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HAI Website > Home��::: "Local officials respond to the best of their ability until they are overwhelmed, at which point state officials are called in. Only after the state’s resources are exhausted is the federal government called upon to help. State and local responders say the lack of a national plan has helped encourage a sense of interstate cooperation. State emergency management agencies have begun to create parallel response systems to take the place of the federal government. This includes stand-by contracts between states and vendors for necessities such as water, ice, food, and electrical generators that could be activated in the event of a catastrophic event."