The state of Kentucky has, for the past six days, been under a state of emergency declared by Gov. Steve Beshear last Tuesday in the aftermath of heavy winter storms that knocked out power lines and is being followed by flooding as the snow melts. * On Saturday, the state finally called up the entire Kentucky National Guard, its largest mobilization in its history, and the storms have been blamed for at least 42 deaths across the region. * As many as 700,000 people were without power at one point, including nursing homes and shelters, and hundreds of thousands remain so. Some could be without power for weeks. As of Friday, things were getting worse in some places:
Some local officials are growing angry with what they say is a lack of help from the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In Grayson County, about 80 miles southwest of Louisville, an emergency management official said the 25 National Guardsmen who have responded have no chain saws to clear fallen trees brought down by ice.
More here. FEMA is still in making-excuses mode:
Marty Hudak, spokesman for Obama FEMA director Nancy Ward, said emergency personnel can’t get to the people living (and dying) in these dangerous disaster areas because it’s, well, too dangerous to do so.
“We have plenty of folks ready to go, but there are some limitations with roads closed and icy conditions,” she told the AP.
Where was President Obama?
Not in Kentucky, that’s for sure; Obama may have ripped DC residents for being wimps about the snow in a city whose Democrat-dominated government is famously unable to clear snow (while he himself cranks up the White House thermostat - hey, as David Axelrod notes, “He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?…He likes it warm”), but he’s been nowhere to be found in Kentucky. Instead, Sunday night he was having a Super Bowl party to schmooze lawmakers (guest list here). * Of course, Beshear, being a Democrat, has to do what he can to defend Obama, but the best he can come up with in terms of the president’s personal involvement is that he made a phone call to Beshear. * As of this morning, Beshear was still pressing for Obama to declare a major disaster to speed up federal aid. Beshear has been visiting the affected areas, but the president is not at his side.
Obama’s defenders may argue that the new Administration, having only been put in charge of FEMA ten days ago, can’t be expected to renovate the agency overnight. That’s a fair point, even though it overlooks those same defenders’ focus on Mike Brown’s personal performance during Katrina. But the best way to overcome any lassitude on the part of the agency is to get the president publicly out in front of the issue, and the best way to inoculate Obama against political damage is for him to show some personal concern. He doesn’t seem to see it that way.
I noted among my ten lessons from the Bush Administration the importance of the president just physically being there in hard times. Bush’s physical presence was important to New York in September 2001, when he visited Ground Zero three days after the September 11 attacks; his physical absence was felt in New Orleans in September 2005, when he did a floyover two days after Hurricane Katrina hit but didn’t make an appearance on the ground until four days after the hurricane made landfall, by which time his presidency had been permanently damaged.
One of the easiest of all things for Barack Obama to learn from Bush’s successes and failures, then, is the importance of just taking some time out of his schedule to deal with disasters. Even if the crisis at hand right out of the chute is not a huge one, a new chief executive can set a tone for his administration early on by showing how he’s going to do things differently from his predecessor, as Rudy Giuliani did in New York:
The immediate task was to handle snowstorms that hit just as he took office. Every New Yorker with a historical memory knows that mishandling snowstorms, failing to sweep the streets of Queens, did in John Lindsay, became the symbol of his lassitude when it came to looking out for the average outer-borough homeowner. Aided by the fine Sanitation commissioner, Emily Lloyd, the new administration dodged that bullet. Then, immediately - something far more totemic.
Giuliani was just nine days into his mayoralty when a call came in to 911 reporting a holdup at 125th Street and Fifth Avenue. The dispatcher’s call didn’t mention it, and one wouldn’t have noticed from the outside, but the third floor of the building housed Mosque No. 7 of the Nation of Islam. When the cops arrived, about a dozen members of the Fruit of Islam met the officers, blocked their entrance to the mosque, pushed officers back down the stairs, and took a gun and a police radio.
Dick Wolf himself could not have invented a more TV-ready scenario. Here was the new white mayor - …the man who had campaigned against Dinkins’s capitulations to African-American rioters in Crown Heights and boisterous boycotters of the Korean deli on Church Avenue… - presented in almost his first week in office with the perfect dilemma: a racial melee that had the potential to turn into something far larger. The officers made no arrests - they feared a riot. They did work out a deal with the Muslim leaders by which they recovered the radio and gun.
