Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Way to Go FEMA!

I just read this article on CNN:
FEMA gives away $85 million of supplies for Katrina victims

FEMA claimed it was unaware that there were people still in need of items.

Um....

Are you serious!?

You need to read this article especially in light of the most recent flooding in Wisconsin and Iowa. Why is FEMA still run by people who it seems try to stay as uninformed as possible. I do not doubt that there are capable people that work for the agency that probably get beaten down by their superiors but to actually come out and say "the items were no longer needed in the stricken region. So it declared them "federal surplus" and gave them away."

I am in absolute shock...although I know I really shouldn't be. Also, there are a couple comments that are really off the mark and sickened me even more. I

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How is this FEMA's fault? They offered the stuff to Louisiana and Louisiana said NO! How many times can you blame one agency? Formaldehyde - let's blame FEMA, not the industry that makes the darn trailers.

Supplies not given out - did you read the article "FEMA ... gave it away to cities, schools, fire departments and nonprofit agencies such as food banks -non-profit agencies and food banks...isn't that where people go for help, yet Louisiana said no. Isn't this Unity group a non-profit? If they aren't, that's interesting.

Read on...
These items also were offered to all states -- yet Louisiana, where most of the people displaced by the storm live, passed on taking any of them.

John Medica, director of the Louisiana Federal Property Assistance Agency in Baton Rouge, said he was unaware that Katrina victims still had a need for the household supplies.

"We didn't have anybody out there who told us they wanted it," Medica said.

Yet we'll put out a story and blame FEMA for not letting this stuff go to waste. That's right, the Federal Govt. is SUPPOSED to come in an tell the state what they need & if the state says they don't need it, the federal government should ignore them and just come into the cities and see if the state was incompetent or lying.

Thomas Jefferson would be so proud.

scargosun said...

Donna dear. How is it that we ALL know that assitance is still needed but FEMA did not. It does not add up at all. I am sorry but the people that needed help were and still are asking for it.

I've been where FEMA came to do their thing after hurricaines. I've seen the incompetence in action. They are unorganized, unprofessional and unprepared for disasters.

Los said...

Sadly, I have a feeling you don't need to look much further than the White House to figure out what's gone wrong with FEMA.

One Crazy Chick! said...

A fish rot's from the head! I'm just sayin'.


Clearly there are smart people who live here...right? Somewhere...maybe they stay away from Politics and Government Agencies?

MissKris said...

It seems as if Katrina is one disaster that goes on forever, doesn't it? I can't imagine what it must be like to live there and still be dealing with all this after all this time. We had our own disaster in Oregon last winter when a freak storm flooded the town of Vernonia. If you watch "Ax Men" on the History Channel, it's chronicled the story because most of the loggers featured there live in the Vernonia area. The Red Cross stepped in and did a wonderful job of helping the victims and FEMA was there, too, but there have been complaints about their assistance there, too.

Fifty K said...

Amen girl!! You said it. I love that there are fields of trailers just sitting somewhere in the midwest rusting away. As a los said in a comment above, you don't have to look any further then the White House to see where this mess started.

Oh, and lets flood those ignorant people out who claim they didn't know Katrina victims needed help and then not send help and see if they like it.