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In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, FEMA faltered. The response was slow, political and disjointed. Mismanaged by someone without extensive emergency management experience, FEMA collapsed under the weight of its mission. Over 1,800 American lives were lost when the federal levees failed, and chaos ensued. It’s taken us nearly two decades to recover, and some communities never did.

As a country, we vowed never to let that happen again. As Bush administration Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend wrote in her Katrina after-action report at the time, "When local and State governments are overwhelmed or incapacitated by an event that has reached catastrophic proportions, only the Federal governmen

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