Posted on 01/18/2010 6:48:50 AM PST by kristinn
With the window of survivability still open for Haitians trapped in the rubble of last week's catastrophic earthquake, the UN and FEMA are telling search and rescue teams waiting to deploy to Haiti to forget about it.
Reports out of Houston are saying that one of the premier search and rescue units in the world has been on standby since shortly after the quake but was never called.
Texas TV station KTRK gave this description of Texas Task Force 1:
The TX-TF1 team which was activated for this deployment was a Type I Urban Search and Rescue Team which is comprised of 80 personnel, 4 search and rescue canines, search and technical rescue personnel, physicians, paramedics, structural engineers, other support personnel, and approximately 50 tons of rescue equipment and supplies. The team is self-sustaining for 14 days and deployable by aircraft to anywhere within 4 hours of activation. The task force has also deployed nationally over 70 times, to include the Shuttle Columbia disaster, the World Trade Center, Hurricanes Katrina and Ike.
KTRK and The Houston Chronicle are both reporting:
"The United Nations mission in the country has declared the search and rescue teams already in the nation are sufficient to handle the task and the Texas team and others prepared to deploy would not be needed."
Anyone paying attention over the weekend knows that people were still being rescued, and others that rescuers knew were alive died while waiting to be rescued.
This is yet one more example of Barack Obama failing to take the bull by the horns and get promised help to the Haitians quickly and efficiently.
Reuters notes that there is talk that Obama's response could end up hurting him politically:
This could be a foreign policy Katrina for Obama," said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington think tank.
Birns said already there were negative headlines coming out of Haiti because aid is flowing too slowly.
"The Obama administration cannot allow itself to be tarnished by the kind of headlines that Bush was getting because of Katrina," he said.
The Obama administration has made a show of portraying Obama as hands-on in the relief effort, even releasing a timeline of his phone calls and meetings on Haiti since the quake struck.
Obama spent yesterday campaigning, first in a Black church in Washington, D.C. and then in Boston for Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Martha Coakley.
And liberals want the UN to rule the world’s governments.
oabma is doing what the left and the cries of blame obama are wanting.
he’s bringing them over here thousands of them
I’ve asked you before and you still have no answered kristinn but I am curious .
you keep posting threads about this and blaming obama , but I am wondering what exactly do you want him to do?
Do you want him to keep bringing thousands more over here like he is doing?
I am not understanding why you keep blaming obama for this.
if it is a point to say the media are treating this differently then I agree but I am not understanding why you keep posting these kinds of threads for over a week now all saying the same thing really
The airport is only allowed so much traffic.
the port can only get a few ships in
obama is bringing them over here
so exactly what do you want him to do or do you want him to keep bringing them over here ?
I appreciate your answer in advance
Haven’t you heard the froggies are complaining that America has given priority to Americans in getting people out of haiti? HOW DARE AMERICA BE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT AMERICANS
Here another on from Jan. 15th
Search and Rescue team told to “stand down”
VANCOUVER/CKNW AM 980
Janet Brown | Email news tips to Janet
1/15/2010
Vancouver’s Urban Search and Rescue Team will not be going to Haiti.
The team has been told to stand down.
http://www.cknw.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocal/Story.aspx?ID=1185333
I’m not sure that free pass is going to be valid much longer. I’m thinking that the truth is seeping out.
Obama Haiti Moves Frustrate Families
Anguished Dad of Missing Teen from Fla. School Wonders Why He Hasn't Sent in Paratroopers; Others Express Similar Sentiments
But Len Gengel, whose daughter, Britney, is unaccounted for, said on "The Early Show" Monday, "We don't understand why President Obama hasn't sent in the paratroopers to land there. These people, these construction vehicles, cannot get up there. This is a state of emergency for our families. We need President Obama to get our families out of there. This is the United States of America, the greatest country in the world. And we need our children and fathers home."
no we need to get out of Haiti right now and stop bringing the thousands over here like he is doing.
yes thousands upon thousands of them are coming to these shores and some are already here.
so let us get out now before we get into firefights with them and stop bringing them over and let the UN deal with it.
we can still leave a med ship there to treat them but LET THE UN DEAL WITH THIS AND LET US PULL OUT
Are you kidding me?
and naother:
Haiti-bound Ohio team put on hold
Monday, January 18, 2010 3:10 AM
By Spencer Hunt
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/01/18/taskforce1.ART_ART_01-18-10_A4_B6GB9KA.html?sid=101
Amen to that!!!!
Hmmm, we do not even have socialized medicine with its ostensible death panels but apparently the U.N. and FEMA can serve the same purpose. Note to self: Self, I must stay healthy, Self,I must stay healthy, Self, I must stay healthy.
let the UN deal with this and let us pull out.
That is what the UN is for as the left likes to tell us.
so we stop bringing them over here, thousands of them I might add.
we stop putting more money into there.
we bring our military back over here
we stop spending logistics money
and we let the UN deal with this led by france seeing as they messed the country up in the first place
And you can get a bunch of them on an aircraft carrier...
HA??! The UN told Search and Rescue that ‘units on the ground were sufficient’???? The news does not read accordingly. And meanwhile, Obama is dithering in Massachusetts. He should be skewered.
“The Obama administration cannot allow itself to be tarnished by the kind of headlines that Bush was getting because of Katrina,” he said.
++++++++++++++++
In other words, “We’re utterly confident that the RAT press and pundits will completely cover our A$$E$.”
I think it’s rather self-evident. Obama is acting like a leader but he is not leading. As a result, people are suffering and dying that might otherwise have survived.
Maybe it’s time for Obama to appoint Kathleen Blanco as the head of FEMA, just to show all of us that it really was Bush’s fault...
++++++++++++++++
Haiti *is* Bush’s fault, isn’t it? /s
I have a coworker with the Fairfax Co [Va] Urban Search and Rescue team, he left on Thursday.
Can you talk to him and report here what is going on on the ground there in Hati
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.