Certainly better than the wankers we've got.

Of course, the states could pick up on some of the slack. Why has the governor of Texas not called out the Texas National Guard or has he none left?

If I was to be allowed to step away from politics and think more in terms of policy, I wonder if there would be savings to be had (reasonable idea, savings) by closing up FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Administration) and banking, say, half of that budget item to be immediately released to the states in the event of such an emergency.

They in turn would use the National Guard and Air Guard in response (the Guard is a state entity), adding emergency response to their mission. That funding would go a long way especially in the poorer states and the response would be in the more localised hands of the Governor of each state. This model has been used before FEMA, btw.

Further, part-time-military support functions are vested in the Reserve component of the various services. The Reserves, though raised and administered locally in much the same manner as the Guard, are actually a Federal entity, not a state one like the Guard. Still, nothing is keeping the Executive from releasing local Reserve units to a state during such an emergency, adding such support functions as transport, maintenance, military police, to support the state's Guard during such a disaster.

Funny how everyone yells at everyone else about what they have been indoctrinated by their party as "problems", but no-one seems to propose thought-through solutions such as what is presented here. We could fix so much if we really wanted to.