Is the Ice Storm President Obama’s Hurricane Katrina? In a word, no. One difference is, you only have to ask him for help exactly one time and then, you know, you get it.*
President Obama’s quick response to last week’s deadly ice storm that swept through several states – and currently has our neighbor to the north in dire straights – shows what a competent administration can do when they recognize the urgent need to help their people and they’re not looking to place blame (See President George W. Bush telling the world the “I don’t think anyone anticipated a breach of the levees” whopper as well as any one of his revisionist exit interviews.)
Although the problem continues to worsen in some areas – mostly due to treacherous road conditions that make them unnavigable – needed supplies from Mobile Emergency Response Support units (portable radio towers, repeaters and radios; multiple portable KU Band satellite systems and satellite telephones to help officials in areas where cellular towers are inoperative) and FEMA (Incident Response Vehicle, technicians, and radio/repeater equipment, and industrial size generators) are reaching the hardest hit areas.
As hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians lingered in the dark nearly a week after an ice storm wrecked the state’s power grid, National Guard troops prepared to go door-to-door to check on residents….The Federal Emergency Management Agency was also on the ground delivering generators, food and water to residents in need….Utility crews worked feverishly to restore electricity amid the largest state power outage on record…
Even the shelters are getting what they need.
Although it might seem like a fortuitous “gotcha” moment, you really don’t want to compare the disaster relief responses of the two most recent presidential administrations. Seriously, trust me on this one.
As a matter of fact (“Matter of Fact,” the state where the reality-based community lives), the Katrina response was so mangled that President Obama is still dealing with it:
Newly appointed Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano today issued an “active directive” to “require specific department offices and components to work with state and local partners to review and assess current plans to respond to significant medical emergencies and address Hurricane Katrina’s lingering impacts.”
If you still have questions about President Obama’s response to the ice storm in 3 years, let me know ’cause I’d be more than happy to revisit the issue.
*The victims of Hurricane Katrina needed “immediate” help for years, and when they finally got it, some of it was poisonous. And then there’s the long range complications. But I guess the then President Bush will be getting around to that now that he has some more time.
Unfortunately I fear, another storm looms on the horizon…
Here’s some info for you that may help:
http://www.nwtntoday.com/news.php?viewStory=22217
I hope you and your baby have everything you need now. Is there anything we can do to help? mary@liberadio.com
What Obama response? Having cocktail and Super Bowl parties is a overheated White House? You are not even in Kentucky, so what do you know? Do you have a 10 month old child moving from house to house to keep warm and find food when the nearest shelter is over an hour away on a good day? We went to a relative’s house when our power went out in the middle of the night with it dark and no heat with a 10 month old crying while packing all that we needed. Then we had to pack up and move again when their power went out. Trying to find food, water, and a place to stay when you can’t get through roads without a chainsaw and a 4 wheel drive, which has a hard time on solid ice.
The next time it gets below freezing in Nashville, turn off your electricity and heat and let your house get to 30 F and set there for a few hours. Then thank of a baby crying because she is wet and cold, but your afraid to change her because it is so cold. Then imagine her crying louder because she is colder when you do change her because you have to. Try mixing formula with the water trying to freeze and feeding it to the baby with it that cold. Try going to a store and they are out of everything you need or are without power. Try not being able to get cash from an ATM because you have not power and the people selling the things you need are only taking cash.
If this was Bush, you would be bitch en, but because it is Obama, you give him a pass. Plus it helps that Beshear is coving Obama’s ass when he does nothing or says nothing. So if your going to blame Bush for Katrina , and you still are, then equally blame Obama for this ice storm or shut up.