Onto the scene came Al Sharpton and his then-consigliere, C. Vernon Mason, who denounced the police for conducting a “siege” against a place of worship. The story whipped its way through the papers for the next few days, building and building. Sharpton, Mason, and other black leaders kept up the vitriol on their end, demanding an audience. Giuliani and Police Commissioner William Bratton weren’t exactly shrinking violets either, with Giuliani chiding Room 9 reporters for paying too much attention to Sharpton.
Behind the rhetoric, the mayor and police commissioner agreed to have meetings with the mosque’s leaders. Things were, maybe, calming down. But when the NOI leaders showed up with Sharpton and Mason in tow, Giuliani and Bratton abruptly canceled the meetings. “I remember the moment very well,” says Randy Mastro, the deputy mayor for operations at the time. “Rudy said, ‘No, I’m not going to meet with Al Sharpton, and my police commissioner is not going to meet with Al Sharpton.’” The NOI leaders came back the next day. They got their meetings. Don Muhammad, a mosque leader, sounded placated. “We do not wish to be seen as persons disrespectful of the law,” he told the Times.
In fact, Obama himself has made a major issue of attacking the prior Administration on its disaster response, even fabricating disasters to do so on the campaign trail:
When 12 people died in Kansas in May 2007 as a result of tornadoes, then-candidate Obama blamed the Iraq war for depleting the National Guard of needed resources to help the remaining victims.
“In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas,” Obama said. “Ten thousand people died - an entire town destroyed; turns out that the National Guard in Kansas only had 40 percent of its equipment and they are having to slow down the recovery process.”
He even continued the attacks upon taking over the White House, as the new Whitehouse.gov website snidely declares:
“President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.”
+++
The site also points out that Obama “visited thousands of Hurricane survivors in the Houston Convention Center and later took three more trips to the region” and worked with the Congressional Black Caucus to help rebuild in the aftermath of Katrina.
Obama should also remember how a botched response and cavalier attitude damaged his longtime political ally and patron, Mayor Richard Daley in Chicago; when a massive heat wave killed hundreds in Chicago in 1995, not only was the city scandalously unprepared, but Mayor Daley - like Obama in DC - made light of the heat in his public appearances. Obama, who launched his political career in Chicago that fall, should have learned something from Daley’s unserious reaction.
One of the great advantages of the presidency, and one of its great responsibilities, is the personal presence of the president. If Obama learned anything from his predecessor, he should have gone to Kentucky.
What disaster in Kentucky?
civil_truth Monday, February 2nd at 12:06PM EST (link)Out of sight, out of mind. The media have simply minimized the event; I doubt that most of the country has any clue that anything is more than mildly amiss in KY. No photographers, no on-the-scene reporters, not commentators - nothing to see there, move on.
So no, I don’t think Obama is going to suffer one whit, because almost nobody has a clue that there’s anything needing his presence.
Welcome to America Pravda.
And Rightly So!
But Obama Saves? Doesn't He?
Rod_Patrick Monday, February 2nd at 12:27PM EST (link)He can request all the snows in KY to go away, for the sake of his beloved people. The President doesn’t want the people to realize that he’s a sham saviour after all, right? So there. Go to Kentucky, Mr. President.
Here’s a tip, Mr. President: Rs/Cs have Bobby Jindal, the master of Disaster prevention and mitigation. You can employ his services if you want.
But wait…. KENTUCKY IS A RED-BLOODED STATE. That may pose a problem for the KY people.
Anyone care to make a bet?
Next93 Monday, February 2nd at 12:11PM EST (link)Anyone chare to make a bet as to whether Kanye West will go on national telivision and say “Barak Obama hates white people”?
Constitutional limits on the powers of the federal government:
It’s not just the law, it’s a good idea!
Beat me to it!
NotSoBlueStater Monday, February 2nd at 12:14PM EST (link)I was thinking a variation of that thought.
It’s all about the narrative.
-
The Conservative creed has never offered a life of ease without effort. Democracy is not for such people. Self-government is for those men and women who have learned to govern themselves. - Margaret Thatcher
Kentucky Has A Problem?
