news editorial from North Dakota

[Southern Marylander]

This text is from a county emergency manager out in the western part of North Dakota after the recent snow storm.

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a Historic event ---may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:

George Bush did not come....

FEMA did nothing....

No one howled for the government....

No one blamed the government....

No one even uttered an expletive on TV....

Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit....

Our Mayor's did not blame Bush or anyone else....

Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else either.

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snow storm....

Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards....

No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House....

No one looted....

Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.

Nobody expected the government to do anything either.

No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.

No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.

We just melted the snow for water, sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars. The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny. Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snow bound families.

Families took in the stranded people - total strangers. We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns. We put on an extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".

We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for "sittin at home' checks. Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early...we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% most of the world's social problems evaporate."

It does seem that way, at least to me.. I hope this gets passed on..
Maybe...SOME people will get the message... The world Does not owe you a Living....

[bunkerbuster1]

1. Whiny. Ass. Titty. Baby.

Here's a translation:

"Man oh man do I hate n*ggers! God how I hate them! They're all lazy and did I mention I hate 'em? Well I do!"

[barbaraann]

2. Someone has a short memory.

North Dakota Floods
Declared May 28, 2001
News

Map of Declared Counties for Disaster 1376

* Disaster Damage Coverage Period Extended, Aug 22
* Additional Counties To Receive Disaster Assistance; Disaster Damage Coverage Period Extended, Aug 7
* Six Additional North Dakota Counties To Receive Disaster Aid, Jul 10
* Damage Site Surveys Underway, Jun 26
* President Orders Disaster Aid For North Dakota Flood Damage, May 28

* More news for this disaster...
* Designated Counties
* Disaster Federal Register Notices
* Recent FEMA Press Releases

http://www.fema.gov/news/event.fema?id=112

[HeeBGBz]

3. What bullshit

Trying to minimalize Katrina with a blizzard? They have no clue.

[NMDemDist2]

4. RW bullshit, what "editorial" ??? this is old BS RW crap

http://www.snopes.com/katrina/soapbox/dakota.asp

[donheld]

9. Nothing gets past snopes

I'm grateful.

[Ezlivin]

5. Now try to evacuate your WHOLE STATE in 24 hours

And that would only count for half of the population of NOLA.

North Dakota's population: 642,200

New Orlean's population: 1,200,000

As bad as a blizzard is, it isn't a hurricane. There's no comparison between drifts of snow and swiftly moving masses of water.

[mindem]

6. See Snopes

[MrModerate]

7. Would these local self-help efforts have been adequate . . .

If we were talking about hundreds of thousands of storm-affected people, rather than hundreds? I don't think so. Not to mention that "breaking trees in half" doesn't exactly equate to having your home swept away, or thousands and thousands of homes swept away. It's a matter of scale. And the reason that the "world's social problems evaporate" is because of the low population above 48 degrees. Again, a matter of scale.

I'm proud that the people of North Dakota are so hardy and reach out to help their neighbors in a crisis. It doesn't relieve the government, or any of the rest of us who live below 48 degrees, from our responsibility to help our fellow human beings when their lives are wrecked by the most destructive storm in US history.

This guy is too smug for his own good. Let's see how he'd handle a REAL disaster.

[acmejack]

8. How. Many. Times. Is. This. RW. Bullshit. Going. To. Be. Posted. Here?

It is still crap!

[SidDithers]

10. What's your point?...

Why come here and post a RW e-mail with no basis in reality?

Enjoy your stay...:eyes:

Sid

[Plausible]

11. I got that from some "good Christian"

a couple months ago. Pretty disgusting.

[DrGonzoLives]

12. *ahem*

Reading Snopes.com helps

[Plausible]

13. Was a good thing that Chimp didnt come :) n/t

[Southern Marylander]

18. Chimps dont like cold weather

Chimps prefer dense tropical rainforests but can also be found in secondary-growth forests, woodlands, bamboo forests, swamps, and even open savannah


see? says nothing about snow burdened plains.

[Dhalgren]

26. This whole thread says a lot about you...

[Viva_La_Revolution]

30. ...

His other posts do too...

