Oddly enough
millions of midwesterners managed to deal with the “Disaster” and almost no federal funds or aircraft carriers full of supplies were required.
of course, none were forthcoming.
And nobody decided to rebuild the midwest as a “vanilla” city.
Could it be that Wingnuthead hates white people?
13 comments Og | Uncategorized
Ed Zachary!
Not white people, og, Americans…
Guess there are no white people in Missouri or Oklahoma. Who knew?
http://www.fema.gov/news/disasters.fema
Don’t they use phrases like “Snow Belt” to describe the Midwest in winter? Which implies that local govt plans and provides for winter storms in the natural course of events.
Other places, not so much snow — not so much ice, either — and it’s not an issue. For example, where I live in the Deep South my local jurisdiction only has like 75 snow plows. Which is normally sufficient for the area and the inch or two of snow we get once or twice a year but which is not at all adequate to half a foot of snow + an inch or two of ice on top of that. Which we just had and which closed us up for the better part of a week.
So we don’t budget or plan like, say, Chicago.
Feds offered funds, governor said no, we don’t need it. Guess there’s no white people here either.
Jenny
Jenny, either you completely missed my point or I don’t understand yours at all.
We had a storm that put the nawleans “disaster” into perspective; a huge portion of the country was involved, rather than a couple of parishes. There were a few differences; after Katrina, you could go outside in a teeshirt and not die in ten minutes.
The whole world heard how George Bush hated black people because he didn’t just make it all better right away. And not one person has suggested that Obama hates white people because he didn’t whip out his magic wand and make all the snow go away. And thousands of times more white people have been affected by the blizzard than blacks were affected by nawleans. Except we just shovelled out our drives and went on with our lives.
Chicago famously has far too few snowplows for the snow it gets. New York- have you seen the most excellent job Bloomberg is doing there? Detroit (You know, detroit? that big lake effect target on the eastern edge of the state of Michigan?) has NO snowplows, and relies heavily on private contractors for snow removal, not all of which are very prepared either, and state road crews. Our area has very little gummint supplied snow removal, most snow removal aside from major highways is done by private individuals.
The whole point being: Katrina hit, everyone looked for other people to fix thier shit. A blizzard covers ten midwestern states? Everyone deals with their own shit and moves on.
Where’s my trailor. Where’s my debit card.
It’s totally different and to equate a snowstorm that temporarily paralyzed a good part of the nation with something that nearly destroyed a city is truly apples and oranges.
Did your neighbor’s house get swept away in the snow? Bet not.
Jenny
No. My neighbor was smart enough not to build his house on a flood plain. But snow and ice do far more damage than hurricaines, they just do it slowly and expensively. Every midwesterner knows the cost of keeping a home winterized, in cash and labor. The cost to an average individual just in snow related roofing repairs is nightmarish, and I have never gottan a single gummind penny to help with that. Nor have I asked for one, which is the point.
Snow is expected in your neck of the woods. Once-in-a-hundred-year flooding is nothing anyone anticipates or plans for.
I dunno what might be going on where you are but here but both the local electric provider and the natural gas companies are touting government-sponsored programs that offer rebates and other financial incentives to make houses more energy efficient. This includes winterizing houses. Is this only available in Georgia?
Jenny
“Once-in-a-hundred-year flooding is nothing anyone ignorant anticipates or plans for”
There, I fixed it for you.
I have families that live in bottomland, and are flooded out every couple of years. They know this will happen, and are prepared for it. The cost of the occasional disruption to their lives is offset by the other benefits, for them. They have never asked for, nor received, a dime for anything that has ever happened to them, including the total destruction of their homes.
If you live in an area that must be protected by a levee, and you aren’t prepared for the worst, I have zero sympathy. If you live in that area and are not prepared and through your lack of preparedness expect me to make your life all better, then fuck you in the neck. if you live in that area and are unprepared and blame your lack of preparedness in a partisan manner on the government that is bending over backwards to help you, well, I don’t have words.
Comparing people who deliberately live in an area that is inherently dangerous and whine when they are harmed, to people who deal with potentially lethal weather on a regular basis is, indeed, comparing apples and oranges. The comparison wouild be meaningful if i lived in a tent in the middle of a pasture and when the blizzard came I only had a motorcycle and a thin blanket, and I bitched that the government didn’t do enough to help fix my life.
Every single “Victim” of Katrina chose to live where they lived. A very few were prepared for that, and I salute those who were, and I’m confident they are still doing OK.
The entire point of the post is that midwesterners are prepared for something that will inevitably happen, and when it does happen, we deal with it. When Katrina happened, which was just as inevitable, hardly anyone was prepared, and they all blamed their lack of preparedness on everyone else.
Jenny must be a red head and a step-child, og, ’cause you just beat her like one, heh, heh.
Jenny is an old and dear friend who I would neither insult nor injure in any way. We can disagree civilly, though.
I know the inevitable “catastrophes” which can (and will!) HAPPEN IN MY AREA. I have shelter from tornadoes, the ability to deal with significant snowfall, the ability to deal with the aftermath of ice storms (no power), etc. I chose my residence based upon it’s location above record rainfall induced flooding (in fact, I raised the level of my barn before building it based upon the levels of flooding in the area). If you can’t see more than the pretty neighborhood and the nice house, and are too lazy to check up on the historic flooding in the area, or other possible “disasters” then I have zero sympathy for you. I you can’t be bothered to prepare for the easily foreseen issues, then I have nothing but disgust for you.
It was only due to government subsidized flood insurance that the gulf coast was developed. Only when people could get insurance for their homes were the banks willing to lend money for the building of homes in the areas. Prior to that, no one would lend any money due to the risk.
We, as a nation, reward bad behavior too often. And always at the cost of the rest of the citizens. If you build in a flood plain, you should not have your risks mitigated at the cost of the rest of your fellow citizens. Nor should your rescue be free.
I built below sea level and was shocked SHOCKED when it filled with water.
Gimme mah monees.