Bourbeau Monday, February 2nd at 12:13PM EST (link)Really? Gee, haven’t seen much of anything in the newspapers about it. Haven’t heard Shep, Geraldo, or Brian Williams screaming for the government to safe the state. President Obama doesn’t seem to be concerned, there’s been no official comments, no side trips to assess the damage, or anything like that. I guess these natural disasters have threshholds before the top dog get’s involved. Having said that, where the hell is Mitch McConnell? Why isn’t he speaking out for his constituents? There’s no questiion there’s a double standard, now that the One is in place, but that shouldn’t stop the state’s legislators from demanding action and bringing it to the attention of the public to ensure appropriate pressure is placed on the administration.
But there are some limitations with roads closed and icy conditions
izoneguy Monday, February 2nd at 12:21PM EST (link)“We have plenty of folks ready to go, but there are some limitations with roads closed and icy conditions,” she told the AP.
Too bad Palin did not become VP. Her husband could have commanded an army of sno-machines and gotten through.
I guess Obama being from Hawaii does not like the cold.
I guess he just likes the hot political climate of Chicago and now DC. Wasn’t Obama the one saying we could not sit around with out thermostats at 72 degrees?
“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson
BHO was making fun of DC for closing the schools
Achance Monday, February 2nd at 12:37PM EST (link)because of snow the other day, carrying on about tough Chicago kids would be going out for recess in such weather. So, a little snow and ice shouldn’t bother his FEMA minions. Actually, any decent front wheel drive car with Mud and Snow rated radials (most radial tires are) will go in ice and snow so long as the snow isn’t so deep that the bumper/undercarriage is pushing snow.
That said, even though I drive in ice and snow six months out of the year, it would scare me to death to drive down there during and after a snow or ice storm; people just go crazy!
Even here, the newbies are a menace every fall. My little beater truck got totalled back in December by some idiot who still had the Ohio plates on his 4WD pickup. It was icy, pretty serious black ice that you don’t see unless you’re used to looking/feeling for it, I was minding my business in the right lane going a little under the speed limit. He comes flying up in the left lane and loses it just as he’s coming alongside me. Hit me hard enough to spin me around two and a half times even though I had studded tires on. Wiped out the lower left rear corner of the cab and the whole left side of the bed. $3400 in damage to a truck with a blue book of about $3500. I took a check for $3200 and the salvage rights. When the weather gets better, I’ll beat the bed out and it’ll still go to the dump. Only paid $2000 for it and have been driving it for about a year and a half, so I guess I did OK.
In Vino Veritas
You should see Dallas in an ice storm
izoneguy Monday, February 2nd at 12:45PM EST (link)It is just madness. The news people go wild and we see the carnage on the highway. Why Dallas drivers think they can drive on sheets of ice is beyond me. If they wait a few hours the ice is usually gone.
But we see hundreds of accidents with the goofy drivers on camera saying “I just started sliding…”
“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson
Oh yeah
E Pluribus Unum Monday, February 2nd at 12:57PM EST (link)I had the benefit of living in OK during my formative driving years (age 14-22). They get some nasty, nasty ice about 4 times a year, and you eventually learn to respect the ice without letting it paralyze you with fear. Most ice storms do not shut Tulsa down, just slow down things a good bit.
In Dallas you might as well stay home. I can drive on it, but you can guarantee about 100 wrecks, and all major highways and bridges in gridlock due to either wrecks or iced-up bridges.
Carthago delenda est
Do your conservative t-shirt Christmas shopping at EPU Gear. Save the conservative muse, save the world.
Yeah, you are right, for the most part...
larueladue Monday, February 2nd at 5:35PM EST (link)Tulsa can take your normal, run-of-the-mill ice storm in stride. But the ice storm last year was especially bad… We are still cleaning up in many rural places (downed trees, etc. mainly), and it has been over a year (second week of December, 2007, to be exact). It is still impossible to walk the creek behind our property due to the downed branches and trees. Never saw anything like it in all my years in Oklahoma and Texas. I suspect that the Kentucky storm of this year is almost as bad… unfortunately…
It is amazing to be able to look out over the wooded areas surrounding Tulsa, to see how every tree is broken off to the same height: looks like the place got a very large “buzz” cut… It will be many years until you won’t be able to see any impact from that storm.
