Obama's FEMA versus Bush's FEMA

[Svnla]

Just compare the Governor(s) and Mayor(s) of this storm vs. Katrina in 2005. How they behaved and acted at time of crisis.

Now we have Christie, Bloomberg. See how the press said about them so far.

Then we had Blanco, Nagin. See how the press said about them (see my links in post #39 above).

Edit: Things are not going well = http://news.yahoo.com/exasperation-builds-day-3-storm-stricken-nyc-202314418.html

 

[Exterous]

Just compare the Governor(s) and Mayor(s) of this storm vs. Katrina in 2005. How they behaved and acted at time of crisis.

Now we have Christie, Bloomberg. See how the press said about them so far.

Then we had Blanco, Nagin. See how the press said about them (see my links in post #39 above).

Edit: Things are not going well = http://news.yahoo.com/exasperation-builds-day-3-storm-stricken-nyc-202314418.html

To be fair a lot of it is - IMO - the inability of people to deal with adversity. I was watching the news this morning and they were interviewing some fat lady in a 'mandatory evacuation area' who was demanding to know where the government was, that she was going to starve to death if the government didn't come soon. First - I don't think she was going to starve to death any time soon. Second - YOU ARE IN A MANDATORY EVACUATION AREA - maybe you should have EVACUATED.

Another family ran out of water on Tuesday morning. Perhaps there were some sort of extenuating circumstances but that sounds like very very bad planning somewhere along the line for that family.

They interviewed another lady who had just finished getting gas "I had to wait 3 hours to get gas. This is America not some third world country!"

I just don't think some people can conceive of the levels of destruction other countries have experienced due to storms.

Although I certainly understand the anger towards diverting generators and police for the NYC marathon

 

[Jaskalas]

Non-union crews turned away from NJ...

'No Red Tape'?

Now that just pisses me off. Not only do we need a right to work, we need a right to HELP storm victims. Lest such wonderful Republican !@#$s turn the help away.

Thanks Gov. Christie and Gov. McDonnell.

 

[piasabird]

People have no food, no water, and no gas. What the hell is going on? Where is FEMA and the Red Cross? A medical Epidemic could start in New York.

FEMA has done nothing yet for parts of New York. The Red Cross hasnt show up yet. Bloomberg is setting up for the Marathon and delivering water to water stations along the route in places where people do not even have water or electricity. Also Union People in New York are blocking non-union electric workers from turning on their power. Is this really good for New York.

Good Luck to the people in New York City. It is a good time to go somewhere else for a while. Visit relatives out in the country or something. Take a cruise or go to Hawaii for a month or something. California, Texas, and Florida are probably nice this time of year.

All the government would have to do is deliver a few generators to get the gasoline flowing again. Cant Fix Stupid. The real problem is the city is just too crowded. They need some underground Gasoline Pipelines.

Mormons have a good Idea. Keep some food storage. You need about a 2 week supply of food and water. Would it kill people to have a few cans of food.

 

[piasabird]

People are dumpster diving for Food. We need to air-drop some food or send it in by barge or ferry. Just send an Air Craft Carrier over there with Helicopters and supplies. This is what they did in Catrina to evacuate people by helicopter. You can fit a lot of food on the deck of an Air Craft Carrier just put it in Shipping Containers and drop it off on the sreets with some chinooks or something.

Military MRE's Taste Good.

 

[Jaskalas]

Maybe they'll help the folks after the election, when they're free to admit there's a problem that needs fixing.

 

[Fern]

Looks like the FEMA victory lap by Obama supporters was premature.

Fern

 

[Genx87]

Heh so the govt doesn't come swooping in 30 mins after the storm passes to save the day? Where have I seen this before? Seriously, people need to stop believing disaster areas this large can be serviced within hours or even days.

 

[Theb]

The difference in qualifications between Scott Brown and Craig Fugate alone is a very stark contrast.

Although I certainly understand the anger towards diverting generators and police for the NYC marathon

This decision is bizarre to me. There is still so much debris to clear and likely a number of bodies still to find.

The marathon is a BFD, but if I were showing up for it I would rather receive a hard hat and a shovel than a bib and a timing chip.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Looks like the FEMA victory lap by Obama supporters was premature.

Fern

Yep, sure looks that way. Granted some people will always complain about not getting help but this is looking more and more like incompetence than a handful of whiners.

