Why did the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) take such a public beating during and following Hurricane Katrina? What does this tell us about the relationship between the federal bureaucracy and the American public?

What will be an ideal response?

Students should discuss the inability of FEMA to plan for and respond to Katrina at a local level. There are stories galore of how the federal government left local citizens and governments without assistance. This, of course, takes the role of the state and local bureaucratic agents out of the picture, which may or may not be true. In some ways, FEMA was punished for doing exactly what it was meant to do—respond to an emergency at a national level. But this agency was expected to respond at a local level with laser precision, which it was not intended to do due to its national mission. However, we have learned a great deal about the public expectations of the national government during times of emergency and the lack of local and state agencies to respond with the force that FEMA and other federal agencies can. Therefore, as we saw with Hurricane Sandy, the way FEMA is activated and authorized to provide services has changed for the better, and we can expect a better response during future emergencies. Student answers will vary with this question.