[Batgirl]

14. who can explain why reality is so often different

than the version put forth in rightwing forwarded emails.

from Snopes:

http://www.snopes.com/katrina/soapbox/dakota.asp

"The e-mail makes the claim of the snowbound Dakotans "No one howled for the government." Yet in a 31 October 2005 letter to President Bush, Governor John Hoeven of North Dakota did indeed "request that you declare a major disaster for the State of North Dakota as a result of a severe winter storm/snowfall, accompanied by record-breaking snowfall, rain and high winds, that occurred on October 4-6, 2005." Said request for official disaster status was spurred by an interest in obtaining FEMA assistance (e.g. "Additionally, eleven counties meet the criteria established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency 'for near record snowfall' and should be eligible for assistance with FEMA’s snow policy <9523.1>").

Midwesterners hit by this storm appear to have overcome their short-lived catastrophe without federal assistance (although as of 31 October 2005, North Dakota is seeking to recoup its storm-related expenditures from the government — see the Letter to the President above). However, in comparing response to that weather-related disaster to what overwhelmed New Orleans, it needs be pointed out that the bulk of the digging out from under the snowfall and rescuing stranded motorists from snow-entombed cars fell to the state's police and emergency service workers and the National Guard, not (as the e-mail would have it) to rugged individual citizens who hadn't been "immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks." The nature and severity of the two disasters were different — the one could be coped with locally, but the other could not.

[Coexist]

15. the National Guard was mobilized to dig them out

where was the National Guard when Katrina hit?

Oh yeah - helping the citizens of Iraq.
http://www.swingstateproject.com/2005/08/katrina_and_the.php

[Solly Mack]

16. Get back to me when it floods again

I'm betting the tune will change - and change quickly.

[nickinSTL]

17. what a bunch of crap

the snow storm (which, I realize, this whole thing is rw bs anyway, but...) didn't completely destroy large sections of a major city, did it?

It knocked down a few trees and closed the roads.

Hardly comparable.

[meegbear]

19. Let's see ....

Dakota: 3' 8" of snow (44")
New Orleans: 25' of water

Dakota: 0 confirmed deaths
New Orleans: 1050 confirmed deaths

Dakota: 0 homes destroyed
New Orleans: Approx. 28,000 homes destroyed

Dakota: many SUVs / truck / car owners
New Orleans: few SUVs / truck / car owners

Yes, I see how these events parallel each other.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

20. Don't bother. It's not an editorial, It's a BS RW email

:freak:

[meegbear]

21. I know, but sometimes it's nice to just show some facts

[Viva_La_Revolution]

22. gotcha. :) have you used the search function lately?

you can find out the most interesting things about *some* people. :evilgrin:

Wanna hunt wabbits with me?

[Batgirl]

23. speaking of comparisons

I've read that it takes approximately 8" of snow to equal 1" of rain. Proportion vary depending on how wet the snow is.

My math skills aren't the best, but doesn't this mean that for these 2 population groups to be dealing with the same amount of water, the South Dakotans would have had to experience a snowfall of 200 feet?

I know, the wingnut forwarded email is an object of art, of poetry, winging its way freely about the internet -- it simply can't be help back by anything as pedestrian as facts.

[WCGreen]

24. I was gonna open the grill and help the people....

BUT I WAS UNDER SEVENTEEN FEET OF FUCKING WATER!!!!!!

[in_cog_ni_to]

25. These people are CLUELESS!

They are incapable of seeing anything beyond their own fucking useless worlds. They're so damn hateful. So pathetic.

[WCGreen]

27. It's easy to be self sufficient...

Until you have to be.....

What about al the crop subsidies...

The water projects....

The highway systems....

They are so rugged up there....

[borlis]

28. someone sent me this months ago

it's bs

[havocmom]

29. Actually, it is from an old email making the rounds since right after

Katrina. I really blasted my brother and everybody who forwarded it with my wishes for them never having to endure all that the Katrina victims had to endure. It was quite a list, wish I still had the letter.

In the end of it, I pointed out the big difference between a hurricane in NOLA and a blizzard in ND was skin color and lamented that I knew my brother was raised better than someone who would propagate such blatant racist hogwash.

Oh, and I live right next to North Dakota, so I do know a thing or two about the inconveniences of big blizzards. And INCONVENIENT is about all they are if so long as you are not fool enough to go out on the road and have heat in the house! We don't have to hack our way out of the roof to keep from drowning for starters ;)

[NMDemDist2]

31. "He Disrupted Poorly"

:rofl:

[lostnfound]

32. Locked - debunked by Snopes.

Debunked by Snopes, and the original poster is no longer with us.