Kentucky Vs Katrina
Four days warning/Katrina = New Orleans.
Hours/Ice Storm = Kentucky.
Literally a “welfare state” of cradle to grave government dependency = New Orleans (those the MSM focused on, Kermit).
Hardworking, Taxpaying, Independent = Kentucky.
“The Big Easy” = New Orleans.
“Unbridled Spirit” = Kentucky.
MSM political fodder = New Orleans.
MSM yawns and looks away = Kentucky.
Three and a half years later …
What accounts for Obama’s slow response to Kentucky’s ice storm victims?
by Jeff Taylor
The ice storm that slammed the American mid-south in the last weekend of January and then moved onward to the East Coast has left an estimated 1.3 million people without power. And nowhere was hit harder than Kentucky, where some 700,000 people lost electricity and 24 deaths were attributed to the storm. Yet President Barack Obama only declared the state a major disaster area this week. What took so long? Where is the presidential compassion for the victims of this tremendous disaster?
The answer is that nothing is wrong and President Obama surely feels for each and every person hurt or put out by the storm. The reality is that even after the emergency management reforms allegedly implemented after Hurricane Katrina, help from far-off Washington still does little in times of fast-moving crisis. This view may be heresy in the age of federal bailouts, but it is still true.
To put the ice storm response in perspective, remember that it was not until the Clinton administration that the federal government was even expected to deal with winter storms. It took Clinton’s shrewd Arkansas crowd to identify the political potential of turning states and localities into federal dependents via the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and related federal disaster assets. Soon enough state and local officials were petitioning Washington for any and all weather-related expenses. The result has been millions of dollars flowing out of Washington.
Of course it was Hurricane Katrina that truly redefined the scope of federal disaster response. Katrina quickly progressed from natural disaster to human tragedy to political hot potato, landing in the lap of the hapless Bush administration. The storyline quickly became not one of state and local disarray in the face of an oncoming storm, but federal incompetence, possibly—even probably—abetted by an ugly racial animosity against Katrina’s victims. The great Beltway victimhood industry ate this version up, resulting in billions in “reconstruction” aid for the region and reform of FEMA. Problem solved.
How then to explain the continued hardship in Kentucky? About 150,000 residents remain without power. No power means that gas stations and water pumping stations do no work. Needless to say, 21st century communications cease to function. Cooking and refrigeration become a struggle. To borrow a frequent post-Katrina refrain, these Americans have been reduced to Third World–style subsistence living.
The state has now fully mobilized the National Guard and power line crews have poured in from neighboring states. But that has still not been enough. Local officials complain—in another echo of Katrina—that FEMA failed to even contact them in the days after the storm, let alone show up with help on the ground. FEMA responded that the same icy roads that put residents at peril slowed their emergency response crews. Just this week word came that some rural, overwhelmingly white parts of the state will not receive power for weeks, if not months.
Natural disasters arbitrarily bring death and destruction. They act beyond the control of mortal man and his institutions, no matter how grand and well-intentioned those institutions may be. Furthermore, the iron law of all disasters is that it is nearly impossible to get aid quickly to people in need. Two corollaries flow from this reality. One, that it is always better to evacuate potential victims than to attempt to rescue certain victims. This, of course, is precisely what did not happen in New Orleans or in the path of the ice storm. Two, given that outside help will be unreliable at best, local ad hoc relief efforts are almost always more effective.
Enter David Strange, the enterprising figure the Associated Press calls the “generator man.” Strange drove the hills and hollows of backwoods Kentucky delivering and setting up generators to those without power—at a $50 to $100 mark-up over retail. Willing customers included a dialysis patient and a powerless 80-year-old woman dependent on an oxygen system. They called him a “godsend,” although Strange prefers “jack of all trades” or even “hustler.” To Adam Smith, he would be recognizable as an agent of the invisible hand.
If President Obama were nimble, he would give Strange a fancy federal title and take credit for his actions. That would make far more sense than trusting the federal government to come to the rescue in times of distress.
 |
|
Not as MSM worthy because it doesn’t paint poor blacks as the victim of white-America’s contribution to global warming/killer hurricanes.
And I hope
Kentucky Jim checks in, if he hasn’t already.
Obama? Last time he spoke on a natural disaster was when a town in Kansas was hit by a tornado “10,000 people died” or maybe it was around only 7.
ain’t no help going to Kentucky….there be white men up in dem der hills….mmm hmmmm…..looky like osucka gonna keep on giving our tax dollars to dem der no good fer nothings in La., why I wonder….maybe cause the color of their skin?
A sign of things to come. A good white man is a dead white man.
This is an outrage
Ive been talking about this for a while now, what hypocracy.
So i guess fereral help to natural disaster will be only distributed to blue regions with minoritys
call,email local and national news medias asking what is going on??
Jl- Something in our future perhaps, signs as you enter towns: “White Man don’t let the sun set on your ass in (fill in the blank).
msm was too busy with the superbowl and praising the one on his rescue spending to cover KY. I lived in central KY for 20yrs. I know several people there that have huge arsenals. That will be a good safe spot when the crazy part of cleaning house begins.
well my local news has been covering this but thats just because they are in our neck of the woods. the MSM isnt covering it because it may tarnish the ONE’s image when compared with Katrina. Kanye West said George Bush hates black people, so im guessing Barack Obama hates white people? because i can guarantee those are all whites down there. alot of my family comes from kentucky, good people. email all news outlets you can think of and lets get these people some help as soon as possible
In the words of out potus ” There’s white people, Then there are Mother Fuckers like you”
I am in Chicago on travel–(I contract to Argonne National Lab)– I came up here after a week and a half in the KY stone age getting things stable.
ON the home front:
We still have no power and will not for at least another week.
Had no heat for a week and a half until a church friend brought over a 220V generator that could power the gas furnace fans (fireplace had kept two rooms above 40F, usually about 52F)
Had water because of a new tower a mile away, but we shared with neighbors who were still on wells (no electricity => no pump for the well => no water)
Our pipes froze before the tower ran out of water (ditto power-pump-tower)
Cell and land lines were spotty for the first 10 days, pretty steady now.
Can’t just up and leave because of the livestock, unless someone want to put us up that has room for a big dog, 3 inside cats, 3 outside cats, 28 goats, and a llama (…what was I thinking?)
Things are much better since the generator arrived. We fixed the pipes. We cleared the fenceline and fixed the fencing that got demolished by the trees. (giving me the rare opportunity to get poison ivy in January)
We heard FEMA was in town handing out MREs, but they took down the list from the ANG of where they were actually doing that so my family can’t find them.
UPS resumed delivering before the USPS.
My family is spending days with friends in town that have power now, kids are back in college.
All in all good prep for when the feds take over everything and every other week will be like this.
Send in Sean Penn and Spike Lee. Problem solved.
‘Um…er…uhhh…Let them eat yellow snow! Oh…and um… poison peanut paste too!!’
- Barry Obama, crackwhore twink/POTUS
WOW. I am reading Ann Coulter’s book GUILTY. She has it nailed perfectly. Speak loudly while being a victim. NEVER EVER EVER attempt to become an effective self sustaining adult.
Alright Jim! Nothing like being on your own two feet.
Thanks.