The White House forwards along a message from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that calls for collective action in response to the winter storm that hit the Northeast last night.
"Everyone has a role to play in the response to this winter storm," says FEMA administrator Craig Fugate in the press release. "Follow the direction of your state, local and tribal officials, and if you are told to stay off the roads, stay home, and when it is safe, check on your neighbors or friends nearby who may need assistance or extra support. Older adults and individuals who are dependent on life-sustaining medical equipment or assistive devices such as a ventilator or mobility devices, may need additional support in areas that have lost power."
FEMA provides these "safety tips" to deal with the storm:
· Stay indoors during the storm.
· Walk carefully on snowy, icy walkways.
· Avoid overexertion when shoveling snow. If you must shovel snow, stretch before going outside.
· Keep dry. Change wet clothing frequently to prevent a loss of body heat.
· Use generators outdoors, away from doors, windows and vents.
· Check on your neighbors or friends nearby who may need assistance or extra support.
The rest of the release reads:
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its federal partners, including the National Weather Service, continue to closely monitor the major winter storm systems impacting theNortheast and developing across the Northern and Central Plains. FEMA's regional offices in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, New York City, and Philadelphia are in contact with state emergency management counterparts and with tribal emergency managers in the path of the storm. FEMA's National Response Coordination Center in Washington, D.C. continues to monitor the situation and hold regular operational briefings with regional and federal partners as the severe winter weather continues.
At the state's request, FEMA liaisons have been positioned in state emergency operations centers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York (both in Albany and New York City), Rhode Island, and Vermont. A National Incident Management Assistance Team is deploying to the Northeast to provide support if additional support is requested to help with emergency response coordination and other needs. These personnel are in addition to the joint state and federal field office staff already in place supporting ongoing disaster recovery efforts in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont following Hurricane Sandy. Other teams and personnel are ready to support, if needed and requested.
According to the National Weather Service, blizzard conditions, heavy snow and high winds are expected to continue today into tonight in portions of the Northeast and will produce moderate to locally major coastal flooding. The wet heavy snow may cause downed tree limbs and power lines, creating power outages. Additionally, the National Weather Service forecasts that snow, and in some areas, blizzard conditions are expected across parts of Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wyoming through the weekend into Monday, in some areas. ...
FEMA echoes the warnings issued by the National Weather Service and local elected officials in the affected region, and asks citizens and visitors in areas with severe winter storms to avoid all travel both during and immediately following the storm and to heed all advice and safety information provided by state, tribal and local emergency officials. Individuals in the path of the storm should monitor their NOAA weather radio and local weather forecast office or www.weather.gov for the latest information, including additional or changing weather watches and warnings.
A reporter today asked the White House why folks in New Jersey and New York still don't have power "weeks" after Hurricane Sandy:
"Well, I would point you to the substantial and fast effort that the president oversaw in terms of the federal response to this terrible storm," White House press secretary Jay Carney said, dodging the question. "And I think that that effort ... has been documented."
It has been a little more than a month since Hurricane Sandy made landfall and pounded the Atlantic shores of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. Within hours, government big dogs, the president included, were on the scene promising speedy and comprehensive relief. When they left to attend to campaigning and other business, the bureaucrats arrived and took over. Now, things proceed slowly and in the usual fashion.
As people in New York were suffering and hospitals were being evacuated, the New York Times editorial page seized the occasion to score political points: “Disaster coordination is one of the most vital functions of ‘big government,’ which is why Mitt Romney wants to eliminate it.” This was dishonest partisan spin.
President Obama comes to work, conducts a few conference calls on Hurricane Sandy, holds a press conference, and later travels to New Jersey to survey the damage caused by the storm. In doing so, he performs a job expected of him as president.
A host of liberal politicians and pundits have taken House Republican leader Eric Cantor to task for daring to insist that any disaster spending allocated to pay for the damage done by Hurricane Irene be offset in the budget elsewhere. They view Cantor as injecting politics into the country’s disaster management programs.
Today, in the Post Dana Milbank makes a fairly bold assertion:
Don’t expect anybody to throw a tea party, but Big Government finally got one right.
Milbank is, of course, talking about how the the federal government's response to Hurricane Irene was a smashing success. The hurricane hit landfall just ten miles off from where NOAA had predicted, and Milbank notes that FEMA and NOAA both got "high marks" for their response to the hurricane.
Michael D. Brown says he got a bad rap. With the statement, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” on September 2, 2005, George W. Bush made Brown, then director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the name and face of governmental incompetence after Hurricane Katrina tore through the Gulf Coast. Ten days later, Brown resigned.
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