Will Hurricaine Sandy become THE October Surprise?

[Lois]

From an early browsing of the News Stories the partisan bickering over this disaster has already begun.

The GOP claims that Obama is paying too much attention to providing a response to the disaster in order to gain votes, while the Democrats are pointing out that Romney is against providing Federal Disaster assistance, including disbanding FEMA.

[Gina Marie]

YEAHNO.

[RopeFiend]

Just goes to show that if either side is guilty of anything it's obviously caring too much...

Mitt, caring too much?  What did I miss, were some wealthy people briefly inconvenienced???  Did they perhaps miss their play?

When has he shown ANY love for the common man?  You know, the people he wants to RULE for the next 4 years, those of us in the 99th percent that ain't fuckin' rich already?  Mitt couldn't care less about what happened, unless there's a way he can spin it into bad press for The Other Guy.

Get real.

edit:

[Lois]

Good news! Mitt realizes he's pro-FEMA afterall... (but for how long?  )

In another stunning acrobatic move, presidential candidate Mitt Romney today...

Best line in the article; "As has been shown time after time – especially as tornadoes and hurricanes rip through politically conservative states – even the sturdiest tea party supporters become fans of government..."


Mitt Romney Disaster Relief Position Faces Scrutiny

WASHINGTON — There's nothing like a natural disaster to test the depth of politicians' preference for small government.

And so it turns out that after Superstorm Sandy battered the East Coast, Mitt Romney is far more supportive of the government agency in charge of coordinating disaster relief. Only last year, as Romney hewed to the right while battling for the GOP nomination, he seemed to downplay the federal government's role in disaster response.

"Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction," Romney said at a debate last June. "And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that's even better."

Asked by moderator John King of CNN whether that would include disaster relief, Romney said: "We cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids."

Now, a week before Election Day, after of a massive disaster, Romney's campaign is reassuring voters that his administration wouldn't leave disaster victims in the lurch. The public's attention is locked on the devastation caused by Sandy at a time when Romney and President Barack Obama are locked in a close presidential campaign. With Obama heavily involved in getting federal funds to those in trouble, the Romney campaign moved quickly to reassure the public it supports a strong program of storm relief.

"I believe that FEMA plays a key role in working with states and localities to prepare for and respond to natural disasters," Romney said in a statement supplied by his campaign Wednesday. "As president, I will ensure FEMA has the funding it needs to fulfill its mission, while directing maximum resources to the first responders who work tirelessly to help those in need, because states and localities are in the best position to get aid to the individuals and communities affected by natural disasters."

Wednesday's statement came after the candidate ducked a spate of opportunities Tuesday to personally clarify his position and the statement essentially endorsed the current disaster aid system.

But what the campaign wouldn't do is say whether a President Romney would insist that help for disaster victims be funded by cutting other programs in the federal budget, as many conservative Republicans insist.

Running mate Paul Ryan is squarely on the side of cutting other spending to pay for disasters. Earlier this year, he tried but failed to scrap a new system, established in the 2011 debt ceiling-deficit cuts deal, that boosts disaster spending and budgets help for victims of hurricanes, tornadoes and floods before they occur. House leaders rebuffed him, siding with Appropriations Committee members of both parties who like the new system.

What Ryan proposed is that when disaster strikes, lawmakers first scour the rest of the budget for savings to pay for rebuilding homes, roads and schools and helping small businesses.

That's easier said than done, especially since it can mean delays in getting aid out the door. Disasters like Hurricane Katrina – and perhaps Sandy – can prove so costly that it's difficult to find cuts in other programs big enough to pay for the aid.

As has been shown time after time – especially as tornadoes and hurricanes rip through politically conservative states – even the sturdiest tea party supporters become fans of government when it's doling out money to storm victims for motel rooms and other temporary housing or helping with house repairs.

That role fell Tuesday to New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie, who was effusive in his praise for Obama and the federal government's initial response.

"The president has been outstanding in this and so have the folks at FEMA," Christie said on NBC's "Today."

It'll take several weeks to come up with damage cost estimates to determine whether FEMA's main disaster account will need more money.

FEMA has enough cash available to deal with immediate disaster relief, almost $8 billion, thanks to a six-month government funding bill passed in September and the new disaster financing system.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/31/mitt-romney-sandy_n_2049852.html

[joan1984]

President Obama is getting some good reviews, and some are saying "game changer", from only two days of folks seeing him doing his job. The contrast to what he has been doing is that stark.

