Decision making in emergencies, disasters, and catastrophic events

Abstract The authors believe that money alone will rarely solve problems encountered in a disaster or recovery period, and in many instances can further complicate situations. There are just too many variables, including difficulties in early information gathering and decisions making that resource allocation rarely results in expected and useful outcomes. A major underlying cause is that too much of the implementation of federal services and purchasing has been outsourced by Congressional action: to contracts and long-standing agreements to various state and local agencies, private nonprofit corporations, and for-profit corporations without enough skilled federal employees to adequately manage and monitor the huge expenditures involved. Few believe that total US federal expenditures as percentages of Gross National Income often meet or exceed those of many nations presumed to have higher levels of social expenditures. Unfortunately, FEMA and other federal agencies charged with disaster response typify these long-standing federal resource allocation problems.