 

[Darwin333]

Supplies and transportation are required ahead of time. The military is most able at that. Enforcement is not necessarily necessary given order is not allowed to break down due to poor organization in the first place. Armed forces are commonly used around the world to maintain order while explicitly avoiding enforcement.

Order isn't allowed to break down huh? I dunno, I was actually in NOLA during the Katrina aftermath and I can tell you with 100% certainty that order had indeed broken down well before any .mil personnel, who can not carry out law enforcement duties, could have possibly arrived.

So again, we have a completely lawless city full of desperate individuals and roving gangs of armed thugs/bad guys. We have a convention center full of people in which the thugs literally took over and drove the cops out of. We have virtually zero communications, local police are fleeing and some have turned criminal themselves, murder, rape, looting are all rampant. Absolutely nothing can be done to help people until that situation is remedied but you want to send in a fuckload of people that by law can not do law enforcement activities which is basically putting them in harms way? All because a stubborn governor doesn't want to cede control after days of the admin basically begging? Hell, the admin even sent her the paperwork, all she had to do was sign. Yet her refusal to do so is somehow the fault of someone else in your eyes?

 

[DucatiMonster696]

This is a good time to post this video from the LearnLiberty folks as people in NYC are going crazy over shortages of vital items.

"New York fuel "panic" grows even as ports open, waivers given"

http://news.yahoo.com/fuel-pipeline-resumes-jersey-deliveries-gasoline-lines-linger-130057461.html



"Is Price Gouging Immoral? Should It Be Illegal?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9QEkw6_O6w

 

[DucatiMonster696]

looks like the fema victory lap by obama supporters was premature.

Fern

lololol +1

 

[Darwin333]

I noticed not one storm victim has been shot by police in Obama's FEMA, as was the case with the GW FEMA.

Exactly what do the local police have to do with either presidents or their FEMA?

Just imaging the public outrage and mad violent people taking to the streets under an Romney FEMA, as FEMA had been turned over to the states and private sector. And the states fought with the private sector to see who and when, say, Bain Capital would step up and take charge to help n save people?

Frankly, certain aspects could potentially be privatized with contracts done well in advance so there is none of the bullshit that you talk about above. Hell, a large portion of it is already done by the private sector and that rarely, if ever happens.

Seriously, who better than Walmart to deliver a massive amount of food and water anywhere in the lower 48? They have the distribution infrastructure and supplies already stocked. The .gov, including Federal, will still need to play vital roles but some of it, if properly setup before the disaster is even threatening, can most definitely be handled better and more efficiently by the private sector. Hell, the biggest thing FEMA did during the recovery after Katrina was simply dole out Federal money that was then contracted out to private companies.

And you have to then ask... When would a Bain Capital find it profitable to get involved in the recovery?

I don't know shit about Bain Capital so I couldn't really tell you but I in a pinch I would guess cost + 10 or 15% (otherwise known as T&M or time & material in the construction industry). That is fairly irrelevant though as in my experience there are a fuckton of companies chomping at the bit to get recovery contracts.

People may have issues with Obama, but before you decide on Mittens as the answer, just remember... It "could" be worse.
Much worse....

lol, not really.... two sides to the same coin my friend.... Personally, I am writing in Beelzebub

 

[Tylanner]

NYC takes a small army to keep it supplied for normal everyday operation. They are going to be lacking many things in the next two weeks.

The marathon is a joke. The president should ban it from running. Pride, tradition? It's a disgrace.
Just saw that it is cancelled, whew.

People need to get the hell off of the island and out of NYC in general. A logistics nightmare...

 

[Jhhnn]

Looks like the FEMA victory lap by Obama supporters was premature.

Fern

Yep, sure looks that way. Granted some people will always complain about not getting help but this is looking more and more like incompetence than a handful of whiners.

Obviously, New Yorkers would be better off W/O FEMA, a la the Romney plan....

I love the whining about no gas, & the blaming of anybody other than the entities who can actually deliver it- the oil companies... Electricity? Since when did NYC provide power, rather than private enterprise?

Obviously, it's all Obama's fault. Everything. Blame Obama- it's the easy answer!

 

[davmat787]

This is a good time to post this video from the LearnLiberty folks as people in NYC are going crazy over shortages of vital items.

I will never be able to understand why 99% of the population is absolutely braindead when it comes to emergency preparedness. One does need to spend much time or money on food and other items that will make a huge difference in a natural disaster like this.

