Where's FEMA?? There's flooding in Iowa and

[shraby]

they need help! Link to a blog with photos of the flooding.

<http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=203909015>

We are still without potable water and sewer, but power has been restored. Mason City Police and Fire personnel have performed extraordinarily. In addition, all other City employees have been out assisting them. It's in no small part due to their efforts I can happily report no loss of life. Supported by local volunteers the situation now seems under control.

Although FEMA has totally failed to respond to the lack of potable water, two Iowa based businesses have picked up the slack. HyVee grocery stores has been bringing in semi-loads of water since yesterday afternoon and selling it at reduced prices. Very shortly semi's from Kum and Go Conveniences Stores will be arriving and they will be giving away a case of water to every family. Kudos to these large Iowa based corporations who are filling the needs that our government and FEMA have failed to do. All needs now seem to be met. Things throughout the community are going remarkably well. Clean up is well underway in areas where flood waters have receded.

The Governor of Iowa will be here in the next hour touring the devastation....I hope he brings more then words and cameras. Of course federal officials are no where in site

More.

<http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=203909015>

[sandnsea]

1. This is exactly what Republicans PLAN

They want corporations to look more efficient, even in these kinds of crises, to convince people the solution to our problems is privatization. It is not an accident that this happens, this is exactly what happened in Katrina. Why can't people see through the ploy.

[Joanne98]

2. They're all sitting on Navy ships outside of Burma..

They have bottled wated for them. Maybe we can demand they come home and give it to you. It's OUR money!!!!!

[NightWatcher]

3. You. Are. On. Your. Own. You cant count on anyone but yourself

What ever happened to the Emergency Preparation Forum in here? I saw two attempts at it over the last two weeks.

[Mojorabbit]

19. I wondered about the forum too

I think it would be wonderful to have.

[Carnea]

4. For god's sake shut up.

Honestly would you want FEMA to show up on your doorstep. BTW Made for tv movies about killer asteroids not withstanding, FEMA has been in the shitter for a long before the Shrub.

No situation is helped my men with guns showing up to your house forcing you to leave.

[SpiralHawk]

5. You are dead wrong, Carnea

FEMA was in great shape till the corrupt republicon homelander cronies got their money-grubbing mitts on it.

Check the facts.

We don't need no propaganda around here.

America has suffered enough without false revisionist history.

[AndyTiedye]

8. I Think We Would All Agree that FEMA is a Mess NOW

Seems to me, also, that FEMA was a lot more useful before 2000 coup,
but that is beside the point.

They are somewhere between barely useful and a lot worse than useless now.
We seem to be agreed on that point.

[madfloridian]

14. Amen.

.

[Carnea]

15. I was there for Andrew during Bush 1

FEMA has been fucking useless for a while.

If it wasn't for churches and volunteers in the Andrew aftermath I think a lot more people would have died.

[SpiralHawk]

9. Setting the record straight on FEMA, pre-Commander AWOL Bush & republicon cronies

Bush tore down the FEMA that Clinton built up
By Josh Marshall
Posted: 09/08/05 12:00

Of all the sad tales of cronyism and ineptitude emerging out of the Katrina catastrophe, probably none is more telling than the history of FEMA under the oversight and management of President Bush.

So let’s review the outlines of the story, beginning with the president’s inauguration in January 2001. Like everything in the second Bush White House, the surest clue to how the administration would proceed was to find what the Clinton White House had done and then expect the opposite.

President Clinton had appointed the first FEMA director with actual emergency-management experience, James Lee Witt. And Witt had gone on to reshape the organization into what was considered a model government agency. Clinton even gave FEMA Cabinet-level status.

Bush demoted the agency’s status and put it in the hands of his chief political fixer, Joe Allbaugh, who went about dismantling much of what Witt had built. As he told Congress in May 2001: “Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program and a disincentive to effective state and local risk management. Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level.”

(snip)

http://thehill.com/josh-marshall/bush-tore-down-the-fema-that-clinton-built-up-2005-09-08.html

[SpiralHawk]

10. Why do Republicon Homelanders hate America?

Why have they trashed our effective government systems in favor of corruption and cronyism?

[madfloridian]

11. FEMA was done in by the Bush admin. We need it badly.

Those are right wing talking points you are using.

[kestrel91316]

16. FEMA was a big help after the Northridge quake. I should know.

They helped ME. A very nice young man in a dress shirt and tie came with a clipboard and was liberal in his assessment of my losses. He had no gun.

What planet do you live on?

[Mojorabbit]

20. They helped us too

after Hurricane Charley.

[kestrel91316]

18. Oh, and BTW:

HOW DARE YOU COME ON HERE AS A NEWBIE AND START TELLING A VICTIM OF A NATURAL DISASTER TO SHUT UP!!!!!!!

You are the one who needs to STFU or get the hell off DU. I don't particularly care which.

[Carnea]

21. Sorry if it came across that way

It was never my intention to tell anyone to shut-up (It was more of an Elaine from Seinfeld shut-up) than an actual order.

I've always been fortunate in the natural disasters I've experienced. And I wish those hurt by the flooding the best.

[kestrel91316]

24. Understood and apology accepted.

I get pretty prickly with newbies if they are careless in what they say, what with the endemic troll problem here........

[rurallib]

25. FEMA was working very well until 1/20/2001

BTW HyVee has basically run all supermarket competition out of business in Iowa. They almost seem like a monopoly.

[AndyTiedye]

6. Do You Really WANT FEMA?

Consider the performance of FEMA in New Orleans.

If they had come to Iowa, they probably would have impounded that water and never gotten around to handing it out.

[madfloridian]

13. FEMA is essential......Bush has destroyed it..

In the name of the right wing policy of every man for himself.

[Vinca]

7. There was a person from Indiana on the news this morning and

they haven't seen anyone from the government or FEMA there either. The poor woman lost everything and didn't have flood insurance because she wasn't in a flood plain.

[RB TexLa]

12. Always go into any emergency knowing no one, the government, business, your neighbors are not going

to lift one finger for you.

[izquierdista]

17. Unless you live in Cuba

[RB TexLa]

23. No, I go into any emergency believing that, where I am doesn't matter.

[louis-t]

22. "federal disaster assistance" is "entitlement"???

Now THAT'S Republcan thinking.

[Lucy Goosey]

26. They're doing a heckuva job! Just like after Katrina!

[Wizard777]

27. Give 'em a week or two. They'll figure it out and get there.