FEMA Gets Its Groove Back

A year after Hurricane Katrina leveled New Orleans and revealed the Federal Emergency Management Agency's ineptitude, state and local public officials in the region had so little faith in FEMA that they made their own arrangements to get ice, food, and generators for the next disaster. Now, as the sixth anniversary of Katrina approaches, communities coping with killer tornadoes and flooding this spring are surprised by an agency that has been revamped.

The FEMA team that arrived in Joplin, Mo., on May 22 after a tornado ripped through the city, killing at least 125 people, quickly coordinated with volunteers and helped with search-and-rescue efforts, says John Bartosh, presiding commissioner in Jasper County. "They have been nothing but great."