FEMA Earns Plaudits In Georgia

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_09/020126.php

FEMA EARNS PLAUDITS IN GEORGIA.... Many parts of Georgia have been devastated this week by what's been described as a "once in 500 years flood." It's affected 20 counties, killed at least nine people, and caused about $250 million in damages. Vice President Biden appeared alongside members of Congress and federal officials in an Atlanta suburb yesterday, where the American Red Cross had set up a shelter.

By all accounts, officials are responding effectively, and federal aid made available by the administration will be used for recovery programs, including temporary housing and low-cost loans. After a half-hour helicopter tour of the area, Biden vowed that there would be no "bureaucratic stalling and shuffling" as officials addressed the emergency.

I was also struck by the willingness of two very conservative Republican senators -- Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss -- to credit "the White House's quick response" and commend the administration's efforts.

Chambliss praised the Obama Administration for a response that was both "magnificent" and "quick." Isakson said he had spent last night on the phone with local officials, all of whom reported FEMA workers on the ground.

This is good to hear. I remember reports from 2006 about whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which had experienced some very high-profile failures, would ever recover. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) described FEMA three years ago as a "shambles and beyond repair." The agency that was widely recognized as a model of efficiency in the 1990s had become an example of what was wrong with the federal government. There was widespread talk of simply scrapping the entire agency and starting anew.

It appears now, however, that FEMA is back on track, operating as it should. It's encouraging.

—Steve Benen

[BOSSHOG]

1. This only proves that republicans were right all along

As they tell their base every two years, "government does not work, put us in charge and we will prove it." FEMA does not exist to work, its just more socialistic, liberalistic, communistic nonsense.

[babylonsister]

2. Ironic, isn't it. They rail against the gov't, except when they don't.

The hypocrisy is mindboggling.

[Peacetrain]

8. I wonder if they ever stop and think about the irony

[Cha]

10. No, they have the corporatemediawhores

to back them up that it doesn't exist.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. I wonder how many of those in need were in DC for the birther/ anti-gov

meeting.

I also wonder how many will say, "Keep government out of my FEMA!"

[CurtEastPoint]

4. Oddly enough, most of the severe damage was in the W suburbs: Cobb, Douglas, Paulding

All NOTABLY red red red.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. Al Gore has been warning that climate change will include

drought, which this state has suffered from for a decade, AND
floods, which seems to be right on point.

[old mark]

7. Proving that god

hates republicans.

Nice work, god.

mark

[lame54]

6. Even Sonny had great things to say about them...

And he didn't have to pray for their quick response

[Cha]

9. Craig Fugate hails from some of my ol stomping grounds..

Gainseville, Florida.

<snip>>

"Craig is the right person for the job and will ensure that the failures of the past are never repeated," President Barack Obama proclaimed after nominating W. Craig Fugate to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Figuring out what the President was alluding do isn't rocket science: the agency's inability to cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and George W. Bush's now-infamous accolade of then-FEMA director Michael Brown ("Heck of a job, Brownie!") have become touchstones of bureaucratic mismanagement. (See Obama's White House.)"

<read more>>
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1883485,00.html

http://www.fema.gov/about/bios/wfugate.shtm

[tanyev]

11. Bet we won't ever hear the right call it Obama's FEMA, though.