FEMA Out of Water, No Delivery Until Monday

Breitbart ^ | Nov 3, 2012 | Michael Patrick Leahy

[blueyon]

FEMA's vaunted "lean forward" strategy that called for advanced staging of supplies for emergency distribution failed to live up to its billing in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

In fact, the agency appears to have been completely unprepared to distribute bottled water to Hurricane Sandy victims when the storm hit this Monday. In contrast to its stated policy, FEMA failed to have any meaningful supplies of bottled water -- or any other supplies, for that matter -- stored in nearby facilities as it had proclaimed it would on its website. This was the case despite several days advance warning of the impending storm.

[PA Engineer]

Disease is inevitable now. The belief that FEMA could do anything is a belief in a false god.

These problems are going to continue. There was great jubilation that ConEd had restored power to parts of lower Manhattan. I know from professional experience that cables will begin to fault because of salt water intrusion. Sure enough there are reports of it happening now. These problems will continue to play out for months and years.

The problem will not be limited to underground electric, but will also include natural gas lines. They may purge them an get service restored, but the chlorides have already contaminated the distribution system. Over the coming years internal corrosion will result in extensive damage to the system. The cost of repairs and replacement will be staggering.

Add gas furnaces, boilers, hot water heaters, electric panels and pumps to the mix of damaged infrastructure and the extent of this disaster will be staggering as is the inevitable human impact.

Finally, there will be little time for mitigation as winter is setting in. Government will not solve these problems. Government by it's very nature will make them worse. That is my prediction and I am standing by it.

[sanjuanbob]

Whenever the President declares a Federal Emergency, the cost shifts to 75% all taxpayers, and 25%max from the declared State. Obama has a “ton” of disasters...more than any other president in history. Here they are if anyone is interested.

http://www.fema.gov/news/disaster_totals_annual.f...

[sanjuanbob]

Lets try www.fema.gov/disasters

[The Cajun]

Get some damn tank trucks in there loaded with water, how hard can that be???

[Vendome]

Gee, I keep hearing how this is being handled way better than Bush did for Katrina.

No one is sleeping on their roofs waiting to be rescued, they are getting fuel, food, shelter, etc.

[GeronL]

woo-hoo Irving shout out!

[MissMagnolia]

Now that Geraldo has blasted all over twitter that he has koi in his pond, I wonder how long they’ll last when people have exhausted all of the throwaway food/dumpster supplies and will eat anything? Koi ‘sushi’ ... sounds pretty good when you’re starving.

[bert]

National Guard water buffaloes are SOP in disasters placed as needed but especially at Red Cross Shelters. If the National Guard is disallowed, then they don’t bring the water.

[GOPJ]

If Dubya was still in the White House, the commie pig rabble in this country would be on their way to Washington to lynch him.

When it was Katrina and New Orleans it was PRESIDENT Bush's fault. With a Dem President it's all the mayors fault or FEMA's fault or the Neighborhood watch' fault - anybody BUT Obama.

Not that the MSM is biased, hateful and corrupt...

FEMA and Homeland Security are worthless - - one step below the Red Cross... Then again FEMA and Homeland Security ordered millions of bullets - but again NOT to stop looting...

[Uncle Chip]

How long will it take them to descend on Rockefeller Plaza and make the morning news.

[squarebarb]

Exactly.

They’ll have to have seminars at high-priced hotels to ‘evaluate’ their reports of the emergency, they’ll practice their jargon-speak on one another, they’ll have entertainment after hours and massages and saunas and some golfing to unwind after all the evaluation and assessing. They’ll sleep in their luxury suites and have drinks in classy lounges with ferns and cigars.

This disaster is a gold-mine for bureaucratic seminar-goers.

[bert]

You have been duped into believing the MSM template on Katrina.

[MayflowerMadam]

Isn’t there some way to air lift supplies in to the residential areas? I’d heard that Trump was going to supply a huge amount of drinking water.

[buffaloguy]

I was in Ike and the county commissioner had to threaten them with commandeering their trucks and jailing the if they did not get their butts inb gear. He turned the air not just ble but ultraviolet blue and they finallly got going. It apppears that Fema has deteriorated since then.

[The Cajun]

That is just insane and OBobo is taking credit for doing WHAT!
I thank the Lord everyday that I live in the South and in a rural area.
I really feel sorry for those folks up there depending on politicians and bureaucrats to help them out.

[PapaBear3625]

Fema unprepared to deliver bottled WATER? What the... Water is the #1 most important thing to deliver to people in a crisis.

FEMA is ill-suited to this mission, due to its need to place bids for relief supplies and then make contracts for delivery.

The US Army is much better suited for this. They have people trained in how to deliver supplies through rough terrain, in any weather, and adverse security conditions.

They have mobile water purification units

They have mobile field kitchens

They have fuel trucks that will go anywhere.

They have warehouses full of MREs.

And the military's supply and logistics units are mostly National Guard and Reserves, and much of the stuff is distributed all over the country.

A competent solution would have involved mobilizing Army and National Guard support units, which could have used their ready supplies, stores, and equipment immediately, and then replaced used-up stuff at leisure.

[PapaBear3625]

Yes, it is, but no one will know: the "media" won't report it 'cuz it will make Zero look bad. Now if Bush was still Prez, they'd be all over it!

Unfortunately for Obama, much of the incompetence is readily visible all over the NorthEast, in states that Obama must carry in order to win.

[JerseyanExile]

Snow isn’t exactly an uncommon occurrence in West Virginia. A 14-foot storm surge on the other hand, isn’t something that happens in the tri-state area every few years.

[Charles Martel]

Whenever the President declares a Federal Emergency, the cost shifts to 75% all taxpayers, and 25%max from the declared State.

I heard something yesterday about New York State arguing over that 25%, trying to get the feds to agree to pick up that part of the tab as well.

I'm not sure whether New Jersey was asking for the same, but this water shortage sure sounds like someone is applying a bit of leverage.

[count-your-change]

The clean up is going to be a second disaster. Condemnation of damaged buildings, equipment brought in to clean up, union rules for the trades, etc. Happy time is over.