i am ambiguous regarding private citizen rescues

[procon]

20. The piecemeal approach we've witnessed following the last natural disasters

to hit the US seems to be focus on rescuing survivors under hazardous conditions. TPTB said it was impossible to evacuate large areas before the hurricane made landfall. Yet, contrast that response to Cuba, a small, poor country that succeeded in evacuating more than 1.5 million people, emptying out entire flood-prone coastal areas in advance of a hurricane. Their emergency planning has been widely written up as a model of efficiency. People are provided buses and move to secure shelters, well staffed, and with medical personnel, and stocked with food and water.

Why are we, the wealthiest nation on earth, with all our technologies and abilities, so poorly prepared? These events are going to recur more often as the effects of climate change becomes an obvious fact of life that can't be ignored any longer.