I feel very sympathetic to the people east of us that were hit by ice this year…
“Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.” - Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus (Vegetius) in “De Re Militari,” Book III.
I used to have a '70s Dodge 4WD Crew Cab
Achance Monday, February 2nd at 1:09PM EST (link)as my vehicle out at Bethel Agency on the Kuskokwim River in Western Alaska. In winter the river freezes and the State keeps a road plowed on the river ice. I’d take off in my Dodge; it’s mostly very smooth, just like paved highway but quiter, and it’s easy to run fifty, sixty mph. But, you’ll be cruising along at say 50 and get a little headwind or there’ll be a patch of exceptionally smooth ice or you’ll just try to go too fast and it’s like hitting a wall of aerodynamic drag; all four wheels will lose traction and you’ll be fishtailing around till you get a grip on it again. Keeps the drive on the river from getting boring.
In Vino Veritas
Obama hates white people
Attack Mode Monday, February 2nd at 12:23PM EST (link)just call me the white Kanye West
“Land of the Free and Home of da Whopper” Peter Griffin…Family Guy
conform and celebrate diversity….or else!!!
Steel-Belted Radial Right Winger
“I’ll create 5 million jobs from out of unicorn farts and pixie dust” Justatron paraphrasing Obamessiah…yes I love it that much.
To be fair to Kanye-
jo_davi Monday, February 2nd at 2:30PM EST (link)It shouldn’t be Obama hates white people.
It should be Obama DOESN’T CARE about white people.
See? Major difference.
Wait…
CNN need to gin up some more...
furious Monday, February 2nd at 12:32PM EST (link)…Katrina anger coverage to raise awareness of Kentuckians’ plight.
To no avail, though:
1>The afflicated are predominantly white
2>Democrats are in power.
3>MSM’s job is to ensure Pres. Obama succeeds.
–furious
“I find your lack of faith disturbing.” — Darth Vader
To bros and sis in KY, we pray for your safety. nt
Rod_Patrick Monday, February 2nd at 12:33PM EST (link)ditto
Steph C Monday, February 2nd at 1:15PM EST (link)Sis and Bro-in-law with a new baby in Louisville. Cousins, aunts and uncles, etc. on the eastern side of the state.
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” –Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
Hillbilly Politics
Salvation
heshtesh Monday, February 2nd at 1:13PM EST (link)is on the way did anyone stop to consider the fact that today is the second of the month. When the Fed realizes the welfare checks are not getting threw to thier victims all hell will break loose,alas Salvation is surely on the way at least by the fifteenth of the month.
The good news is:
Steph C Monday, February 2nd at 1:13PM EST (link)Kentuckians are resilient. Most of the outlying areas probably have some alternative forms of energy to use, even if only kerosene heaters and barbecue pits for cooking.
The bad news is: They also have long memories and the no-show of FEMA when it was most needed will be remembered come election time. McConnell will be sweating his next campaign more than the one he just experienced. If memory serves me right, he barely squeaked out a win.
Obama can write the state off for a second run as well. For somebody in perpetual campaign mode he sure didn’t care enough about losing KY to at least put in an appearance or say something about their plight on national TV.
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” –Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
Hillbilly Politics
his (political) judgment cometh and that right soon. :) nt
Xasteius Monday, February 2nd at 1:35PM EST (link)Don’t leave the party, hijack it back!
Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.
When I grow up, I don’t want to be Reagan. I want to be Art Chance.
~Aaron Gardner
Why is Obama turning his back on Appalachia?
AHALgal Monday, February 2nd at 1:13PM EST (link)Kentucky is one of the 50 states. As people freeze to death and starve, Barack Obama and his administration turn a blind eye to Kentucky.
Aren’t they Americans?
Aren’t they suffering?
Aren’t they in need of help from the federal government?
Shame on Barack Obama and the entire Democrat party controlling our government. Shame on them for turning their backs on the helpless and needy in Kentucky.
Join the RedState Strike Force
Because
Steph C Monday, February 2nd at 1:17PM EST (link)Hillbillies is the only group you can discriminate against without any fear whatsoever of any kind of backlash. Obama has more important things to do than worry about a bunch of inbred white trash, ya know.
