Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumMontana Ranchers & Residents Shocked, Shocked By Inept FEMA Response, No Disaster Declaration
SAND SPRINGS, Mont. In this part of Montanas rugged eastern prairie, Erwin Weder and the other ranchers and cowboys are not used to feeling kicked around. But as Weder drives his pickup truck onto a bluff to gaze out over Big Sky Country, he feels a bit defeated.
Hundreds of miles of meadows and scrub grass that feed tens of thousands of beef cattle are gone, replaced by the charred soil and smoldering prairie dog burrows that the states largest wildfire in nearly three decades has left behind. But after the massive multimillion-dollar firefight, another battle has emerged in the wide open spaces where there is often distrust of the government: What should the federal role be in helping Montanas livestock industry respond to, and recover from, the blaze.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) originally rejected Montanas request for assistance, a process that ranchers say left them feeling forgotten and misunderstood by Washington. Now, many in this deeply conservative region are weighing their wariness about bureaucrats against their need for help.
EDIT
The Trump administration has been hinting that it might limit federal spending on disaster relief and preparation, and FEMA is considering whether to draft regulations to shift more responsibility for rebuilding to the states. The creation of disaster deductibles which states would have to exhaust before FEMA offers federal assistance was first proposed under the Obama administration.
EDIT
Congratulations. You voted for smaller government, and by God, you got it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/massive-wildfires-turned-prairies-to-ash-leading-montanas-cowboys-to-weigh-federal-help/2017/08/13/a3b4464a-786a-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html?utm_term=.aa4b210f776d
annabanana
(52,791 posts)Nay
(12,051 posts)WELL, WELL, WELL. Guess what, guys? You know that Republican you put in office? He wants you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. He's given you what you said you wanted -- the feds out of your bidness; states' rights; etc, etc. What's that? You don't have enough money to recover? Gee. Guess you end up like those poor black people in New Orleans after Katrina. Remember them?
Did you think that because you were white/Republican/property owners that the Republicans wouldn't be coming for you? You would be wrong. You've been voting for ravenous locusts and now they've come to hoover up everything you own after you go bankrupt.
Boomer
(4,167 posts)... and that's exactly what Trump is providing.
mountain grammy
(26,598 posts)rpannier
(24,328 posts)Maybe they can get the Oath Keepers or other right wing fascist sympathizing ranchers in other areas to give them money and aid
They'll never learn, so why bother
AwakeAtLast
(14,124 posts)Welfare!
On edit: or at least a government handout, which they hate (irony,you know)