The flooding facing the Midwest this year is the worst we’ve seen in years and it’s not over yet. Meteorologists are saying that the flooding will continue until the end of May and will probably spread far beyond its current boundaries. A large part of the nation’s “bread basket” will be untellable this year, causing food prices to rise and many farmers to go bankrupt.
This flooding, like most flooding, came about due to an aberration in the weather. Heavy spring rainfall, falling on a heavy winter snow accumulation, has caused rivers to overflow their banks. Levees, which had been built as protection from such an event, turned out to be inadequate to the task, as the rivers rose more than 10 feet in some places. These high waters overflowed the levees, causing them to rupture.
Many farmers were faced with the equivalent to a flash flood, as walls of water swept across their lands, making it impossible to do anything to protect their crops, stored harvests and livestock. In some cases, grain silos were ruptured and in many others animals were drowned.
But that’s not all. Unlike other floods, this one is staying around. Countless farmers are sitting on their laurels, waiting for the floodwaters to abate. They can’t even begin to evaluate the damage and restore their farms until the flood waters abate. By that time, chances are they won’t be able to plant in time to have a harvest this year.
Related: 8 Items That Disappeared Immediately after Hurricane Harvey
FEMA’s Sad History
FEMA, the federal government’s emergency management agency, has anything but a sterling reputation. Created in 1979, under an executive order by then-president Jimmy Carter, this showcase agency is supposed to be the gateway to all sorts of government assistance, in the case of any emergency, such as natural disasters.
Sadly, especially for those who have had to rely on their services, FEMA has shown themselves to be more of a gateway to government red tape, than to government aid. While there have been people who have been helped by the agency, it hasn’t been without a lot of work and a lot of frustration. For the farmers caught in the flooding happening in the Midwest, it’s more of the frustration than anything else.
FEMA’s first major debut upon the national stage was Hurricane Katrina, even though the agency had been in existence for more than two decades by then. While they passed out millions of federal tax dollars to those who had lost their home and spent millions more on temporary shelter and other disaster relief, they were late arriving and slow setting up.
Seven years later, Superstorm Sandy hit the New Jersey coast. Many of us erroneously thought that FEMA would have used the years to improve their procedures and training, preparing to better manage a disaster the size of Katrina. But we were sadly mistaken, as FEMA didn’t do any better in helping the people hurt by Hurricane Sandy, than they did with Hurricane Katrina.
One clear example I personally saw about this was that FEMA didn’t even put out requests for quote (known as RFQs) on basic items like bottled water for Superstorm Sandy relief efforts until the day after the storm wiped out the New Jersey shoreline. I have no idea how quickly that water arrived, but I’m sure a number of non-profit agencies beat them to the punch, getting food and water to that area before the people died of dehydration.
A few months later, there was an earthquake somewhere in Kansas, devastating a small town. By the time FEMA arrived, non-profit organizations were already on hand, providing food and water to the townspeople. Their response to FEMA’s offer of help… “Thanks, but no thanks.”
To be fair to FEMA, they have become the public’s scapegoat agency for anything and everything that has to do with a disaster. They can’t even begin to react until the president declares a state of emergency. Not only that, but we seem to forget that there’s nothing in the Constitution that says that the federal government has to rush in and provide aid after a disaster strikes. For most of our country’s history; they didn’t. Any disaster relief that existed was either on a local level or came from non-profit organizations.
Related: Find Out What Areas Would Be Targeted by FEMA When SHTF (they’ll take your supplies)
In the Current Situation
In many ways, the current situation caused by flooding in the Midwest is unique. While it is not the first time that our country has had to deal with flooding, nor is it the first time there was flooding in the Midwest; but the flooding that is currently occurring is much more widespread, hurting many more farmers, than anything our country has faced before.
Many farms are underwater, totally flooded, with only the roofs of the farm buildings peeking above the waters. Extensive damage to everything involved in the farmers’ lives and the workings of their farms has already happened, and it’s not over yet. Farmers in the affected areas can expect the flooding to continue for about two more months, as snows continue to melt.
What this means in practical terms is that hundreds of millions of dollars in stored grain and livestock have already been lost, with more to come. On some farms, hundreds, if not thousands of hogs or cattle were abandoned to their own fate, when the flood waters rushed in. Unprepared farmers could do nothing to save their livestock, as they struggled to save their own lives. Considering that flooding is expected to continue until sometime in May, chances are that most of these farmers won’t be able to plant at all this year, adding to their financial loss.
These farmers were already struggling and have been since facing the last round of flooding in 2011. In addition, market conditions have made things rough for farmers the last several years, as proven out by Midwestern farm bankruptcies being up by 19 percent in 2018, compared to the previous year.
