I’ve been following the disaster up in North Carolina and Tennessee. It seems, as usual, FEMA is up there making a mess of things at best, and obstructing efforts at worse. It must be bad, since my morning radio show covers some new outrage every morning, it seems:
- Pilots bringing their own helicopters for rescue being jammed. One of the pilots I heard interviewed said there were at least 40 private craft, yet he’d only seen two Blackhawks or other gubermint choppers since he’s been there.
- Truckers prevented from delivering aid. I heard one dude say that after disasters like this the trucker job board lights up. And why not? Things need hauled, and there’s money to be made. He said that’s missing this time. Very odd.
The Administration says they are doing all they can. They are lying about this, of course.
There are many of us that remember Katrina as well as other storms.
Let’s compare Katrina with Helene. In Katrina, a three-star general was placed in command, along with the two-star commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division, with a full Airborne Infantry Brigade task force of the 82nd, a corps-support logistics command of thousands of soldiers, a signal battalion, a combat support hospital, robust Army engineer assets, and countless other support units. All of these units were on standby orders days before Katrina hit.
In contrast, a week after Helene hit, a tiny 1,000-troop Airborne Infantry Battalion task force of the 82nd (one-third the size of a brigade) was given a warning order under the ground command of a mere one-star general. These forces are without the medical, engineer, corps-level logistics, signal/communications, and Division/Army HQ command and control capabilities that defined Katrina support. – The Federalist
They are nothing, if not tone deaf…
That’s some weapons grade bullshit right there.
They’ve had similar posts where they were crowing about aid to Ukraine as well. Seems we have money coming out our asses for Lebanon, Ukraine, and Israel but none for our own.
One of the things we gave Ukraine was a bunch of was substation transformers. Those things we need up there now. I remember that from months ago when Russia was taking out Ukraine’s electric grid and we were jumping in giving parts. Thing is, it’s not something you are going to order on amazon. I’ve read story after story about our own grid where we didn’t have the parts we needed in the best of times. It’ll be years, if ever, that some of those small communities get power restored.
That said, Hard to say what the deal is. Vox had a mail post from a local that said otherwise:
90% of all the reports of “police kept me out and refused to let me save people!!!” are all nonsense and are actually examples of police exercising good judgment. Right now DoT contractors are trying to reconstruct roads so large recovery teams can get into places like Chimney Rock but have to constantly avoid killing GoPro Bros on 4 wheelers and dirt bikes. One equipment operator at church yesterday said they had to double back to re-repair a stretch of road that was rutted out and left unusable by a group on ATVs, no one knows who they were. There are hundreds of local, able bodied men that know the lay of the land and exactly who they are looking for. Do not bring your lifted jeep to NC to try and save people because TikTok said you should. Its really hard to believe how much disaster rubber necking is happening out there right now. – From Vox Popoli
I don’t doubt that one bit. Disaster pron is a thing. He also may be in an area where help of sorts is functioning.
Probably the best source of news I’ve found is a guy from Texans on Mission that I’ve heard interviewed on the radio box every week. Used to be Texas Baptist Men. One of my X-inlaws works with them. Or used to. They have boots on the ground and are helping right now.
I believe what their spokesman says. They are there to help, and are focused on that as opposed to kvetching about the goobermint, which I’ve never known to do anything other than step on their dicks with any crisis, if they have any in the first place.
Whether it’s incompetence or malice, we’ll figure out soon enough. In the meantime, I donated to Texans On Mission. They are getting it done. They are staging now for Milton as well. If I had time off, I’d probably volunteer with them.
Learn from this though. Get fit, get out of debt, prepare for these things.
“Do not deprive me from my suffering and my pain, for negative consequences must follow if I hope to learn from the crimes I committed against myself. Let me wander in this blizzard, I know I shall survive and become a better man. No one is coming to save me and that is a blessing.” *
*(Not meant for those that need help now)
Update: Poached from Irish
Inspected By Pat 