Thought he already had the election in the bag, so what is the "game change"? Maybe helps to bring his voters to the polls.

[joan1984]

Obama Hit By Storm Backlash
By Dick Morris on November 3, 2012

Natural disasters usually follow the same political trajectory: First the incumbent experiences a bounce as he tours the impacted area, shows his concern, and pledges help to his beleaguered constituents. But then reality sets in and the shortages, delays, mishaps, deaths, and devastation becomes apparent and people turn against the incumbent.

George W. Bush had his Katrina.

And now Barack Obama has his Sandy.

Last week, Obama asserted a kind of ownership of the storm by touring New Jersey in the now infamous embrace of Republican stalwart Governor Chris Christie. Now that we are all appalled by the lack of food, gas, water, heat, and the basic essentials of life throughout the storm zone, Obama’s government doesn’t look so good anymore.

Why didn’t FEMA stockpile food, water, and gasoline? We had a week’s notice to prepare for Sandy. There was no shortage of time. Did the government not realize that people needed to eat, drink, and drive?

All throughout America, we are asking these questions of our television sets as we watch the evolving story of human misery.

Meanwhile, Obama has resumed the campaign trail, pounding the opposition in the same relentless and partisan style which he used before the storm. When Obama said that voting was “the best revenge,” he threw away whatever presidentiality he displayed in touring storm damage earlier in the week.

As he entered the last week before the Congressional election of 1994, President Clinton returned to the U.S. after having presided over the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. He called me on his return and asked where he should campaign? Which incumbent Democrats should he try to help get re-elected?

I told him he should not campaign for any of them.

“No, you don’t understand,” he explained. I just came back from the Middle East and my ratings are up ten points. Before, I would have hurt the candidates I campaigned for, but not now. Now I can help them.”

“Your ratings are up because your trip hyped your presidentiality. Now, if you start campaigning, you’ll look like a politician and your ratings will come down again. You’ll end up doing more harm than good to those you are trying to help.”

He disregarded the advice and lost both houses of Congress in the elections.

Now Obama is making the same mistake. By campaigning, particularly by using the same harsh partisan rhetoric which has characterized his campaign, Obama is dragging down his ratings and with it his chances of victory.

Particularly when we see the juxtaposition of the mounting disaster in New York and New Jersey and the President out on the campaign trail attacking his opponents, we realize that Obama is a candidate before he is president, more worried about his second term than the welfare of his constituents.

In yesterday’s polling numbers, I saw a rise in Obama’s ratings and warned that the race was far from over. Now, we see him throwing it all away and resuming his crash into a single term presidency.

http://www.dickmorris.com/obama-hit-by-storm-backlash/

[Athos131]

Why didn’t FEMA stockpile food, water, and gasoline? We had a week’s notice to prepare for Sandy. There was no shortage of time. Did the government not realize that people needed to eat, drink, and drive?

Odd, I thought FEMA was bad according to Govenor Romney.

[Gina Marie]

Obama Hit By Storm Backlash
By Dick Morris on November 3, 2012

I'm surprised - I thought for sure there would be some Breithate posted by you... you went with DICK!

[Athos131]

Man Behind FEMA’s Makeover Built Philosophy on Preparation

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/us/the-man-behind-femas-post-katrina-makeover.html?pagewanted=1&smid=tw-share

WASHINGTON — America may know W. Craig Fugate as the slightly weary-looking guy on CNN explaining the ins and outs of flood insurance. But in the world of emergency management, he is known for his Waffle House matrix.

 Mr. Fugate, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, learned in his many years of battling natural disasters that fully operational Waffle Houses mean that a community is doing O.K. But if those same restaurants are serving half menus, it means that power has been lost. And if their doors are closed, it signifies that things are really bad.

“It’s a shorthand for us to get in there and quickly get a snapshot,” Mr. Fugate said Friday in an interview at FEMA headquarters in Washington. “Is the Waffle House open? Everything normal there?”

Mr. Fugate acknowledges that the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy poses a challenge to the Waffle House matrix because the chain, popular in the South, has so few restaurants in the Northeast. In place of Waffle Houses, he said, he has looked to Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts as bellwethers, but he said he did not believe that they had the same philosophies about reopening quickly.

