Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem did not authorize the deployment of Federal Emergency Management Agency urban search-and-rescue teams in the Texas Hill Country flood disaster until more than 72 hours after the crisis began, CNN reported on Wednesday.This follows rule changes th...
This reminds of the response of the Bush administration after Hurricane Katrina. Bush had appointed a big campaign donor whose primary experience was in running and judging show horses to manage FEMA, and he was in way over his head with Katrina.
They knew Katrina was coming, it took nearly a week to move across the Gulf of MEXICO after crossing Miami, and doing a lot of damage there. Then it creeped across the Gulf, growing larger until filled the entire Gulf.
This was obvious to EVERYONE who was watching any television, but the Bush administration did nearly nothing to prepare. They didn’t use dozens of school buses to evacuate people, they just let them sit in the yard and get destroyed by floodwater. They made no attempt to stage supplies, make arrangements for food and shelter, evacuate hospitals, etc. They literally did NOTHING.
Katrina hit New Orleans on a Monday, and by that evening it was clear that it was a major disaster. People escaped to the SuperDome for shelter, where rumors spread of violent gangs roaming the Dome raping and pillaging. News videos showed dead bodies in the streets, desperate people just walking past them. If people saw a news camera, they would literally beg for help, for water, for food, for safety.
By Wednesday, the Bush administration had still done nothing. They had lots of excuses, but New Orleans is only a long day’s drive from DC, and yet yet somehow they couldn’t get rescuers, food, supplies, etc. to them, even though the news media had no problem getting there and sending out video.
On Wednesday, I was watching one of the news people interview “Brownie,” the head of FEMA, as he actually said: “We weren’t aware of the situation in the SuperDome until today,” which was two days after the storm hit. Literally EVERYBODY in the country was watching it on LIVE TV, 24 hours a day, but somehow the head of FEMA wasn’t aware of it until 2 DAYS LATER?
This sounds like the same lack of preparation, but also mostly a lack of caring. These are self-appointed Aristocrats, and they think they are above worrying about the nonsense going on in the daily lives of the rubes. They literally don’t care at all about any of those dead people.
It also didn’t take long for the aftermath to become racially charged, either.
As it turns out, the folks most impacted by hurricanes and other weather events (e.g. flooding) are people of color. So, sending FEMA late to these sorts of things just reeks of malicious compliance.
Oh yeah, there was no doubt at the time that the primary reason for ignoring this incoming disaster was because Nawlins was a Democratic stronghold among a vast Red region.
It was the first real time that we saw Republicans withhold help from Americans simply because they weren’t from the same party. Now it’s expected that Dems will help everybody, but the MAGA Nazis (the Republican Party doesn’t exist any more) will only help their own.
which makes it more shocking when dozens of girls from a christian summer camp are killed because of MAGA malice
I’m sure the families are all super-perplexed that God chose to smite their little girls.
Recently, four women on a girl’s weekend in Florida, took shelter under a beach cabana during a sudden storm. The cabana got hit by lightning, and knocked all of them unconscious. They recovered, and one of them was on the news, saying in her thick southern drawl that she was praying and thanking God for protecting them.
I was so shocked, I yelled at the TV “Honey, have you forgotten that being struck by lightning is God’s traditional method of smiting people he HATES? If there’s a God, he wasn’t trying to save you, he was trying to KILL you!”
Religious people who are being rampaged by natural disasters should really be reconsidering their version of religion. It seems that their God isn’t on board with their choices.
Damn, I didn’t know this, thanks for sharing. I am not American, and I was pretty young when Hurricane Katrina happened, so context like this is new to me. More reasons to hate Bush