Who could have predicted that if you have lead-poisoned water and offer people lead testing kits, that people might want them? As the New York Times notes:
Since Monday, when officials began distributing emergency supplies at fire stations, thousands of people have streamed in, and aid workers have rationed lead testing kits, one per person, for fear of running out. "The volume of people that have been coming here, it's a nonstop deal for 12 hours a day," said David Cox Jr., the city fire chief. "We weren't ready for it."
These people are clowns. Deadly clowns:
elevated levels of lead... poisons the nervous system and can stunt brain development in children.
Now Governor Snyder and other officials want the Feds to come in and take the catastrophe off their hands, because it's beyond the state's capacity to manage.
The governor sent two requests Thursday night to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which this week has been distributing its own surplus supplies of bottled water, saying that the crisis was beyond the state's ability to manage. One asks that the president declare a state of emergency, allowing for immediate assistance like water, food and generators; the other asks him to declare a major disaster, allowing for millions of dollars in loans and grants to residents and the state for long-term needs like new water pipes, an improved filtration plant or temporary housing for residents.
So we have the equivalent of a Wall Street bailout, except this time it's austerity-crazed politicians, not derivative-crazy bankers. For poisoning the water of 100,000 people Rick Synder and his minions get to say "Oops.", incur no legal or financial consequences, and be done with it.
That's not the way it should be. This is the way it should be:
And yet, even on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, we can only dream.