Being prepared makes a huge difference in your comfort and mentality during a disaster. When shopping, spending 5-10% on food and hardware to put towards your emergency preparedness kit is a good way to build it up without feeling the pinch if money is a major hurdle. Once it is stocked, you can rotate and eat the older food before it expires and restock with fresh, that way you only deal with the upfront costs.

This site has some good info: http://www.ready.gov/

Stocking food and supplies: It's not just for doomsday preppers and Mormons!

 

[Darwin333]

To be fair a lot of it is - IMO - the inability of people to deal with adversity. I was watching the news this morning and they were interviewing some fat lady in a 'mandatory evacuation area' who was demanding to know where the government was, that she was going to starve to death if the government didn't come soon. First - I don't think she was going to starve to death any time soon. Second - YOU ARE IN A MANDATORY EVACUATION AREA - maybe you should have EVACUATED.

Always going to have a few idiots.

Another family ran out of water on Tuesday morning. Perhaps there were some sort of extenuating circumstances but that sounds like very very bad planning somewhere along the line for that family.

I live in New Orleans, we fill our bathtubs and every available bottle with water before a storm hits. Doesn't cost a damn thing except maybe a few extra pennies on the water bill.

They interviewed another lady who had just finished getting gas "I had to wait 3 hours to get gas. This is America not some third world country!"

I just don't think some people can conceive of the levels of destruction other countries have experienced due to storms.

3 whole hours??? Oh boo fucking hoo, we go through hurricanes every few years and obviously this one isn't as bad as just a normal one for us. A normal cat 2 or 3 and in the few days following its not a matter of how long do you have to wait for gas its a matter of no gas being available at all, for any price whatsoever. Fuel is absolutely king after a natural disaster. It isn't guns, it isn't bullets, it isn't gold, its not even food or water, it is plain and simply gas. With gas you can trade for every single last one of the items above but depending on how bad things are you won't get a drop of gas for any of the above. True story, I had a man offer me his wife for 5 gallons of gas after Katrina.

People go out and buy their nice fancy generators and a single can of gas to run it. Even worse, they think that they can run that genny 24/7 and wonder why they are out of fuel in 4 hours. This is just normal human stupidity and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. If folk down here are still that retarded after going through it multiple times the yanks up in NY don't stand a chance.

Although I certainly understand the anger towards diverting generators and police for the NYC marathon

Yeah, thats some serious bullshit right there.

 

[Darwin333]

I will never be able to understand why 99% of the population is absolutely braindead when it comes to emergency preparedness. One does need to spend much time or money on food and other items that will make a huge difference in a natural disaster like this.

Being prepared makes a huge difference in your comfort and mentality during a disaster. When shopping, spending 5-10% on food and hardware to put towards your emergency preparedness kit is a good way to build it up without feeling the pinch if money is a major hurdle. Once it is stocked, you can rotate and eat the older food before it expires and restock with fresh, that way you only deal with the upfront costs.

This site has some good info: http://www.ready.gov/

Stocking food and supplies: It's not just for doomsday preppers and Mormons!

Forget food. Stock up on plenty of water, use your bathtub if you are pinched for money and spend the rest on gas. Fuel is absolute king after a hurricane and can get you every other thing that you don't have. Everything else usually won't get you a drop of fuel though. I personally store well over 150 gallons of gas during hurricane season, rotating it regularly and between 50-75 gallons (depending on how lazy I am) the rest of the year. I lived like a king (relatively speaking of course) during the Katrina aftermath trading just a few gallons of gas here and there. I ate steak and shrimp for 4 nights in a row, total cost was a single gallon of gas. My entire yard front and back cleared of debri, 2 gallons. Had a man offer me 30 minutes with his wife for gas, another offer me a gold watch, another woman offered me her freaking wedding ring.

Remember this very well, gas is absolute king after a storm. It is 1000X better than cash or even gold.

 

[bfdd]

It is not our, societies, responsibility that you are not prepared for disaster. You're going to starve? Well hopefully there's nice enough people around to lend you some food, if not oh well maybe you should have done things differently. We'll all learn from your mistakes or we'll whine about it until God... erm I mean Government comes to the rescue.

