FEMA is a Major Unnatural Disaster in Dire Need of Rescue

 

Then President George W Bush in Katrina devasted New Orleans

FEMA is a Major Unnatural Disaster in Dire Need of Rescue

Two Decades after Hurricane Katrina, Donald Trump is phasing out FEMA

“We want to wean off of FEMA, and we want to bring it down to the state level… A governor should be able to handle it, and frankly, if they can’t handle it, the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn’t be governor.”

Donald Trump, June 10th from the Oval Office

Louisiana is hardly a screamingly wealthy state, a fate shared by most red states. But even among richer red (like Florida and Texas) and blue (California and NY) states, there are very few that have the financial wherewithal to handle the mass destruction of the increasingly occurring climate change-related mega-disasters that plague our entire nation. Even non-climate change-related disasters – like earthquakes – are often beyond state capacity to respond and rebuild. If you’re rich, you can relocate to one of your many secondary or tertiary sumptuous residences and have the capacity to rebuild your damaged structure.

If you’re not rich and you’re not fully insured (as insurance companies are pulling out of risky marketplaces leaving homeowners to twist in a heaving wind), simply put, you’re screwed. God help you if you can only afford to live in a rental. But Donald Trump seems only to fight for his chosen “winners,” the mega-rich, with disdain for his designated “losers,” everybody else (including his MAGA followers).

So, let me ask you: if a Katrina level event would happen today, you think you would ever see billionaire Trump on the ground hugging and consoling victims as President George W Bush did in 2005 New Orleans, a city that is still recovering from Katrina to this very day? Aside from the fact that Trump ordered the deletion of “climate change” from all federal websites and literature, he’s also trimmed the budgets of federal agencies (like NOAA’s National Weather service and even NASA) that could notify potential storm victims of impending disaster and pulled those federal employees’ collective bargaining rights. His target is to end FEMA immediately after the current hurricane season. Instead, Trump is coming down hard to end alternative energy initiatives as he tells BIG OIL to “drill baby, drill” … even as most of the world is going the other way. The new effective mantra should be: “burn baby, burn!”

That FEMA is on life support is no secret. “More than 180 current and former FEMA employees signed the letter sent to the FEMA Review Council and Congress on Monday, critiquing recent cuts to agency staff and programs and warning that FEMA's capacity to respond to a major disaster was dangerously diminished. Only 36 signed their names, while others withheld their names for fear of retribution… More than 30 employees were informed on Tuesday [8/26] that they would be placed on administrative leave indefinitely with pay, The Washington Post reported. A notice sent to the employees from FEMA's Office of the Administrator, which Newsweek reviewed, said it ‘is not a disciplinary action and is not intended to be punitive.’” Newsweek, August 27th and 29th.

It's equally clear that the Trump administration has prioritized the deportation of undocumented workers, even as precious forests are being consumed in a virulent wildfire. “Two firefighters who were part of a 44-person crew fighting a wildland blaze on Washington state's Olympic Peninsula were arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents during a multiagency criminal investigation into the two contractors they worked for, federal authorities said Thursday [8/28]… [The federal Bureau of Land Management] terminated the contracts with Table Rock Forestry Inc. and ASI Arden Solutions Inc. — both from Oregon — and escorted the remaining 42 workers off federal land, the release said. The two arrested were taken to the Bellingham station on charges of illegal entry and reentry, the release added.” CBS News, August 29th. The entire fire crew was pulled from the blaze, which just continued without serious opposition.

Look at the yet unrecovered damage on the east coast (especially the Carolinas) from the coastal storm surges from the recent offshore Hurricane Erin, the July Central Texas floods or the January devastation of the Los Angeles communities of Pacific Palisades and Altadena. If you are not rich, you are disposable. What are the lessons we learned from Katrina and beyond, and are we intentionally erasing them? Writing for the August 29th the Morning (NY Times daily newsfeed), Adam Kushner and New Orleans native, observes:

“I watched the levees break from my desk in a Washington, D.C., newsroom. Experiencing the devastation through TV news and internet chat boards was much safer — nearly 1,400 people died from the storm — but still surreal. I’ve never felt more helpless… The best thing you can do after a tragedy is learn from it. But that’s easier said than done…

“The Federal Emergency Management Agency is still the subject of local grumbling for its performance during Katrina. Its leader back in 2005 had no disaster experience, and the agency was slow to deliver supplies or help stranded residents find places to sleep. Congress passed a law in 2006 requiring experienced leadership and better preparedness. But events this week suggest the government is not following those mandates.

“President Trump came to office arguing that states should handle their own disasters. He has threatened to close FEMA, and funding cuts have already hampered its work. A third of the staff is gone, plus hundreds of call center contractors. Days after their firing, when the deadliest floods in generations hit Texas, two-thirds of the calls to FEMA’s disaster assistance line went unanswered. This week, 186 current and former employees said in a letter that the agency was unlearning the lessons of Katrina, writes Maxine Joselow, a climate policy reporter. The administration fired some of the signatories.”

However, funding FEMA, even at pre-recent disaster levels, flies in the face of Trump’s tax cuts for the rich and enforced austerity for everyone else (to contain his horrific hit to our federal deficit). A few more dead ordinary Americans, even if preventable, will cut back demand for federal programs like Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP and even Social Security and public education. If you are rich and very self-centered, what’s not to like about this set of Trump core policies? Rock on, Big Beautiful Bill and your budget-cutting progeny!

I’m Peter Dekom, and wonder when all those ordinary Americans who believe Trump is the answer will realize that he is giving the middle finger to all Americans… except for the mega-rich.