Feds too slow update
It’s been years so I couldn’t remember exactly how long everything took to get going, but John Weidner reminded me that
In 1992’s Hurricane Andrew, it took nine days for the request for federal help to move through the bureaucracy.
Update: see the comments — the 82nd Airborne was actually in Homestead in three days, so I am not sure what federal help took nine days to request — money, probably. Like I said, it’s been years. Of course, we weren’t surrounded by twenty feet of floodwater. So to continue…
People are complaining because the National Guard took four days from the landfall of Hurricane Katrina to get to New Orleans. By the way, after Andrew, while the request for federal help was wandering through the various bureaucratic channels, the state of Florida was busy picking up the pieces instead of waiting around helplessly and bitching and moaning. Well, there was a lot of bitching and moaning, but there was also a lot of work being done. (Added note: I’m going to post more on this too.)
I am beginning to think the real problem here is that the nation got spoiled by my state’s response, reaction, and recovery to the various hurricanes that slammed through it last year. They saw that there was little to no looting or mayhem, and that we got busy cleaning up right away, and that we have pretty much recovered from Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Jeanne, and Ivan; and also the South Florida area is already well on its way to recovering from Katrina’s early Cat 1 rampage.
I guess the meme is “gosh, if Florida can recover in record time from not just one but several natural disasters, what do we have to worry about?” See, Florida has this reputation (no!) of being a state full of drooling retards. And the reason for that? Well… (drum roll) this perception stems in large part from the antics of certain governmental bodies and personages after the presidential election in 2000.
In other words, it’s all Al Gore’s fault. Bwahahahahaha!
September 4th, 2005 at 1:16 am
I think you should review your history. It took us less than three days and we were in Homestead, FL. I was a member of the 82d Airborne Division. We were alerted in 2 hours (Division Ready Force 1) and ready to deploy in 16 hours.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/xviii-corps.htm
Under Operation Hurricane Andrew, Florida, on 27 August 1992 major units throughout the XVIII Airborne Corps began their deployment to Dade County, Florida, to assist in disaster relief operations in the aftermath of the storm. At peak strength the Corps had 16,000 soldiers deployed to South Florida. The mission of the Corps was to provide immediate emergency relief including food, water, shelter and medical aid. During subsequent phases the Corps conducted debris removal operations, repaired schools, established relief supply distribution centers and assisted the local government in establishing sustained recovery operations. All disaster relief functions were eventually turned over to civilian contractors, and Corps units returned to Fort Bragg by 21 October 1992.
September 4th, 2005 at 8:45 am
Yup, you’re right. I’m not sure actually what federal help John is talking about now (as I put in my update it was probably something to do with allocating funds).
September 4th, 2005 at 11:32 am
Al Gore, to his credit, was spotted on a newscast pitching in at Louis Armstrong Airport and generally behaving like someone who wanted to help, which is exactly what was needed.
September 4th, 2005 at 11:48 am
Oh, I was just being evil. Actually, in general, the two chief members of the previous administration have been behaving like gentlemen in this crisis. Certain other members of their party should take note. That has been my Stern Schoolmistress post of the day.
September 4th, 2005 at 6:42 pm
I’ve never been able to pull off the Stern Schoolmistress bit myself, so color me envious. (I just spent rather a lot of bile on one of my regular commenters who apparently can’t grasp the concept of STFU.)