Keep in mind Roberts’ points about:
The importance of understanding what disaster meant to the past (vs. to today). “Disasters are socially constructed to the extent that they are a product of changing social expectations about the role of government . . .” (7); “. . . disaster is a changeable, socially-constructed process” (30).
Community needs v. limited state.
“[S]tates and localities feared that an institutionalized federal government disaster agency would encroach on their authority” (4). [It was not by accident that the U.S. was created with a federal system. See amendment 10: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” And see the Civil War.]
Aid for “fully Americans and undeserving of calamity” (4); “provide relief to blameless victims” (8); “provide relief for blameless victims of calamity” (33).
House of Representatives: designed to respond to local concerns. “Congress controlled the purse strings, and it was the representative institution most attuned to local concerns” (30).
Importance of the Civil War in seeing general welfare as a rationale for aid.
Importance of limited bureaucracy to oversee, coordinate, provide aid.
View/role of executive v. legislative branch, of president v. Congress.
http://disasters.ferrellhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/week-2-September-2-Wednesday.pdf
