Several years ago, several dozen families were burned out in wildfires that ravaged North Central Kansas. A call went out for help, a local bank agreed to be a receivership for all cash donations; a local business man offered a near empty warehouse to accept dry goods; a local meat processing plant offered refrigeration and secure storage for all food donations. Donations poured in and dozens of volunteers worked around the clock to organize and get everything out. And every single dime, every single item was distributed to the people who needed it. Housing was available for friends and relatives or beds were made available at the Salvation Army, YMCA, and YWCA. Once the insurance money came in, that took over shelter and living needs for most. The very few who had no insurance were taken care of.
Compare that to the federal government that takes days and weeks to get itself together to do any aid, and that swallows up into the bureaucracy at least two thirds of the resources and seems to have a difficult time identifying who are really victims and who aren't in the distribution process.
Sure we need FEMA for large scale disasters that wipe out all local resources or overwhelm local resources, but for most things the federal government really doesn't have to be involved.
