When red tape kills
John Derbyshire exposes some of the ridiculous hoops (e.g., sexual harassment awareness training) that FEMA volunteers must jump through before being allowed to help out in an actual disaster.
I'd like to think this is just more government stupidity, but sadly, this kind of thing is by no means limited to FEMA. My wife is a mental health professional with two master's degrees and several years' experience in working with trauma victims. Immediately after Katrina, she contacted the American Red Cross to volunteer. They assured her that they'd love to have her, but that she'd first have to undergo a multi-week training session before being allowed. This is apparently required of everyone, education and experience notwithstanding. It seems kind of unfortunate that we have trained, skilled and experienced people eager to help and they're being held back by nonsense bureaucracy.