That left the agency to assume more responsibility, like delivering supplies, a job typically left to the states.

Having the agency take on a larger role than what is mandated by the law “is never a good situation,” Brock Long, the agency’s administrator, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee in October 2017. “When FEMA is the first and primary responder, and the only responder for many weeks, we are never going to move as fast as anybody would like.”

Why is FEMA the focus of so much attention during natural disasters?

Since its founding in 1979, FEMA has been the subject of intense criticism, particularly after its delayed response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The hurricane killed 1,800 and destroyed more than 800,000 housing units, leaving many homeless.

The federal government, particularly FEMA, was blamed for many of those issues because the agency underestimated the impact of the storm and did not stock supplies beforehand at designated shelters like the Superdome.

In addition, Michael D. Brown, the director of the agency at the time, had relatively little experience dealing with disasters and emergency response. Before joining the Bush administration, he was the commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association and landed his job at FEMA through his friendship with a longtime Bush adviser.

That spurred a number of changes at the agency, like mandating that the FEMA chief have experience managing emergencies. The agency also began positioning supplies before natural disasters so that it could get them to those affected faster.