The widest and fastest spread of Ebola has been seen in three of the world's most impoverished countries which have very few doctors, and healthcare facilities that would be illegal to operate here in the US as veterinary practices. We are talking about a population in which superstition is still prevalent enough that people will frequently attempt to dismantle undetonated landmines, grenades, and bombs in an attempt to extract a fictitious compound (red mercury) to get rich quickly:
http://www.newsdzezimbabwe.co.uk/2013/01/chitown-blast-beheaded-goblin-fought.html
The situation in Texas has been expected -- a person who is very recently infected, but without symptoms and thus unable to transmit it, passes the screening both in west Africa and when they arrive here in the United States. Doctors are in a very good position to help stop these cases from spreading within our borders. They see a person who is not feeling well, which is right when they start becoming infectious. They can notify the health department, when then does what is called contact tracing -- getting in touch with everyone who was near the person from the time they were first ill to when they were isolated. In the specific case of Texas, that means they were able to identify everyone, mostly family members, that had been in contact with the patient between September 24-28th. These people will be placed on a fever watch with twice-daily temperature taking. Once 21 days passes, they will given the all clear. This method has already worked in countries that are considered poor to middling when it comes to health, economic, and government resources.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/30/ebola-over-in-nigeria/16473339/
Now, about the funeral homes being told to prepare for body disposal. This one is a little bit harder for most folks to hear and NOT think there is going to be wide-spread ebola in the continental United States. It makes sense to prepare EVERYONE in the undertaking business, though, because we ARE going to get imported cases. It is prudent to expect some of them to not survive, even if they are isolated early and do not infect anyone else. So, how to handle the corpses? It is important to remember that handling of corpses is the absolute #1 way to get Ebola. MOST funeral customs in the United States are very different than in the regions where this Ebola outbreak has occurred. However, there may be small communities that have traditional practices that may, without hearing the handling instructions early and often, repeat the same touching and washing customs that have caused Ebola to spread so widely in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.
As for the stories changing, well... There are a lot of unknowns that get uncovered when these sort of investigations take place! That is the POINT of good science and public health. To take new information as it comes up, and to respond and adapt to the current reality, as opposed to ignoring it and burying our heads in the sand as happens in other cultures (see Japan re: ***ushima). I would be REALLY wary of someone who claims to have all the answers. If you would like to learn more about what contingency planning might look like for Ebola, you may want to look up 'emergency management planning' related to the 2003 SARS and the 2009 H1N1 outbreaks.