“Waffle House has a very simple operational philosophy: get open. They never close. They run 24 hours a day,” he said. “They have a corporate philosophy that if there is a hurricane or a storm, they try and get their stores open. It don’t matter if they don’t have power, it don’t matter if you don’t have gas. They have procedures that if they can get a generator in there, they’ll get going. They’ll make coffee with bottled water.”

After the agency’s poor handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, FEMA was the Homer Simpson of federal agencies, a symbol of pitiful incompetence. The storm even created a national punch line after President George W. Bush said at a news conference that his FEMA director, Michael D. Brown, was doing a “heck of a job” even as the agency was bungling its response.

While FEMA is still viewed with caution — and in some places in New York City in the last week, with continued scorn — Mr. Fugate has done much to shore up its image. That is in part simply through self-flagellation, as he races around storm-savaged regions, ticks off statistics about water levels and procures baby formula for a mother in need.

Mr. Fugate — or Mr. Emergency Management, as President Obama referred to him last week — is a straightforward, honey-toned former director of Florida emergency operations who judges the post-storm condition of communities by the viability of their local economic activity. His hyper-focus on local preparation long before disasters hit has been the key to his success, according to several people who have worked with him.

“He speaks the language of first responders because he was one of them,” said Alan Rubin, who oversaw Florida’s economic recovery after Hurricane Andrew. “He doesn’t have to be brought up to speed on what FEMA can do and when they can do it.”

In an administration long on Ivy League degrees and Washington pedigrees, Mr. Fugate, who wears cowboy boots, stands out. Both of his parents died before he graduated from high school. He never finished college, started out as a paramedic and spent most of his career in Florida.

“He is very down to earth, and that always helped him out a lot,” said Dwayne Phillips, an information technology expert who worked at FEMA when Mr. Fugate was the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, a job he held until 2009, when Mr. Obama appointed him to run FEMA. Citing Mr. Fugate’s Waffle House theory, Mr. Phillips said: “He would talk about stuff like that, and had this ‘O.K., that’s a problem, let’s address it and move on forward’ way about him. He doesn’t get caught up in the weeds.”

Mr. Fugate is known for his “lightning bolt” drills, in which he surprises employees midday with a fake disaster and forces them to respond. He peppers each day with a short phrase to keep responders focused. On Friday, he was pushing “People, Power and Pumps.” He is known in the field for positioning equipment ahead of time so that states know immediately how many cots and water bottles are needed when a disaster hits, which proved a huge problem during Hurricane Katrina.

As people in New York and New Jersey on Thursday and Friday remained without power and struggled to find fuel to fill their cars and generators, reports emerged that some were angrily denouncing FEMA as responding too slowly in the aftermath of the hurricane.

 “It’s part of how people cope,” Mr. Fugate said of the anger toward FEMA. “I don’t care that they don’t understand FEMA, and I’m not going to defend it and say you shouldn’t be mad at us. It’s a natural part of it. They get frustrated, and they are going to get angry. I need to acknowledge that, but I need to focus on what are their needs and are we taking care of their needs longer term.”

FEMA’s programs, Mr. Fugate said, were really designed to deal with a disaster several days after it occurred and to provide the local authorities and first responders with capabilities and equipment that they did not have. The agency may provide financial aid, water removal specialists and advanced search and rescue teams.

“Because we always talk about FEMA so much,” he said, “I think the general public assumes we are part of the response team that will be there the first couple of days.”

While a vast majority of Obama appointees have drawn sharp criticism from Republicans in Congress, Mr. Fugate has managed to impress members of the committees that oversee FEMA, who say he testifies without notes and worked his way from the ground up in Florida, a state well versed in disasters.

“I would call him apolitical,” said one aide to the House Appropriations Committee who is not permitted to speak to the news media, pointing to an absence of criticism of the agency in Alabama, a deeply conservative state, after tornadoes hit there last year. “He can be very direct, but our members respect him, bottom line.”

Mr. Fugate, 52, got his start in emergency response as a volunteer firefighter and paramedic in Alachua County, Fla., and then made his way through the administrative ranks, becoming the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management in 2001. He has won several awards in the field and was named to the National Guard Association of Florida Hall of Fame in 2006.

At the end of the Bush administration, he was interviewed to be the head of FEMA — the acting director, R. David Paulison, ended up getting the job — and he said later in an interview that it was a post he would ponder with trepidation. He told a reporter, “A lot of people are looking at what Mike Brown went through” and believed it was “not a good encouragement for people to put their professional careers on the line.”

