnson lives on that back road, she needs diialysis. FEMA doesn't know that stuff.

diialysis. FEMA doesn't know that stuff.

Your local people are supposed to know that. So, FEMA is there to supplement,

that. So, FEMA is there to supplement, not be the response. Everyone wants

their state to be independent, states rights, all that stuff. But for whatever FEMA is the one where people really, you know, it's it's it's different. So, but one thing it's also

different. So, but one thing it's also really important to mention, I should mention this before, is in the recovery process, we're doing damage assessments.

So, everybody hates the government.

Yeah. Right. So, but in that time, believe me, the government is on your side because, you know, insurance companies are going to try to screw you over. If you have damage to your house,

over. If you have damage to your house, insurance company will do every single thing they can to make sure they don't pay a dime. You know, you know that's how they work. So you, we in that situation are often like your ambulance

chaser lawyers like, "No, no, dude. That

you're saying that was damaged from 30 years ago." Now, that was hail damage

years ago." Now, that was hail damage from this storm. So, you know, these insurance companies aren't going to screw you over. But in this case, honestly, the, you know, FEMA or the

state government people, we are genuinely on your side. We are not with the insurance companies. Screw them. We

want to make sure you get every penny you need to get rebuilt. So that I mean that's we're on your side for that one.

So blame the government for a lot of things, but when it comes to FEMA's type, this is we're not politicians, man. Nobody cares about that kind of

man. Nobody cares about that kind of stuff when the people that are working there are nerds, scientists. We just

want the best response. We don't care who you voted for. So yeah, it was a very rewarding job. And I

just wish that that stuff could be completely separated from the politics.

It's it's frustrating. You can't even escape it anymore. So that's just one aspect for like can you just keep politics out of emergency response and stuff, but you can't. So um yeah, I hope

you enjoyed this video. If you did, you know, please give me a thumbs up to let me know you approve and subscribe to this channel if you're interested in learning more about geography. I've been

doing some stuff about natural disasters lately. not the main focus of this

lately. not the main focus of this channel. But man, I again I get really

channel. But man, I again I get really passionate with this stuff. So, um my recent video I was talking about what happened in that area, but it was not the time to to put a plug for the map,

but these are a beautiful map and these are mirrorway maps. Um all my videos have a a coupon code in the description.

You can click on that for 12% off your order. Um yeah, really beautiful maps. I

order. Um yeah, really beautiful maps. I

I would never plug something if they're not really good. So, um yeah, so that again stupidly long video, but um you know, chapters, you can skip ahead. Um

but yeah, I hope you enjoyed this video.

So yeah, Geography King signing out.