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” –Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
Hillbilly Politics
Obama, MSM Social Darwinism: Makes Sense
Ron Robinson Monday, February 2nd at 1:43PM EST (link)Anybody else notice the quiet undercurrent that seems to be just below the surface of all the reporting on KY? The idea of self-sufficiency.
The primary difference between KY and NOLA that obtains toward Obama and the MSM being able to ignore the situation in KY, is the long appreciated American value of self-sufficiency.
In KY, the first few cuts toward dealing with the problems of the emergency will stem from the concept of self-sufficiency. Take care of as much of the problem as you can on your own.
This is anathema to the liberal mind and will be punished as such. Local officials who think they can take the first few steps on their own without Federal help MUST be punished for such effrontery. Self-sufficiency must not allowed to ‘reproduce’ and must be selected against.
In NOLA, self-directed action was never considered by local officials - they stood by doing nothing to await whatever Bush and FEMA could deliver. They were rewarded by being able to place the blame squarely on Bush.
In KY we see more self-directed action. Gov Beshear graciously related his conversations with Obama and FEMA and jumped the gun on crediting them with being helpful. Being helpful on the phone is one thing. He should have waited to see what help actually arrived and got deployed.
Bet he is wishing now that he had not squandered his praise so early…
There is an update to the absence of chainsaws mentioned above. They finally did get their chainsaws, but they didn’t come from FEMA. Anyone who has served in the military can figure out what probably actually happened:
* Experienced KYNG NCOs figured out what needed to be done.
* They got their officers (especially the JAG and Civil Affairs officers who could interfere with progress the most) safely situated in warm donut shops where they could do no damage, calling the arrangement ‘Headquarters’.
* The NCOs began contacting public spirited hardware store owners and Home Depot managers and got their chainsaws ‘off the books’ by departing from established, approved procedure (SOP).
* They got to work producing results and getting out to the folks who need help.
* They passed reports up the chain to the PIOs so they could write their own press releases.
* They got on down the roadn to the next problem
But there are only 4,600 KY NG.
Meanwhile FEMA wrote press releases: http://www.fema.gov/news/eventnews.fema?id=11049 (NO new press releases on Monday; problems must all be solved!) and complained of delays caused by road closures and get this: ‘ icy conditions’.
Count on the federal government to complain that they cannot deliver emergency aid because of, well, emergency conditions!
Self-sufficiency and self-directed solutions can, and will be, punished. Any local government entity than can exist without Federal aid must be extinguished.
Hope KY gets the lesson: next time DO NOTHING until federal help is WAY TOO LATE and IS BLAMED ON YOU and then the deepening disaster will mean the liberals will win the next election.
Then you will get your help. It won’t be enough, and it won’t be in time, but at least the MSM will be on your side.
The folks in KY are my brethren. They will pull themselves out of this with a minimum of federal help and will have their pride (and their status as a red state) intact and reinforced.
But is interesting to note and to agree with others that under the last disaster template, this is all Obama’s fault.
________________________________________
Ron Robinson
e-Commerce Exec at 800Cart.com eCommerce who blogs at watchcenter.blogspot.com For over 15 years, his firm has assisted over 10,000 small merchants to quickly and easily ’self serve’ their businesses to e-commerce prosperity.
Icy Conditions and road closures
jo_davi Monday, February 2nd at 2:28PM EST (link)That is what bothers me the most. What is the point of FEMA if they can’t get in there because of icy conditions. Road closures shouldn’t matter- you’re FEMA!! I think you can drive down any road if needed. New Orleans was under freakin’ water, and they still manage to find ways in. I thought we had new fangled inventions like plows, four wheel drive, SUVS, generators and road salt to combat the weather.
It’s not even about renovating the agency; it’s about getting on the phone making sure they do something, at least try and get to people.
gee no helicopters
James_Reynolds Monday, February 2nd at 3:04PM EST (link)capable of flying in? Seems to me they just do not care!!
Isn't FEMA more of an after-the-fact...
furious Monday, February 2nd at 3:39PM EST (link)…recovery co-ordinator and resource allocator? Notwithstanding the last two X-Files movies. Scanned their website and couldn’t find the 911 number for immediate dispatch.
First responders are still state&local authorities and the utilties crews, aren’t they? Not that the media grasped the nuance during their hysterical Katrina coverage.
