Live at FEMA Headquarters: 'comfort' dogs and 'years' to recover

[steve2470]

http://www.chron.com/about/article/Live-at-FEMA-Headquarters-comfort-dogs-and-12024611.php

WASHINGTON – When rescuers helped people out of a flooded house Sunday in Dickinson, between Houston and Texas City, the scene played out on a bank of giant video monitors in a government command post 1,400 miles away.

The windowless room on the mezzanine level of a nondescript federal office building near the U.S. Capitol was crammed with 177 workers from agencies across the federal government, most pulling 12-hour shifts for the duration of Hurricane Harvey.

There were also four dogs on hand: comfort animals brought in to relieve stress and fatigue inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) nerve center.

On a normal day it only takes about five people to monitor the entire nation from FEMA's National Response Coordination Center, which coordinates the overall federal response to major incidents and emergencies.