“Within hours of an event, the question is where’s FEMA, where’s my check, where’s my water, food, and ice.”

From the Washington Whispers column by Paul Bedard of U.S. News & Word Report comes this item about Nancy Dragani, Ohio’s disaster chief:

In little-covered comments at a Heritage Foundation meeting this week, Dragani, an adviser to FEMA, former Ohio National Guard official, and aide to Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, charged that the public has traded personal responsibility for personal expectations from the feds.

“I have seen a shift from personal responsibility to personal expectation, from when the hurricane winds begin to blow, clean out your bathtub and fill it with water so you have drinking water to when the hurricane threatens and the winds begin to blow, find out where FEMA’s going to deliver ice, food, and water. And we can’t survive that,” she told Heritage.

Absolutely true. Every major storm and hurricane brings interviews with residents of the affected area who clearly have ceded responsibility for their well-being to emergency management officials. Yes, emergency assistance and response from government is necessary and appropriate in some cases. But preparation before, and reaction after an event, are primarily a personal responsibility. Reliance on outside services should be viewed as a last resort, not the first. Help yourself and help your neighbors.

What else rears its head during hurricanes? Cries of “price gouging.” Duke University professor of political science Mike Munger discusses the fallacy of “gouging” in this EconTalk interview with Russ Roberts. JLF’s Roy Cordato addresses why price controls hurt consumers and workers in this piece.