 

[davmat787]

Forget food. Stock up on plenty of water, use your bathtub if you are pinched for money and spend the rest on gas. Fuel is absolute king after a hurricane and can get you every other thing that you don't have. Everything else usually won't get you a drop of fuel though. I personally store well over 150 gallons of gas during hurricane season, rotating it regularly and between 50-75 gallons (depending on how lazy I am) the rest of the year. I lived like a king (relatively speaking of course) during the Katrina aftermath trading just a few gallons of gas here and there. I ate steak and shrimp for 4 nights in a row, total cost was a single gallon of gas. My entire yard front and back cleared of debri, 2 gallons. Had a man offer me 30 minutes with his wife for gas, another offer me a gold watch, another woman offered me her freaking wedding ring.

Remember this very well, gas is absolute king after a storm. It is 1000X better than cash or even gold.

Or instead of forgetting food, one could store both food AND gas. I do agree fuel is very important. Not only gas, but fuel to cook and heat with too. My concern is mentioning emergency preparedness is the first 3-7 days, where you may not even be able to get out of your neighborhood or your car is crushed. If you can't drive anywhere, food will be even more important.

There is no reason to advise someone to "forget food" when discussing emergency preparedness.

 

[davmat787]

It is not our, societies, responsibility that you are not prepared for disaster. You're going to starve? Well hopefully there's nice enough people around to lend you some food, if not oh well maybe you should have done things differently. We'll all learn from your mistakes or we'll whine about it until God... erm I mean Government comes to the rescue.

Yep, and it is not like it takes much to be prepared anyway. I will never understand the attitude so many have towards this, they just assume that government helicopters and army humvees will be in there neighborhood within hours to rescue them, and if not, blame the President and FEMA!!! They are racist too!

Idiots.

And people laugh at the mormons and others for being prepared! What kind of stupidity laughs at someone for being prepared for an inevitable disaster? Just boggles my mind.

 

[papadage]

Non-union crews turned away from NJ...

'No Red Tape'?

Now that just pisses me off. Not only do we need a right to work, we need a right to HELP storm victims. Lest such wonderful Republican !@#$s turn the help away.

Thanks Gov. Christie and Gov. McDonnell.

What a hackish lie:

http://www.waaytv.com/news/local/article_a4982e5a-250e-11e2-904f-001a4bcf6878.html

Asshole..

 

[Svnla]

To be fair a lot of it is - IMO - the inability of people to deal with adversity. I was watching the news this morning and they were interviewing some fat lady in a 'mandatory evacuation area' who was demanding to know where the government was, that she was going to starve to death if the government didn't come soon. First - I don't think she was going to starve to death any time soon. Second - YOU ARE IN A MANDATORY EVACUATION AREA - maybe you should have EVACUATED.

Another family ran out of water on Tuesday morning. Perhaps there were some sort of extenuating circumstances but that sounds like very very bad planning somewhere along the line for that family.

They interviewed another lady who had just finished getting gas "I had to wait 3 hours to get gas. This is America not some third world country!"
I just don't think some people can conceive of the levels of destruction other countries have experienced due to storms.

Although I certainly understand the anger towards diverting generators and police for the NYC marathon

It is their ENTITLEMENT attitude. I do not see anywhere in the US Constitution about the government to rescue anyone from their own stupidity.

Did not want to leave when you were warned? Tough luck when you are of supplies/in trouble.

The destruction in Japan and Indonesia/surrounding areas were more devastated but you did not see them oversea folks whined and bitched about government or looting (not for food/water to survive) like certain demographic groups in the US.

 

[Jhhnn]

Non-union crews turned away from NJ...

'No Red Tape'?

Now that just pisses me off. Not only do we need a right to work, we need a right to HELP storm victims. Lest such wonderful Republican !@#$s turn the help away.

Thanks Gov. Christie and Gov. McDonnell.

What a hackish lie:

http://www.waaytv.com/news/local/article_a4982e5a-250e-11e2-904f-001a4bcf6878.html

Asshole..

It just shows how strongly Righties have been indoctrinated, their mental faculties warped by 30+ years of relentless propaganda.

When the evidence contradicts what they want to believe, they'll just believe harder.

Jaskalas won't even acknowledge that he was misled, mistaken, just plain wrong, because his fellows will be shouting that lie from the rooftops, millions of times over, and he knows who he believes & who he trusts. He knows that it's true because he believes that it's true, and he couldn't possibly be wrong.

It's all about truthiness.