Responses to Hurricane Sandy are disasters in their own right

Commentary by James H. Shott

The huge storm formed by Hurricane Sandy and associated meteorological elements reminds us just how much we are at the mercy of Mother Nature. The death toll is now more than 110 and may go higher. Thousands have seen their homes destroyed, 131 homes in one New York City neighborhood were destroyed by fire, and thousands more homes received heavy storm damage. Thousands are still without electricity, and while there is gasoline at filling stations, most of them don’t have power to run the pumps, so gas lines are usually hours long. Multitudes have no place to stay, no food, water, or clothing, and it is cold there. 

As they always do, the police, fire fighters and emergency medical personnel performed at heroic levels, however, millions of people were gravely affected, and major relief efforts are plainly inadequate, not unlike the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. 

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, failed to pre-stage ample amounts of bottled water and other supplies nearby prior to the storm, as it proclaimed it would do on its website as part of its “lean forward” strategy, despite several days of advanced warning of the coming catastrophe. Days later, Staten Island residents were pleading for food and water, and while thousands try to survive cold temperatures without electricity and necessities, generators that could provide power sit idle in parking lots.

And inadequate preparation has been compounded by foolish thinking.

According to Politico, “When President Barack Obama urged Americans under siege from Hurricane Sandy to stay inside and keep watch on ready.gov for the latest, he left out something pretty important — where to turn if the electricity goes out,” and FEMA “told the public via Twitter to use texts and social media outlets to stay informed.”

Power company workers from Decatur Utilities drove hours from Alabama to lend a hand in New Jersey restoring electricity to the thousands who desperately needed it, only to be told by the local power company workers union they weren’t welcome unless they signed a union agreement.

As reported on the Fox Business Channel website, “Officials from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers presented Alabama-based Decatur Utilities with documents that “required our folks to affiliate with the union,” according to Ray Hardin, general manager of Decatur Utilities. “That was something that we could not agree to. It was our understanding, and still is, that it was a requirement for us to work in that area.” 

Ed Hill, international president of the IBEW, told Fox Business later in an emailed statement: "It is the policy of this union and the companies we represent to welcome assistance during major natural disasters -- regardless of union status." Oooops! Apparently, someone didn’t get that message.

And then there’s New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who thought it was a good idea to go ahead with the New York City Marathon that was scheduled for Sunday, only a few days after the storm hit. The mayor drew a parallel between 2001 and 2012, saying "Rudy (Guiliani) made the right decision" holding the 2001 race after 9/11. However, that race was held weeks after that tragedy, while the super storm occurred just days before this year's marathon.

The marathon course winds through five New York boroughs, some of which still are obstructed by the destruction caused by the storm, and the idea of holding the event when so many are still suffering so greatly really set some people off. “All the water and blankets and food that are given to these runners can be better utilized for those who lost everything and to shelters," one outraged resident stated. Before the mayor finally gave in to common sense, storm victims who had taken rooms in hotels and motels were unceremoniously ousted for marathon participants who had reserved rooms for the race.  

Rep. Michael Grimm, who represents Staten Island and Brooklyn, sharply criticized Mayor Bloomberg for his initial decision to hold the race as planned. “We’re still pulling bodies out of the water and the mayor is worried about marathon runners and returning to life as normal,” Mr. Grimm said. “The Verrazano Bridge should be used for getting fuel and food in to Staten Island, not getting runners out. Police resources would be best allocated to prevent looting and in rescue and recovery operations.”

 A good bit of the problem is that people are focused on the wrong things. New York’s mayor thought it was more important to show the world that New York was returning to normal than helping the tens of thousands of his constituents who are having trouble surviving return to normal.

Hotel managers thought it was more important to honor the reservations of marathon participants than to rent rooms to storm victims whose homes were destroyed or unlivable and need a warm place to sleep.  

The New York Road Runners organization that puts on the NYC Marathon couldn’t see the suffering of victims of “recent extreme weather conditions” because its vision of the marathon blocked out everything else.

And FEMA still is beset with red tape, inefficiency and performance issues so prevalent in federal bureaucracies.

Cross-posted from Observations

Lonely Voices…..

By: J Robert Giles

“Education: The path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.” - Mark Twain

What happened to tragedy? What happened to the ability to see things as they truly are as opposed to viewing the world through the smudged lenses of our own misconceptions? This weekend provided yet another example of just such an absence of objectivity.

This morning, the people of Oak Creek, Wisconsin don’t really care what your particular political views may be. They don’t really care if you support Obama or Romney. They don’t care what union you surrender your monthly dues to, and they certainly don’t care what your opinion is of their community. What they do care about is the genuine outpouring of emotion that has come their way since the tragic shooting that left six people and one scumbag dead on Sunday.

