Second Verse, Same As The First
Found at MSNBC filed under “grass is green”: FEMA under fire again after Ike snafus
HOUSTON – Hurricane Katrina made them worthless feds in windbreakers, a four-letter agency for which some couldn’t find enough four-letter words. And in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, FEMA is again the easy target for displaced residents and frustrated local authorities.
“Where’s FEMA?” some evacuees have asked. Houston Mayor Bill White complained FEMA wasn’t bringing ice, water and meals fast enough, while the county administrator personally took over the coordination of efforts to hand out relief supplies.
This is just absurd. Houston area is not still under water. There is ready access to the area. There are communication facilities in place. What in hell is the problem? The problem is expecting people without electricity to go to a few centralized distribution points when gas isn’t readily available and they can’t be contacted by the same old media channels.
After Hurricane Opal in 1995 FEMA came to you, you didn’t go to them. They hired local people, had compact cars and trucks, and went around checking on what was going on. The same people distributing the supplies also reported on the damage; they got the names right by asking the people who lived there; and they had the forms with them to hand out.
They are never going to figure it out under this administration, because they don’t want the government to work for people.
5 comments
after ivan, fema had central stations like this, but the red cross came through my neighborhood in a modified ice cream truck [music and all!] bringing us ice, water, and MREs.
FEMA kept advertising that you could apply for stuff on their web site, which is highly ironic in an area in which between 2 and 3 million households had no power immediately after the storm. To try to rectify that (apparently), FEMA had TV stations show maps for locating their PODs, similarly ironic in an area in which most people’s only source of media was battery-powered radios. Last and in some ways worst, FEMA brought one highly sought-after commodity, ice, but in quantities so small that they were frequently out of it. One of my neighbors was in danger of losing her whole supply of insulin because she could not find ice for it.
I don’t think it’s mere incompetency with this administration; they just don’t give a good damn what happens to certain populations. NOLA was often a Democratic-trending city; now its original population is scattered to the winds. The city of Houston (not the whole metro area, just the city) similarly tends Democratic; now it’s a mess. The storms are not Karl Rove’s doing, but you’ll never persuade me the Bushists’ non-response isn’t a political middle finger pointed at their perceived enemies.
After Ivan I got my ice and water from the Bank of America and I could walk. FEMA required you to drive and every vehicle received “one ration”. We didn’t have gas available and they wanted every household in the county driving. I only needed ice, and I only needed it for my neighbors, one was not dealing well with the heat and another needed it to keep the baby formula from going bad when she made a batch in the morning. Neither one could go anywhere for fear of needing to drive in an emergency.
Yeah, Steve, I remember that web site and calling an 800 number crap. You had to call the 800 number and register before you visited the service center. It was days before they came to the realization that they were one of the few places in the whole damn county that had communications and power.
How many times do they do this before they figure out that anyone who can do what they want, probably doesn’t need what they provide.
It isn’t just Democratic areas, Steve, Bobby Jindal has been complaining about the Gustav response, which is just as screwed up.
They just don’t intend to provide service.
Ummm… I think I may have mentioned what I thing of Chertoff once or twice… He makes people wish Brown was still in charge. LOL AT least Brown was merely incompetent. Chertoff is incompetent, an complete idiot, cares not one iota about anyone, and a completely loyal Bushit artist and supreme ass-kisser. LOL
So… what did anyone expect? *shrug*
One would think that given the evidence of the past 8 years, they would have realised by now, even if they are republican, or Bushmoron Worshipers, that this Government cares nothing for any of them.
They are stalling to run out the clock.