 Believing that disaster response was not the domain of the federal government, Coolidge initially refused to become involved, but he eventually acceded to political pressure and appointed Hoover to chair a special committee to help the region.Hoover established over one hundred tent cities and a fleet of more than six hundred vessels, and raised $17 million (equivalent to $ million in ).In large part due to his leadership during the flood crisis, by 1928, Hoover had begun to overshadow President Coolidge himself.