We are so quick to assign blame in these instances. The mainstream media almost instinctively labels any kind of shooting or ideological based violence as “right wing.” They do so even in the face of zero evidence or credible examples to support such a claim.

A few weeks ago, when tragedy befell the Denver metroplex, connections to the Tea Party were almost instantaneous. Absolutely no evidence had been given to support such a wild accusation, but as long as it gets out there and gets imbedded in the brain of an unsuspecting public, then success can be claimed according to uninformed liberal sources.

Same thing in Wisconsin. Yes, the shooter who has been identified but will remain unnamed on this site because he doesn’t deserve the notoriety, was “heavily tattooed” and “unable to apply for further military service in any branch.” Even if the man was the most racist, vile, hate-spewing bigot on the face of the earth, does that necessarily mean he speaks for all of any group? Does the fact that I loathe everything about Obama’s failed presidency mean that I have anything at all in common with the man who gunned down six innocent people yesterday? No, it does not.

To associate this fool with any political party, ideology, or candidate is simply deceitful. There is no other way to put it. To use this tragedy for political gain is disgraceful. Fortunately, it appears that both presidential candidates have handled the event with measured, but sincere condolences. Sometimes, people just snap. Something in their brains goes haywire and it makes them do things that fall well outside the scope of acceptable behavior.

It simply doesn’t matter what the cause for such action may be. The idiots that carried out 9/11 did so in the name of religious zealotry. Think about the insanity of that statement for a second. Is that an excuse? Is it a reason? What exactly does that weak, absurdly generalized explanation cover? They killed 3,000 people. What God condones such actions? What God would explicitly call for such lunacy? Such a god can only be found in the hearts of truly lost men.

The media rushes to blame because blame gets viewers. People love to feel as though their opinions are shared. Liberals love this more than any other group of people in the universe. They love to feel as though their voice is the only voice that matters. They love to insure that you obey their beliefs and abandon your own. They conspire among the vast network of outlets they have worked so hard to create. They unite with one common goal and that is to blast their opinion and ideas into YOUR head.

All guns are bad in the mind of a liberal. Responsibility and care can’t exist because in the mind of the left and all those in the media who obediently serve the left, anyone who casts a vote contradictory to liberal orthodoxy is a mass murderer just waiting to open fire. We’re all just dangerous, uninformed rednecks who haven’t “progressed” beyond our primitive need for violence. The left believes we are too narrow in our view to accept the fact that killing Americans in the name of a non-Christian god is an act of progressive, enlightened thought. Ironically, their “progress” has also led them to the belief that anyone carrying out an act of violence against a person of non-Christian faith is a small-minded, right-wing, Christian-extremist.

Like the vast majority of liberal thought, this too crumbles in the face of logical inspection. The man who shot those people in Wisconsin yesterday may have felt called upon to do so by his own demons, but those demons were certainly not speaking with a Christian tongue. The voices in his head were speaking in the dangerously consuming tones of hatred, bigotry, and insanity. Too often, those voices yell louder than the voices of reason, logic, and understanding.

Assuming his reasoning was somehow related to 9/11, this idiot didn’t even get his misguided attempts at revenge right. He attacked a Sikhi Temple which is vastly different from his assumed Islamic enemy. The man hated everyone. He sang in bands that mumble their desire to see Jews murdered. In his deranged mind, Hitler was a hero. In his views, genocide was the answer. To what end….your guess is as good as mine. Just as long as the world looked like him, thought like him, and had sex like him…..then all was okay. When the world around him refused to conform to such maniacal directives, he opened fire on a perceived enemy.

While I do not share the religious views of the people who were gunned down yesterday, I certainly share their desire to live in a country where religion is a right afforded to every citizen. I choose to follow the same God that the founding fathers of America followed. I choose to follow Him and publicly praise Him for all that He has given my life. I choose to take my family to a Church where many other people who believe as I do gather and share our unified voice on Sunday mornings. In absolutely no way does that mean that I feel anyone who doesn’t believe in God Almighty should be served up with earthly justice.

Our job on Earth is to influence those willing to listen. We are commanded to reach out to those who could benefit from the word of God but we are not to do so in a manner that impedes the life of another human being. My God teaches me tolerance and acceptance of all living things. That’s what He teaches. I’m human and I don’t always act in a manner that would please God, but that’s because sin is a critical component of the Christian journey. Bullets are not mentioned in the bible. Hatred has no place in a Godly world. Those who carry out acts of violence in the name of any god are doing so for selfish reasons, not Holy ones.

As always, thanks for playing.

J Robert Giles