It is raining again today in Missouri and Arkansas, where we are in midst of the 4th “500-year flood” to occur in the last 25 years (1993, 2011, 2016). Levees are breaking, bridges and roads are washed away, agricultural losses will be astronomical. This is a disaster.
The Federal Highway Administration has pledged emergency funds to help with road and bridge repairs — but not nearly at the level that will be needed.
So, where is FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency? — well, I’m sure they will spring to action — one of these days, soon maybe. But at the moment, FEMA has no Director. Mr. T will try to blame the vacancy on Obama, Clinton, or senate Dems, but the truth is, he just didn’t get around to naming a candidate until last Friday.
On Friday, April 28th Mr. T named Brock Long to be the new FEMA Director — the good news is that Long actually has experience www.nytimes.com/...— he is not just another loyal horse show judge, but for crying out loud, what took them 100 days to find somebody qualified to fill this important post? FEMA is part of Homeland Security — wasn’t that supposed to be their strong suit — keeping us all safe?
Public confidence in the Federal government is near an all time low. www.usatoday.com/... This crisis won’t help a bit.
This will be the first big chance for Mr. T to show us how he will respond to a true emergency. I fully expect him to ignore the problem for another day or two — then express phony sympathy for victims (reading someone else's words from a teleprompter). He’ll probably says something wise and comforting like — ‘who knew floods could be so bad’ — and then he’ll enjoy a nice piece of chocolate cake, play a round of golf, shake hands with another dictator and let Mr. Bannon continue dismantling the administrative state.
I expect Mr. T to fail and fail bigly to actually respond to this crisis. Ironically, his voters will suffer the most.
This will be a huge test for Missouri’s new Gov. Eric Greitens as well. We’ll see what skills he has to organize and coordinate an effective response to a real public emergency.
If you are affected directly by this flood, be smart, stay safe and help your neighbors if you can — but don’t expect much of a help from your government — they are too busy keeping us safe from muslim boogeyman and foreign terrorists to respond to a crisis as simple and predictable as a flood.