Kristi Noem waited 3 days to deploy FEMA rescuers after Texas flood hit: report
Kristi Noem waited 3 days to deploy FEMA rescuers after Texas flood hit: report
This reminds of the response of the Bush administration after Hurricane Katrina. Bush had appointed a big campaign donor whose primary experience was in running and judging show horses to manage FEMA, and he was in way over his head with Katrina.
They knew Katrina was coming, it took nearly a week to move across the Gulf of MEXICO after crossing Miami, and doing a lot of damage there. Then it creeped across the Gulf, growing larger until filled the entire Gulf.
This was obvious to EVERYONE who was watching any television, but the Bush administration did nearly nothing to prepare. They didn't use dozens of school buses to evacuate people, they just let them sit in the yard and get destroyed by floodwater. They made no attempt to stage supplies, make arrangements for food and shelter, evacuate hospitals, etc. They literally did NOTHING.
Katrina hit New Orleans on a Monday, and by that evening it was clear that it was a major disaster. People escaped to the SuperDome for shelter, where rumors spread of violent gangs roaming the Dome raping and pillaging. News videos showed dead bodies in the streets, desperate people just walking past them. If people saw a news camera, they would literally beg for help, for water, for food, for safety.
By Wednesday, the Bush administration had still done nothing. They had lots of excuses, but New Orleans is only a long day's drive from DC, and yet yet somehow they couldn't get rescuers, food, supplies, etc. to them, even though the news media had no problem getting there and sending out video.
On Wednesday, I was watching one of the news people interview "Brownie," the head of FEMA, as he actually said: "We weren't aware of the situation in the SuperDome until today," which was two days after the storm hit. Literally EVERYBODY in the country was watching it on LIVE TV, 24 hours a day, but somehow the head of FEMA wasn't aware of it until 2 DAYS LATER?
This sounds like the same lack of preparation, but also mostly a lack of caring. These are self-appointed Aristocrats, and they think they are above worrying about the nonsense going on in the daily lives of the rubes. They literally don't care at all about any of those dead people.
It also didn't take long for the aftermath to become racially charged, either.
As it turns out, the folks most impacted by hurricanes and other weather events (e.g. flooding) are people of color. So, sending FEMA late to these sorts of things just reeks of malicious compliance.
Oh yeah, there was no doubt at the time that the primary reason for ignoring this incoming disaster was because Nawlins was a Democratic stronghold among a vast Red region.
It was the first real time that we saw Republicans withhold help from Americans simply because they weren't from the same party. Now it's expected that Dems will help everybody, but the MAGA Nazis (the Republican Party doesn't exist any more) will only help their own.
Damn, I didn't know this, thanks for sharing. I am not American, and I was pretty young when Hurricane Katrina happened, so context like this is new to me. More reasons to hate Bush
And this was one of the flagship Red states! Imagine if it were a well-established Blue state?
They'll deploy FEMA in advance to stop protestors
Damn! her face is caked on
Well, FEMA funds are being redirected towards building concentration camps in the Everglades. Whatcha gon do without any money?
I remember when the paranoid right was freaking out over “Obama’s FEMA camps” that he was gonna use to round them all up for reeducation or worse. Their fears really are all projections of what they would do when they got authority
They think everybody thinks like them, so they are sure Dems would treat them the way they'd like to treat everyone else. It truly doesn't occur to them that the other side might not be as filled with ferocious hatred as they are.
They're literally incapable of imagining anything else. Otherwise, we'd have radically different outcomes from all this.
It's okay, it's not like red states ever have any emergencies.
Why the hell would this admin do anything that helps people? I'm not being sarcastic.
She deserves to be hung along with all rightwingers: the sooner, the better
I'm sure there is a completely normal reason, like she wanted to make sure all the dogs were dead, too.
Gather round, my pilgrims. The mighty LORD came to her in a vision, and informed her that God sent the hurricane to destroy the wicked, like Sodom and Gomorrah. And so, the LORD ordered her to withhold rescue until God's Punishment has fully swept through the land, purging evildoers wherever they hide from the LORD's holy light. Only the faithful will be spared by the LORD. Hallelujah!
Oh uh, and I'm joking with this comment. Sometimes my roleplay is too good for some folks.
It probably not far from her twisted little peabrain.
Note: if she cannot shoot the dogs, she will attempt to starve them.
She had to make sure that Texas deployed all their thoughts and prayers first.
And that's a state they like. Any state that went blue is on their own.
California resident here, we're just going to succeed at this point if the GOP keeps power.
Thanks for all the... paper towels.
*secede
But I hope you're successful.
How dare you suggest that she uses tax money to save your lives? Disgusting, that money could be better used for fascism.
Would it be possible for FEMA to have just gone on their own accord on the ground that any reasonable Secretary of Homeland Security would have asked them to go?
