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Monday, September 15, 2008

Again.
Posted by Jill | 10:11 PM
Again and again. How many times are Americans going to tolerate a government that does NOTHING for them?

Despite the relative news blackout, Houston is pretty well FUBAR at the moment:

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Christine Bowman

Hurricane Ike just about blew away the city of Galveston. Evacuations had been ordered there, and recovery and rebuilding efforts are expected to take months or even years. But rescue and recovery is under way in Galveston.

In contrast, Houston's 4 million people were told to hunker down and stay in place. What now for them?

Millions have no power, going on 3 days later. No food supply. No ice. No water supply, no cell phone service, no land lines. Not many gas stations and grocery stores are up and running. There's no air conditioning. (The scorching summer in Houston lasts well into October). Roofs blew away, trees smashed homes and vehicles, flood waters and leaks have destroyed much.



[snip]

Harris County chief executive Judge Ed Emmett (a Republican) and Houston Mayor Bill White (a Democrat) "warned the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sunday morning that it would be 'held accountable'" if it did not deliver emergency supplies as promised. ... Through gritted teeth, White said: 'We expect FEMA to honor our request and their commitments. ... If all these supplies don't materialize, they'll get low marks.'" 

In an interview with Harry Smith, Republican Governor Rick Perry said that FEMA was responsible for distributing aid in Houston, not the state of Texas, which was responding in other areas.

On Sunday the ABC affiliate in Houston reported more confusion among authorities as to who is responsible for helping Houston, FEMA or the state?

It wasn't until Sunday at a news conference with FEMA head Michael Chertoff that we realized FEMA thought the state was going to transport FEMA supplies and distribute them. But the state let them know this morning that they couldn't do the distribution, that they wanted FEMA to do it.

And on Sunday night, we found out that FEMA put the responsibility on the city of Houston and Harris County. The city and county say they're set up to do the distribution, thanks to plenty of employees and volunteers. But the confusion may have led to a delay in getting supplies here and we addressed the delay and confusion with Secretary Chertoff. ...

"We were asked to take on the responsibility of actually getting them to the points of distribution and manning the points of distribution," said Chertoff.

"Who screwed up?" we asked.

"This is not about a screw-up," said Chertoff. ...

"Did the state tell you guys at some point this morning, 'Hey we can't distribute it by Plan A. We have to go to Plan B?'"

"This morning, the state, where it's slow with its resources and capabilities and capabilities, said 'We'd like you to take over this assignment.' We were happy to do it."

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story...

FEMA pointed the finger at the state in an LA Times report:

But federal officials said state authorities suddenly changed plans Sunday morning and asked the federal government take over distribution of supplies after earlier promising to take care of that task themselves.

"An unanticipated glitch" is how Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described it during a news conference in Houston attended by White and Emmett.

The bureaucracies had better get themselves organized, and fast. Already, reports indicate that the needs of elderly and disabled citizens have not been met. This writer, with immediate family members and close friends in Houston, can confirm that that is not an isolated incident. Even first responders were going hungry, in the beginning:

Congressman John Culberson complained that 300 first responders were not getting food to eat. He was appearing on local TV, asking Houstonians who could get out to bring supplies to these staging areas. I hope the problem has been solved by now. My question is: Where was FEMA?



Maggie Jochild has more on the devastation they don't want us to see.

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1 Comments:
Blogger Bob said...
I was shocked by what happened to Houston. All the attention was on the coast. As expected, 50% of CNN was Amderson Cooper standing in waist deep water going, "Hey, look at me."
9/16/08, 2:23 AM  
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