The government was eventually able to mobilize a massive relief operation to help the storm victims in south Florida. In so doing, the federal government provided an unprecedented amount of assistance to the Hurricane Andrew victims. Despite these efforts, however, the public's perception of the governmental effort was primarily negative ( Walden 1992). The government did not react quickly, and it did not respond immediately to this disaster situation, even though thousands of storm victims lacked critical life-sustaining supplies. Local citizens were forced to take matters into their own hands because the government did not provide effective guidance or support. Even when the government did respond, it did not act in a coordinated or unified manner. This created further delays in the administration of disaster assistance.

The national government is widely believed to be primarily responsible for the apparently poor performance of the disaster-relief system. Local and state governments were completely overwhelmed; only the federal government had the resources and the authority to handle a disaster of this magnitude. But, to paraphrase the aforementioned quote from a local emergency management director, where the hell was the cavalry? More specifically, where was FEMA? Unfortunately, FEMA was both unable and unwilling to respond quickly and effectively to this disaster. Once again -- just as in South Carolina following Hugo, FEMA, not the hurricane, was considered to be the real disaster ( Lippman 1992b). ⁴ The entire governmental response was regarded as a complete failure.

-101-