FEMA Chief Brock Long Calls Harvey a "Wake-up Call" for State, Local Officials

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Brock Long called Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey a "wake-up call" for state and local officials when it comes to budgets. "It is a wake-up call for this country for local and state elected officials to give their governors and their emergency management directors, you know, the full budgets that they need to be fully staffed, to design rainy day funds, to have your own standalone individual assistance and public assistance programs," Long said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" Sunday.

"People cannot depend solely on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to, you know, be responsible for a majority," he said. "You know, states do a lot of work. They do a lot of work. But I think that we all have to collectively sit down after this event and figure out how to collectively improve." When asked about Texas' preparations for Harvey, Long said the state is a "model."

"Governor Abbott, Chief Nim Kidd, those guys are a model," he said. He added, "What we need are for elected officials at all levels of government to hit the reset button, sit down, evaluate where their programs are with their state emergency directors as well as their local emergency management directors, and make sure that they have everything they need to increase their levels of self-sufficiency."...