–furious
“I find your lack of faith disturbing.” — Darth Vader
That is correct
Dan McLaughlin Monday, February 2nd at 3:52PM EST (link)and it’s true that in large part, FEMA’s effectiveness depends on the capabilities of the local authorities.
“No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong.” - Winston Churchill
"the capabilities of local authorities..."
furious Monday, February 2nd at 4:42PM EST (link)…oh, well, with Gov Jindal half a loaf is better than none.
In the meantime, Anderson Cooper is arranging to leap from a SnowCat on the steps of the Statehouse in Frankfort and angrily demand answers to why people aren’t angrier.
Or so I can dream.
–furious
“I find your lack of faith disturbing.” — Darth Vader
New Orleans. Kentucky. Anyone else see a coincidence here?
andysmith Monday, February 2nd at 5:24PM EST (link)Both governors are Democrats, right?
Just checking…..
“Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them. ”
“Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives. ”
“Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.”
“I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.”
-The great Ronald Reagan
http://www.visibleunderground.blogspot.com
Not in Louisiana, anymore...
furious Monday, February 2nd at 5:41PM EST (link)…in their wisdom the people of LA tossed out the bumbling Kathleen Blanco and (in the 2d Congressional District) the avaricious William Jefferson.
Unfortunately in their folly the people of NOLA chose to retain Ray Nagin as their mayor.
2-for-3 ain’t bad, and it’s more than a start.
–furious
“I find your lack of faith disturbing.” — Darth Vader
This is the same Obama
Rapunzel46 Monday, February 2nd at 7:38PM EST (link)This is the same Obama who sneered he didn’t have to drop everything to deal with the financial crisis because he could multi task! Yeah, right!
KY could use
DerKrieger Monday, February 2nd at 10:03PM EST (link)a little global warming. I live in AR and only lost power for a day. I have colleagues who are still without power but like our friends in KY we don’t complain. We’re not Liberals.
“In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” - Thomas Jefferson
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence (OBAMACARE – mine), the money of their constituents.” – James Madison
The death toll is climbing
red4ever Monday, February 2nd at 10:08PM EST (link)How many more people have to die before this gets noticed. This is the United States of America. People do not freeze to death in their own homes here.
Self-sufficiency is all well and good. But, we all need a little help from our friends sometimes. Plus, this is what we pay our tax dollars for, for FEMA to get in there after a disaster and get people the help they need to be self-sufficient.
The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.
Dante
Red,
Wayne Monday, February 2nd at 10:25PM EST (link)sometimes people do notice. There was a 92 year old vet of WWII that died in his home in Bay City, Mi. That made the news, because the power company put an interrupter on his electric service because he owed over $1K in back payments. Apparently he had the money to pay but there were obviously issues, about his competency and ability to respond to the company.
But, it’s easy to go with that story and demonize the power company, not so with Kentucky, as that may cast a bad light on the dems and their Fearful Leader.
“Hell, these are Marines. Men like them held Guadalcanal, and took Iwo Jima, Baghdad ain’t s–t”. Maj. Gen. John F. Kelly, USMC, Deputy CG, First MEF
I'm in Kentucky, and...
I do not apologize when I do something wrong. Tuesday, February 3rd at 2:38PM EST (link)…FEMA has done exactly what it was asked to do by the state authorities. Kentucky asked FEMA to concentrate on helping shelters, nursing homes and hospitals secure food, water and power. They also asked FEMA to set up their mobile cell towers to facilitate communication among state-level first responders. The question of door-to-door relief assistance was tasked to the KY National Guard (of which 4000+ were mobilized).
The first FEMA aid hit Kentucky within 12 hours of the disaster declaration by the President. I live in one of the 61 counties named in the Federal disaster declaration (that’s one more than half the state, by the way), and I’m told that we had FEMA contact that same day; we were in good enough shape that they could send their stuff elsewhere in the state.
Seriously, FEMA has done exactly what it was asked to do, and they’ve (so far) done a good job. There’s one guy (who has been cited in a half-dozen press articles) who think that they should have been in his county sooner, but that same guy also complained that National Guardsmen don’t come with chainsaws. *laugh*
This is my site, which I did not reveal to you because I actually think that you’re all knuckle-dragging theocrats.