Mr. Fugate has said several times that he is not satisfied with FEMA’s response in New York and New Jersey and would not be until all residents had power, water and a means of transportation.

But he did allow himself a tad of self-defense last week when Mr. Brown, his predecessor, criticized the administration for predetermining states as disaster areas. “Better to be fast than to be late,” Mr. Fugate told an NPR reporter in an interview.

At a conference for emergency workers, Mr. Fugate said, “If you know me, I don’t sound like many people from Washington,” and emphasized the importance of strong building codes and risk management before disasters strike. “Mitigation of natural disasters took a back seat to the threat of another terrorist attack” in recent years, he said.

[joan1984]

Angry New Yorkers say Obama pledge
to cut red tape ignored by FEMA
By Perry Chiaramonte

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiHr3PHRCKY
... the best speaker on this YouTube Vid starts at 6:49... Enjoy!

Storm-ravaged New Yorkers say President Obama’s promise to cut red tape and get them aid in the aftermath of Sandy has proven to be hot air.

"...Aiman Youssef, who has been living in a tent since the storm hit, said he is worried about health risks.

“FEMA ain’t doing nothing,” McGrath added. “They keep going around in circles.”

Angry citizens vented at FEMA officials at a town hall meeting held by the disaster relief agency Thursday, with tempers boiling over. Some 1,000 people, many left homeless by the Oct. 29 storm, attended the meeting at Staten Island’s New Dorp High School. They were initially scheduled to submit written questions that would be picked and answered at random, but the session turned into an angry shouting match where residents booed FEMA officials and accused them of lying.

    "I told the president … that FEMA was giving us the royal finger. And he said, ‘FEMA works for me.’”

- Scott McGrath, Staten Islander left homeless by superstorm Sandy.

“We are the people – we are the middle class, and we are getting the finger,” said frustrated resident Scott McGrath, who personally spoke to President Obama and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo when they came to Staten Island to inspect storm damage earlier this month. “You were there when I met Obama, and I told the president … that the middle class was getting the royal finger. And he said, ‘FEMA works for me.’”

“FEMA ain’t doing nothing,” McGrath added. “They keep going around in circles.”

The storm made landfall on the coast of southern New Jersey and traveled north, leaving a swath of death, destruction and darkness. Some 125 people were killed, including 48 in New York. It's been estimated that half of the city's deaths occurred in Staten Island. Millions were left without power for weeks by the storm, which also caused widespread gasoline shortages.

Obama addressed the nation from FEMA headquarters in Washington on Nov. 3, promising to cut red tape and bring the full force of FEMA to hard-hit residents.

"What I told the governors and the mayors is what I've been saying to my team since the start of this event, and that is we don't have any patience for bureaucracy, we don't have any patience for red tape, and we want to make sure that we are figuring out a way to get to yes, as opposed to no, when it comes to these problems," Obama said.

On Nov. 15, Obama came to Staten Island, where he repeated his pledge.

A top FEMA official said agency workers understand the public's frustration, but he defended their performance in the wake of the storm.

"We have already put $700 million directly in the hands of victims," Michael Bryne, federal coordinating officer for FEMA told FoxNews.com. "In my opinion, I think that reflects a minimum of red tape.

"In the days after, we surveyed the damage from helicopter and for every home we found completely damaged, we immediately sent a couple months' of rent assistance before we even had inspectors on the ground," he added.

Byrne said more help his on the way, adding that the agency has 3,000 families enrolled in its shelter program and is working with the city on providing a rapid repair program to help get people back in their homes while longer-term repairs are completed.

Thursday's meeting was organized by Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro, many of whose constituents have been left without homes, food or clothing. The auditorium was so crowded that many people were turned away at the door. FEMA officials dutifully absorbed the gripes, took down contact information and promised to meet privately with homeowners.

But residents showed little confidence that the agency would help, and they said they've been left to fend for themselves.

“Our communities are helping," said Nicole Chati, to cheers from the audience. "Red Cross comes by, rings our bell, says, ‘Come get a hot meal’ and leaves. We help each other and that’s what we want to do, but we need your support.

“These people are frustrated," she added. "Lives were lost. My house ... I can rebuild my house. My neighbor is dead.”

Aiman Youssef, who has been living in a tent since the storm hit, said he is worried about health risks.

“The air quality in this town is very bad," he said. "We are sick. What can you do about it?”