Letter to Conservatives: How Fema handled Hurricane Charley Vs. Katrina

[KoKo]

(In August, 2004 barely three months before the 2004 Presidential Election, Hurricane Charley wiped out Punta Gorda, FLA and cut a swath over the state to Orlando. This letter was sent out by a friend of mine to 50 business associates and friends all over the US, and I thought it was worth posting here on DU...in case any of you want to edit it and use it for your conservative friends and relatives. Note that the "subject line" is geared to the "protecting" the $$$'s that Repugs love so much)


PROTECT HURRICANE RELIEF FUNDING

Last night,the President and Congress approveed $52 Billion of our grandchildren's money for Katrina aid with 90% of it going to FEMA under minimal supervision.

As someone whose family has been impacted 5-6 times in the last decade by hurricanes, I find the current debate in Washington about when the federal government kicks in to help disaster areas very annoying. It is particularly irksome since this is not a theoretical political discussion i.e. "blame game" as Scotty McClellan wants to categorize it. Unlike 9/11, the failure of government to act quickly in Katrina has cost hundreds and maybe thousands of lives through drowning, starvation and disease. And of course, all the politicians and pundits arguing about it (Pelosi, Delay, Kerik, Hannity, Matthews, Limbaugh) have not suffered through a hurricane. Maybe if we dropped them all on a island without water, ice, electrictricity at 95 + degrees for 7-8 days with waters rising, they would have more empathy for the people suffering along the Gulf.

To understand the recent disaster relief history, I googled FEMA stories after hurricane Charlie last year

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WEATHER/08/14/storms/
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=13422
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/08/17/Weather/Unlike_Andrew__aid_s_.shtml

Just these first hits revealed that FEMA was on the ground in Punta Gorda in 24 hours and the President there in 36 hrs. (granted, one of the citations is from FEMA itself but give them the benefit of the doubt about their veracity despite recent history and FEMA leaders resume problems). http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/ article.
So why was the Federal response held up for 48-96 hours? You need to ask your Congressman and Senators to find out why it was delayed and to demand the appointment of a Comptroller General over the $52 billion before 80% ends up elsewhere like the SBA loans for New York after 9/11 did!

http://www.house.gov/
http://www.senate.gov/

In the meantime, here are three suggestions on protecting your family based on the three articles above about Charlie and FEMA. Make sure that you select an area where a quick response by the government will occur:

1) Pick a battleground state during an important election year

2)Select a state where the Governor is a member of the same party that has the White House (Miss and Alabama would have been fine but they were missing criteria #1 this year)

3)Be in a state where either the President's brother is Governor or someplace where most of the FEMA leadership(e.g., Michael Brown and half of his staff) were involved in a recent election recount so they have lots of friends.

For our many friends and family in Florida, you are still in great shape since Katherine Harris and Joe Scarborough will keep things hopping there through the 2006 hurricane season. And you Texans are fine unless a disaster interrupts one of the corruption trials(ENRON, DeLay, Abramoff,etc.).

Unfortunately, the rest of us are in big trouble with our National Guard either worn out. or in Bagdad (like 3,800 of the Louisianna NG). Home Depot and Lowes are out of generators but more are promised. Wait, in relooking the list, New Yorkers may be OK this time because both Hillary and Spitzer may be running next year and I understand Michael Chertof has lots of friends in the state from the days he was working on trying to connect Whitewater to Niagra Power.

So call your Congressman and Senators to protect the FEMA money now and start saying a lot of prayers. Ophelia is sitting off the Southeast Coast eyeing the Mid Atlantic states and hurricane season is only hitting it's peak.