Donald Trump's FEMA appears now to be failing the citizens of the US like Puerto Rico last year with Maria. Two recent articles document that many people haven't received any food or water since Tuesday night. While Trump is hosting a reality TV show with Kanye West, the Gulf coast residents are scavaging for scraps just to survive. From a Daily Beast article today from Ingrid Amesen:
Since the storm, there’s been no electricity and no water in Panama City. Emergency disaster relief was yet to be seen in strength as of Saturday morning and residents were growing more frustrated and desperate.
Chantelle Goolspy sat in her car making phone calls to get help. Goolspy and many of her neighbors live in a public housing area in downtown Panama City that was badly devastated.
“We’re in need of food, water, anything, we’re not getting any help. The whole street needs help,” Goolspy told the Red Cross. “FEMA referred me to you. That person told me to call 211.”
And a NYTs article from yesterday pointed out similar dire conditions.
He was in a working-class neighborhood called Millville, where many residents said they were becoming desperate for even basic necessities. Mr. Foster, 60, and his 99-year-old mother had no car, no electricity. The food had spoiled in his refrigerator. The storm had ripped off large sections of his roof. He had no working plumbing to flush with. No water to drink. And as of Friday afternoon, he had seen no sign of government help.
“What can I do?” he said. “I’m not angry. I just want some help.”
Brock Long the FEMA director is counseling patience but really there is no reason not to have tent cities established for basic supplies of food and water that serve as distribution centers for people in need in the surrounding areas. Helicopters can do pallet drops of water and meals. We know how to do this. All it takes is leadership, money and commitment.
For his part, Governor Scott seems more distant and inattentive than with last year's Hurricane Irma. His answer, "everyone just needs to help each other, right now". Resources seem to be allocated for law enforcement and power, but little else. One might ask, where are those pre-positioned supplies FEMA bragged about. Is FEMA suffering from poor resources given to the agency? And rural areas away from the coast aren't seeing any assistance. From the daily beast article again:
Word about not getting water or meals had not yet reached rural communities inundated by the hurricane’s rains and storm surge. In Gadsden County, outside Tallahassee, where the storm killed four people, county commissioner Anthony Viegbesie said he had not seen a single relief agency.
“This is a community that lives on agriculture. Without electricity, the wells don’t work,” he said. “We survive primitively.”