This chapter discusses how, during the crisis spawned by Hurricane Agnes, the untrained, ill-prepared, and uncommunicative local officials were forced to make decisions and take action with only the limited resources they had at their disposal, often with tragic results. Their situation was the result of federalism, a political system which divides powers, responsibilities, and jurisdictions between the national and state governments. Natural disasters that threaten health and safety are ultimately the responsibility of local officials, who turned to state and federal authorities and to the private sector to assist them in reorganizing and rebuilding after the flooding from Agnes. State governments may have the resources to cope with the disaster, but due to political considerations, most elected officials want to maximize the amount of financial support from the federal government while minimizing the cost at the state level. Scholars have termed this response to disaster “the crying poor” syndrome, in which states exaggerate the cost of a disaster to demonstrate that they are not capable of paying for recovery. Moreover, in 1972, few state governments had kept pace with the changing nature of disasters. The chapter then looks at how Governor Milton Shapp, Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and state senator Bill Smith responded to the flooding.
The COVID States Project #20: Public opinion around federal and state reactions to COVID-19