No
This is correct, as a federal entity, FEMA will only show up after being invited by the governor of the state that needs assistance. Thats why search+rescue is usually handled by local authorities and FEMA focuses on clean up, logistics, and rebuilding. This does not exclude them from assisting with S+R, but they will almost never be the first ones on scene.
Next time just tell Noem that the rain didn't have a visa to enter the country.
And was a slightly disobedient puppy.
I don't think shooting the rain would help much...
She waited 72 hours. The last living rescue was less than 24 hours after the flood.
We don't pay government to provide services, we pay government to support political functionaries and their appointed staff in their role as thieves of our taxes.
Small government for (R)'s is no spending on services. Small government for (D)'s is no limits on spending for things we all agree we need (with all of the overhead of the R's).
I guess I would rather have the one where I get some basic level of service from my government but I can't claim to like it.
Well, yeah. FEMA, bad...remember?
Aren't they the ones that kidnap people and put them into concentration camps?
Ah, wait I'm being told that it's handled by another agency nowadays.
I know not to expect better but as a parent this is just beyond unacceptable. If I was a parent of one of those lost children I wouldn't know what I would do with myself other than be more radicalized
Sacrifice the weak for Capitalism!
Climate change? Build a wall so the floods won’t come through, right, Kristi Gnome?
No, she forces the rain into the Everglades camp so they have some showers....
And the ocean is gonna pay for it!
How DARE democrats be hypocritical about the blame
Imagine the truth social bullshit about Gavin “newscum” if this happened in CA.
Isn't that standard procedure though? Not much disaster workers can do until actually stops raining, right?
Katrina hit August 29th, 2005. Bush signed the relief package 9/2, 4 days later. And that was just approving the money to be spent, not actually spending it.
I mean, if the area is actively being destroyed, how do you even get people in to help?
Isn't that standard procedure though?
No. After the first 24 hours, the chances of live rescues plummet. After 72 hours, the chances are basically 0. SOP is to deploy ASAP to rescue as many people as possible.
Katrina hit August 29th, 2005. Bush signed the relief package 9/2, 4 days later. And that was just approving the money to be spent, not actually spending it.
You say this as if it’s supposed to be a good thing. I’m going to assume you’re either too young to remember it happening, or old enough that you were already in the conservative bubble. Katrina was one of the largest fuckups in Bush’s political career. He waited four days to deploy because he thought the death and damage reports were being exaggerated. He saw the official reports on his desk, and basically went “fake news! It can’t be that bad, can it?” His aides had to compile live aerial news footage for him to even begin to comprehend the level of damage that Katrina had caused. And they only had easy access to aerial footage because the 20’ deep floods prevented ground footage. Bush’s delayed response to Katrina is widely cited as one of the single worst emergency responses in American history. Basically second only to Trump digging his heels in and denying the pandemic.
I mean, if the area is actively being destroyed, how do you even get people in to help?
Logistics takes time, and that’s why rapid response is crucial. If it takes 8 hours to get boots on the ground, and rescue ops are most successful within the first 24, you can do the math on how rapidly the deployment would need to begin.
Well... as the article pretty explicitly mentions, they would normally have staged resources at a nearer location so that their response could be more rapid, but Noem's new rules hampered them by being overly burdensome. And Texan crews were already operating.
No. Katrina was a colossal fuck-up for Bush. His aides had to make a DVD of the news coverage to get him to realize the severity of the situation and that he needed to deploy significant resources. It was a huge embarrassment for the administration.
And then several Republicans in Congress were questioning whether the city should be rebuilt at all. People had to sit them down and explain that it’s important to have a port that basically every navigable river east of the Rocky Mountains is a tributary and the Port of New Orleans is critical national infrastructure. A lot of agricultural exports go through it. It was so stupid.
There were mistakes by the mayor and governor but a lot of the federal government was just oblivious (aside from the Coast Guard, who saved hundreds, if not thousands of stranded people.) And that’s just New Orleans. Katrina was massively wide and Mississippi and Alabama were having issues too.
And then several Republicans in Congress were questioning whether the city should be rebuilt at all
Obviously not, it's a black people city. Let them live in cakes or something
No, it is not normal at all. You are talking about a relief package to help people rebuild. Those come later. This article is talking about search and rescue teams. Those teams go in as soon as possible to help find and rescue people.
"In the past, FEMA would have swiftly staged these [search and rescue] teams, which are specifically trained for situations including catastrophic floods, closer to a disaster zone in anticipation of urgent requests, multiple agency sources told CNN," reported Gabe Cohen and Michael Williams. However, "even as Texas rescue crews raced to save lives, FEMA officials realized they needed Noem’s approval before sending those additional assets."
That approval came on Monday. Apparently she doesn't work weekends.
No. For an emergency response like this the first 72 hours are critical, that's the entire window where you have a chance of live rescue.
reminder that the national guard was deployed during this time, to Los Angeles to support ICE