A monster hurricane forms off the coast of Texas, churning toward a major coastal population center stretching from Corpus Cristi to Houston. It promises to be a big one, with significant loss of life and possible environmental catastrophe as well, since Houston is home to much of the nation’s petro-chemical industry.
So how are the nation’s Republicans handling this major natural disaster?
Trump’s response as the storm built was to attack Bob Corker, the Republican Senator from Tennessee. WaPo reporting:
In the previous days, the White House had exhibited little public urgency over what authorities projected as the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States in a dozen years. The president began Friday morning with his usual stream of tweets about political grievances and settling scores with rivals, this time targeting Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).
“Tennessee not happy!” Trump proclaimed.
In fairness to Trump, he also did some twitter bragging:
Few, if any, Administrations have done more in just 7 months than the Trump A. Bills passed, regulations killed, border, military, ISIS, SC!
Trump belatedly began tweeting that he was on top of the Harvey situation. Yet he did not use his high-profile voice to urge Texans to evacuate from danger. As Obama notably did during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
But as Harvey made landfall last night, Trump realized he had a real opportunity in front of him. And he used it to pardon convicted felon, and major Trump backer, ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio while everyone else was distracted with the hurricane. Can’t get more Trumpian than that, can you?
Looking at local responses, the mayor of Corpus Cristi refused to order mandatory evaucations, a sure-fire way to save lives in a major hurricane. Corpus Crisi was predicted to be in Harvey’s direct path.
Instead of doing what he could to minimize the number of his people in harm’s way, Mayor McComb acted as though Harvey was a visiting football team. The Washington Post:
“Game on,” said Mayor Joe McComb at a news conference. “We’re looking forward to having a very good positive result from this storm. We’ll get through this; we’ll be better for it because the community has been pulling together.”
But that was not all he said, he also made his pitch against the evils of big government. According to Vox.
Corpus Christi Mayor Joe McComb — whose city is directly in the likely path of the storm — only issued a voluntary evacuation, saying Thursday, “I think people are smart enough to make their evacuation decisions, and they don’t need the government telling them what to do.”
This is the kind of thing Republicans do that leads to the anti-FEMA lunacy represented in this image from an anti-government conspiracy website:
Let Wikipedia explain it to you here. Or check out this 2015 conspiracy web-blog.
Meanwhile Trump’s homeland security adviser, Thomas P. Bossert, tried to change the Republican narrative and get people to actually listen to government officials.
Now is not the time to lose faith in your government institutions.
What about that fake news, President Trump? Is it suddenly real?
Trump may be paying attention now, but back in the spring he was slashing the FEMA budget and he waited nearly five months after his inauguration to appoint an FEMA head.
Trump has proposed slashing Federal Emergency Management Agency grantfunding to states and municipalities by $667 million. Brock Long, FEMA’s director, was confirmed to the position in June after serving as Alabama’s emergency management director and working as aprivate consultant.
It isn’t just the national Republicans that wanted to cut the FEMA budget. They’ve done that in Texas as well, deciding to spend $800 million on border security, while giving just $14.8 million to their Disaster and Deficiency Grants program,
Texas Tribune reporting:
As Texas takes on another hurricane season, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office has nearly committed all of the 2016-17 emergency funds reserved for state disaster recovery efforts in the aftermath of floods and other natural disasters.
“Despite numerous conversations with representatives from both the House and Senate, the final budget for this biennium appropriated a net amount of just $14.8 million to the Disaster and Deficiency Grants program,” Deputy Chief of Staff Robert Allen wrote in the letter. “In the end, the Disaster Fund was appropriated $48.5 million less than the Governor’s Office requested.”
Most people do not understand what a major storm is. You don’t ride out a hurricane unless you’re the kind of guy that enjoys Russian Roulette. And the flooding and loss of electricity that inevitably follows such a storm can be as bad as the hurricane itself. Remember, it was the flooding that did all the damage in New Orleans after Katrina. The storm itself had missed the city.
Here is CNN reporting on one family’s plans:
Amanda Weldy plans to ride out the storm with her family.
She said the family is freezing lots of bottled water to keep perishable food cold. She also plans to have everyone shower Friday morning then fill up the tub in case the water lines get contaminated.
"Mostly we are just making sure our 2- and 1-year-old have everything they need," she said.
Other people around Corpus Christi started stocking up Wednesday on food, bottled water and other essentials.
"We know that if anything as far as flooding happens, that's the one thing everyone runs to, we have to have water," Mariah Barter told CNN affiliate
KZTV. "It's a big deal. It scares the hell out of people. It's better to be prepared."
You prepare for a hurricane by battening down your house and then abandoning it. You get the hell away. Electricity could be out for weeks and those bottles of frozen water are going to last a day or two at most.
I sincerely hope as rescuers get a read on the damage, that it will not be as great was was feared. And that all those families who thought they should ride it out with their toddlers will be okay.
America needs for its public to have faith in its political institutions for many reasons. A hurricane, however, is the sharpest example of why that matters.
When Republicans attack their own government — and the free press — to make cheap political points, they are playing with fire. And water.