-
It's that time of year again - our ISP is asking for money. If you have some spare change, please click the Donate link... Thanks!
- About Us
- Search
- Need Help?
- Donate
- Login/Register
Latest Entries
Actions Menu
Blog Roll
- 4F Facebook Page
- Turn Up The Night with Kenny Pick
- Stephanie Miller Show
- The Tim Corrimal Show
- The Rachel Maddow Show
- Angry Americans with Paul Rieckhoff
- Thom Hartmann Program
- Turnips! Fans of Turn Up the Night Facebook Page
- Snopes.com
- Factcheck.org
- Official White House Page, if you must.
- The Brad Blog / Green News Report
- The Poorly Written Political Blog (Joe Santorsa)
A Storm's Aftermath
Author: BobR
Date: 09/19/2008 12:34:27
This past week the news has been wall-to-wall with coverage of the economic meltdown. Between it and the escalating campaign rhetoric, most other news items have been essentially ignored. One of those news items was all anyone was talking about a week ago: Hurricane Ike. He's gone and may be forgotten by most of the U.S., but his memory lives on along the southern coast.
They say the first casualty in war is the truth. Apparently the first casualty after a hurricane is freedom of the press, followed closely by common sense. When it was discovered that there were dead bodies laying around on the streets of Galveston and in the surrounding water, the government did what one might expect: They made it a no-fly zone to hide it from American eyes:
It's hard to imagine how (this time) the government could be blamed for the deaths in Galveston. The NWS stated in no uncertain terms that those who stayed faced certain death. Galveston is not New Orleans; there is (was) not a large contingent of the population that had no access to transportation off the island.
Instead, many people chose to stay and face "certain death" because they felt they could better protect their property in the aftermath:
Of course, it doesn't help when pin-heads like Bill O'Reilly proclaim that predictions about the approaching storm are all "hype":
I too wonder how many people died from taking this idiot at his word.
But I suppose people have a reason to distrust their government's handling of the aftermath. The inaction and gross incompetence after Katrina was criminal and is still being dealt with today, 3 years later. Will the survivors of Hurrican Ike suffer a similar fate? So far, it's not looking too good. Besides incompetence distributing food to survivors (they are handing out food that needs to be cooked to people with no electric or gas), FEMA has decided not to distribute ice:
This has GOT to change. The last 7 years of Republican rule have devastated our ability to cope with disasters; instead they are trying to hide the aftermath from people (strange how the like to use fear when they want to claim they can protect us from external dangers...). With the election less than 7 weeks away, you have to wonder: how are the people in Galveston (and other areas hit by Ike) going to be able to vote? For that matter, what happens if another hurricane or bad storm hits? There's been a lot of flooding in midwest. What if the electricity goes out on election day?
Voter Rights groups in Ohio are posing that very question to the Ohio Secretary of State:
These are important issues. Remember the huge blackout several years back that blackened a third of the northern states? What would happen if on election day a huge number of "blue states" lost power? Would there be a "do over"?... or a Supreme Court hearing?
The people of Galveston likely won't have a place to vote come election day. How will that be handled? Natural disasters are bad enough, taking lives and destroying property in their wake. We can't allow them to destroy our democratic process as well. We can't allow poor planning and criminal negligence in the face of disaster to be rewarded.
They say the first casualty in war is the truth. Apparently the first casualty after a hurricane is freedom of the press, followed closely by common sense. When it was discovered that there were dead bodies laying around on the streets of Galveston and in the surrounding water, the government did what one might expect: They made it a no-fly zone to hide it from American eyes:
The ABC News affiliate in Houston carried a video of investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino confronting Texas governor Rick Perry about temporary “no-fly” zones for TV helicopters over parts of the Bolivar peninsula and west Galveston, the hardest hit areas. Later in the video, Dolcefino tells the ABC anchors:
...
"You know, we hear about disasters in other countries—what was it, Burma, Myanmar—where they won’t let people in to see and you know, this is the state of Texas; this America. And we’re not trying to interfere with rescue and search operations, nor did anyone suggest we would be."
When asked why he thought the government was obstructing access, Dolcefino did not mince words:
"I don’t think they want us to see images that may remind people… of the images that we saw in New Orleans. I don’t think they want us to see the images that were seen in Waveland, Mississippi or Gulfport… I think that’s the reality; they do not want us to see yet, until they can control what we see and how we see it. And that is simply, at least in my career, unacceptable. Maybe a lot of reporters won’t say it, but I will. I think they do not want us to see images of potential fatalities that may be on land or on water".
