God bless the New York Times. They are nothing if not water-carriers for Mr Obama, Demorats and Leftists.
You gotta love that line above: “A Big Storm Requires Big Government:”
Most Americans have never heard of the National Response Coordination Center, but they’re lucky it exists on days of lethal winds and flood tides. The center is the war room of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where officials gather to decide where rescuers should go, where drinking water should be shipped, and how to assist hospitals that have to evacuate.
For the brain-addled amongst you and/or the potential Leftists or ignorant citizens who may occasionally cruise by:
The United States government, FEMA and all its ilk, are NOT FIRST RESPONDERS.
Let me make this abundantly clear for those of you who may just have tuned in: the United States government, FEMA and all its variants, are NOT nor were they EVER DESIGNED to be FIRST RESPONDERS.
The role of the federal government is to coordinate mutual aid, have unaffected states come in for assistance. But this is an after-crisis response that may not — likely won’t be — even be fully realized as the critical incident is occurring.
There are many fewer individuals in federal government service than there are at various local levels, to include your state, regional, city and county emergency responders.
Some blockhead with a blue FEMA coat is NOT going to be wading into floodwaters to remove your dog from your roof.
They will be, however, losing supplies, disallowing trucks full of food and water from other states — assembled by loose-knit organizations of civilians — into emergency areas (because they didn’t do it themselves) and generally slowing down progress. That’s what government does. That’s what a painters union or a carpenters union does. The US government is no different. If it’s not their idea and if they can’t do it, no one else will.
And here’s the newest excellent example, courtesy of the White House:
FEMA, W.H. send storm victims to Internet
Really??
Let’s just bloat up the federal government further, shall we? Sandy is as good an excuse as any!
BZ