Everything Is Political Now
Hurricane Irene is the tenth weather related event this year that has done more than a billion dollars in damage, the most billion dollar disasters ever. The situation is made worse by Republicans cutting funding for the Weather Service resources need to maintain our current level of forecast capability, and their generally anti-science attitude.
Congress cut funding for FEMA, and now members are angry that the money isn’t available, as McClatchy reports: Missouri Senators angry that FEMA cutbacks affect Joplin tornado repairs
One of the first jobs facing Congress when it returns to work will be finding billions of dollars to pay for damage caused by a summer of natural disasters stretching from Joplin to the Jersey Shore.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is suspending payments for some projects in tornado-ravaged Joplin because of immediate disaster needs along the East Coast after Hurricane Irene. Some spending for other storm-related and flood-related damage in other parts of the country also has been delayed.
A FEMA spokesman said Monday that the agency’s disaster fund has dipped well below $1 billion.
The Republican Majority Leader in the House has said that there will be no disaster money unless there are cuts somewhere else. How about the Congressional payroll, health care, and pension funding?
4 comments
You might want to look a little deeper at the damage estimates, and the actual cost of the flooding. The media only focused on major cities, and aren’t reporting about the rural towns in Vermont and New York, or the smaller cities like Paterson, New Jersey which have been flooded out or washed away. Many of the rivers still haven’t crested, so Irene isn’t over.
Duffer is unconcerned with what happens to anyone other than Duffer. Why should he care if weather satellites on which we depended a few years ago to forecast tropical weather have been allowed to fall out of orbit without replacement, thanks to GOP budget cuts… after all, it’s only American peasants who suffer.
FTR, Duffer, Irene’s damage will continue for at least several more days. Fuck you for not giving a damn.
I don’t think that he realizes that the storm spared the liberal bastion of NYC and has been inundating conservative rural communities, or he would show more concern.
It isn’t his history that was torn away by flash flooding, so he doesn’t care if it was conserved or not.
when you stuipidly build cities in flood plains, you get what you deserve. water wins every time!