I am totally agnostic about who does it. I just want it done well. It seems to me that disasters are always going to be a problem no matter who organizes the response. For one thing, you only get a short warning time. They are always new and no one knows who will be hit. In fact, the first order of business to figure out who got hurt and where are they and what was the damage and what do they need, as a result.
They this information has to be communicated. And I don’t care who is running the program, this is where the problem is going to be. Maybe they could set up massive ways of communicating. Phones, email, internet, monitoring the news. And then sending the information directly to people who can use it.
There have to be models for this. I am sure that going through a central information exchange can’t be efficient. You need multiple channels. I’m sure there are people who have thought about this and have good models. But does FEMA use them? I have no idea.
But I really don’t think it matters who does it, so long as it gets done well. I don’t think there’s a structural reason why any government couldn’t do it well. I doubt if the private sector is any more efficient at this.
There’s not much secret to running an organization well. You need to monitor what you do, identify problems and bottlenecks, and solve them, all while balancing strategic concerns. and the overall mission. You just need really good people to do this.