Reply #43: Ok, you are missing my point completely...**IMPORTANT**

[Barack_America]

Of COURSE I think that is the government's responsibility. Why do you think I have spent my entire weekend reading this crap?

What I am saying is that the National Response Plan isn't really a PLAN at all. It is a lot of flowery language that has neither details nor substance. It is something that was clearly written by an agency that had not done it's homework and had no concrete plans.

Look closely for the "assist", "encourage" prefixes that are not followed by a description of what the agency will actually be doing. For example, what does it mean to say that the DHS will "assist in the recovery from terrorist attacks, natural disasters"?? Does this mean that they will be in the trenches trying to evacuate people or does it mean that they'll contract Halliburton after the fact to clean up the mess?? It can mean either one. Apparently NO and LA thought that it meant the former whereas FEMA thinks they can get away with that latter. That very well may have explained the delay. Blanco thought she was calling the calvary, but what she was getting was little more than a contractor.

I have been reading the response plans for other countries as well. Japan's, for example, includes an enormous amount of detail including who contacts who and exactly what everybody's jobs are. Our NRP has none of that and it's a huge problem.