II MEF used 2 Humvees & 2 AAVs from Camp Lejeune to extract about 20 civilians from homes threatened by flood waters.

Well this is good news and well done by the Marines involved.

One thing I'll never understand though.  Local Emergency Response gets overwhelmed by these disasters but they're so slow to ask for military assistance, and the military appears hesitant to offer it.

I just don't get it.

You'll see SOCOM running exercises in big cities all over the US and to a lesser degree even conventional units but when the rubber meets the road and shit is real they try and shoulder it alone.

Hurricanes?  They only call once they've been slobber knocked.  Wildfires?  People can die, homes burn and only when they're completely overwhelmed will we see military aviation assisting.

Let the same thing happen overseas and we're all over it.  At home?  Paperwork and bureaucracy and a huge bit of hubris gets in the way.