It's hard to imagine how (this time) the government could be blamed for the deaths in Galveston. The NWS stated in no uncertain terms that those who stayed faced certain death. Galveston is not New Orleans; there is (was) not a large contingent of the population that had no access to transportation off the island.
Instead, many people chose to stay and face "certain death" because they felt they could better protect their property in the aftermath:
But down here on Moss Lake, Hackberry, a town of some 3,000 people and with an average annual income of $37,336, the calculation had less to do with foolhardiness and more with protecting property and animals.
"Survivin' is the name of the game down here," says storm rider Ernest Welch of Hackberry.
In fact, many of the holdouts here share a common distrust of government, intensified by a spate of recent hurricanes and ensuing political maneuvering about who can rebuild.
....
In Galveston, an attempt to allow residents to return to the island was scrapped Tuesday as I-45 piled up with frustrated residents wanting to survey the damage. Meanwhile, 15,000 Galvestonians who stayed were busy cleaning up after the storm, mostly in good spirits despite lack of water and sewer facilities.
"What's happening in Galveston right now is that people who stayed are putting tarps on their roofs and those who did what the government wanted can't get back to their homes to minimize further damage," says Eliot Jennings, Galveston's former emergency management director.
Of course, it doesn't help when pin-heads like Bill O'Reilly proclaim that predictions about the approaching storm are all "hype":
Last week, prior to Hurricane Ike hitting the Texas coast, Bill O'Reilly told his Radio Factor listeners that the dire warnings of Ike's potential damage and threats to life were "hype."
....
Wonder how many of those Folks™ listen(ed) to Bill, and believe what he says isn't hype.
I too wonder how many people died from taking this idiot at his word.
But I suppose people have a reason to distrust their government's handling of the aftermath. The inaction and gross incompetence after Katrina was criminal and is still being dealt with today, 3 years later. Will the survivors of Hurrican Ike suffer a similar fate? So far, it's not looking too good. Besides incompetence distributing food to survivors (they are handing out food that needs to be cooked to people with no electric or gas), FEMA has decided not to distribute ice:
It's frustrating that the government can deliver $85 billion to bail out AIG, and they can't deliver ice in Texas," said Ben Smilowitz, executive director of the Disaster Accountability Project (DAP), a nonpartisan organization that monitors the nation's disaster response system.
In fact, while the federal government can deliver ice to disaster areas, it's chosen not to, under newly-revised FEMA rules. Instead, individual states and local governments are now tasked with purchasing, delivering and storing ice, even though they face tough logistical challenges in doing so, according to critics of the new policy.
Besides preserving food when electricity is out, ice is essential in maintaining temperature-sensitive medication and feeding formulas and keeping people cool in the aftermath of disaster, relief and support workers say.
This has GOT to change. The last 7 years of Republican rule have devastated our ability to cope with disasters; instead they are trying to hide the aftermath from people (strange how the like to use fear when they want to claim they can protect us from external dangers...). With the election less than 7 weeks away, you have to wonder: how are the people in Galveston (and other areas hit by Ike) going to be able to vote? For that matter, what happens if another hurricane or bad storm hits? There's been a lot of flooding in midwest. What if the electricity goes out on election day?
Voter Rights groups in Ohio are posing that very question to the Ohio Secretary of State:
Ike has blown all the way up into the Great Lakes region with devastating impact. Power has been knocked out and airports shut by gale-force winds up to 78 miles per hour. Days later, hundreds of thousands of Midwesterners remain blacked out, and casualties still mount. Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has declared a state of emergency, with up to 2 million Ohioans still without power.
A repeat performance on election day could change the course of US history if paper ballots are not universally ready.
A bitter battle now rages here in the Buckeye State over whether the Secretary of State’s office should provide as many paper ballots as voters might want.
Under current arrangements, half or more of Ohio’s may show up to the polls and be forced to cast their ballots on electronic touch-screen machines. Of 5.4 million ballots cast in 2004, George W. Bush’s official margin of victory was less than 119,000 votes.
These are important issues. Remember the huge blackout several years back that blackened a third of the northern states? What would happen if on election day a huge number of "blue states" lost power? Would there be a "do over"?... or a Supreme Court hearing?
The people of Galveston likely won't have a place to vote come election day. How will that be handled? Natural disasters are bad enough, taking lives and destroying property in their wake. We can't allow them to destroy our democratic process as well. We can't allow poor planning and criminal negligence in the face of disaster to be rewarded.
