Thursday, September 18, 2008

FEMA Fucks Hurricane Survivors Yet Again

I cannot believe that after Katrina, the federal bureaucrats in D.C. didn't pull their collective heads out of their collective asses to put together post-disaster plans that might actually HELP people.  Now they have decided that they are not going to distribute ice to survivors of the latest round of hurricanes - nope, that is now the state's jobs.  Except, as the director of the Mississippi Emergency Agency says, "because neighboring states have to contract out their plans for ice, they are essentially competing against each other in the face of disaster".  

So Texas and Louisiana get to pay for ice at the highest possible price after a disaster that devastates their states and incurs billions of dollars of damages they are also responsible for because FEMA - which is a FEDERAL AGENCY - is delegating it's job back to the states????  Isn't the point of having a federal agency to make things like post-disaster aid and relief move more quickly and efficiently because it is all done by ONE agency (like, oh, FEMA, there's an idea!) rather than have it parceled out to the states to do individually?

Or maybe we should have the governors of any states affected by hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, etc. just have a WWF smack down to decide which state's citizens get first crack at the ice?

I need to bitch-slap someone, where's Dick Cheney when I need him?

Erica C. Barnett at the Stranger alerted me to the latest incompetency of our government with this piece on Slog.

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