The Politik of Tork

Hurricane Wilma and the Other Bush

The following is contributed to Governor Bush of Florida. The article this is from can be found in an article on CNN.

"People had ample time to prepare," Bush said. "And it isn't that hard to get 72 hours' worth of food and water ... just to do the simple things that we ask people to do."


This statement was rather upsetting to me. My sister is one of those Floridians standing in line waiting for her basic needs. She did everything she could to prepare for this hurricane, but when you have everyone in the state looking for the same things, there will be people who don't get what they need.

Another problem I have with that statement is the lack of electricity. 72 hours worth of food is good for three days, at least if you were able to get food that didn't need refrigerated or cooked. The electricity won't be on for a couple of weeks.

Something else that bothers me with what Governor Bush said was this:

"If anybody wants to blame anybody, blame me," the governor said. "Don't blame FEMA. This is our responsibility, and we are doing a good job."

Here's the problem I have with that statement. You can find the complete declaration on the FEMA webpage here.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) hereby gives notice that pursuant to the authority vested in the Acting Director, under Executive Order 12148, as amended, Justin DeMello, of FEMA is appointed to act as the Federal Coordinating Officer for this declared disaster.


This disaster declaration if I am not mistaking puts responsibility on FEMA for relief from this disaster. It would seem to me that Governor Bush is trying to take attention away from the failings of his brother's administration concerning the government's response to the hurricanes devestating the gulf states.

FEMA actually knew how to do it's job before it was put under the Department of Homeland Security. Somewhere after 9/11 the government forgot that terrorist attacks aren't the only National Emergencies we have. There was all this talk about 9/11 not changing our way of life, and in essence the hurricanes this year have proven otherwise.

posted by Matt @ 3:22 PM