Officials credit FEMA progress, teamwork for minimizing disaster

[bobbyw24]

President Obama, federal officials and East Coast governors and mayors began assessing damage Sunday from Hurricane Irene, which came ashore over the weekend with less-than-anticipated destruction but left behind widespread power outages and at least 21 people dead.

Officials attributed the lack of damage and relatively low loss of life to teamwork between local governments and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

No longer a political punching bag, FEMA earned bipartisan praise from governors who said the coordination between federal and local officials helped mitigate the effects of the storm.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/28/paul-fema-hinders-local-disaster-response/

[VBRonPaulFan]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA what a bunch of idiots. they have to grasp at straws anytime something is less terrible than expected. the fact of the matter was is that this hurricane was overblown by the media from day one, so everyone expected the worst. i live 20 minutes from the ocean (in SE VA), and I never even lost power. it was a relatively weak storm. i went walking around the neighborhood right after the eye passed looking for damage. i live in a pretty heavily wooded area and there were very few tree limbs down. this isn't a success of any agency, it was just luck that the storm was much weaker than anticipated. the main damage was just caused by the sheer amount of rain, but the most dangerous aspect of a hurricane is the wind, and irene just didn't pack the punch like isabel did back in 2003.