Once the waters subside, massive cleanup and repair efforts will need to be undertaken, before farmers can even think about getting back to normal operations. Some estimates say that as many as half of them will be forced to declare bankruptcy and shut down their farms.
Related: 16 Items FEMA Tells You to Stockpile and Why
Can FEMA Help?
The only way many of these farms will be able to stay in operation, is through a major infusion of cash. Whether that comes from insurance, through FEMA or from the US Farm Service Agency, chances are that it won’t be enough. While financial assistance does exist, it is never a 100 percent reimbursement for losses. Yet to these already struggling farmers, anything less will make it financially impossible for them to rebuild their farms and restart operations.
Making matters worse, FEMA has already gone through their allotted budget for disaster relief efforts. It is quite possible that they don’t even have the money needed to help these farmers. If the Farm Services Agency is in the same boat, the options for these farmers are disappearing quickly. Mops and buckets to help with the cleanup isn’t going to do much good in overcoming the loses these farmers face.
To make matters even worse than that, many people in this area, including some farmers, already have a bad taste in their mount from FEMA. The federal agency is already seeking recovery of money paid out to 5,500 people who were supposedly paid too much since 2005, during previous disasters.
For many of these people, aid from FEMA was the only thing that managed to keep them going, after flooding destroyed their homes. Now, while they are still struggling to get back on their feet, FEMA is sending them a bill and they don’t have the money to pay FEMA back.
Granted, our government needs to be accountable with our tax dollars. There have been too many cases where one department of the federal government or another has misused our tax dollars. From that point of view, it’s nice to see that FEMA is at least trying to be responsible. But this is the wrong way to do it. Going after people, telling them to pay money back that they’ve already spent, because government bureaucrats made mistakes is just plain wrong. It’s no wonder that people in the Midwest are saying, “FEMA is worthless.”
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Seems to me that there has been “a movement” going on for the last few decades that tells us “if something really bad happens, the government has our backs.”
Why on earth is this the case? The government would better serve the public (and save the tax payers a lot of money) by promoting self reliance. It isn’t hard, nor expensive to inform the public to take steps to help themselves. Before FEMA came along, we managed. The private sector can run circles around anything FEMA can do, and at a fraction of the cost. Neighbors, churches, organizations like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, and insurance companies are the backbone for immediate support and recovery; not FEMA.
Promote self reliance, instead of looking to Uncle Sam when things go south.
You’re not correct.
When something bad happens it’s not that the government “has your back,” it’s that the government “turns its back.”
First, I would like to say that I don’t have much faith in the majority of our elected officials. I think most of them have a hidden agenda and are in office purely to personally profit from it. With that said, I totally agree with you in that we all should be responsible for ourselves and plan ahead as best we can for a crisis. My understanding of FEMA since it started is that they are there to help individuals who flood through the purchase of flood insurance. I do not live in a flood zone but I believe in taking care of and being responsible for myself and my belongings. I purchased the FEMA flood insurance when it first started up in ’79. I didn’t purchase it because I had a fear of flooding, I purchased it for the same reason I purchase homeowners insurance. I wanted to be covered for anything that might happen to my home. In fact, I am insurance poor, I don’t have money to throw around but I save and scrape to save money so I can pay for insurance to cover me with any catastrophic loss I might have. I lived in my home for 32 years without having to deal with a flood and I do not live in a flood zone. Hurricane Isaac hit in August 2012 and put 6 inches of water in my home. My home flooded again in March 2016. Both times, and because I had flood insurance through FEMA, my home was repaired and I was back in it just a little over 6 months in each case. Although it was an extremely stressful time for me, because I had FEMA insurance, I was taken care of.
FEMA does promote preparedness. They don’t get as far into the weeds as those of us that visit sites like this one, but for those that don’t really think about preparedness, it is not bad.
https://www.ready.gov/
If you look into it, that is exactly what FEMA has done over those years: implement programs that train and rely upon communities to become prepared, resilient, and our own first responders. It does make sense, as you say, and that is the response plan: NGOs have formal partnerships with FEMA and agree to their role, as a pre-planned, organized part of an effetive response, along with many other local groups and agencies who have taken the time to become involved and take part, rather than wait for someone else to step in and do it for them.
Delusional much? People have always needed help and gotten help. The problem here is how extremely incompetent FEMA has always been and how little help they have provided. The Federal government is totally unnecessary, if it wasn’t because it’s supposed to help the collective of states USING OUR MONEY. People in theory should be helped with said money, when there are catastrophes.Then you mention the most useless, worthless organization as a “backbone” that according to you is somehow helping? In case you don’t know that is the American Red Cross. A bunch of crooks that waste more money in their parties to collect funds than the funds they collect. Get really even during WWI and WWII, the soldiers had to pay for their coffee. Nothing has changed. They are the last in the scene. The first are the Salvation Army and the two groups with zero publicity: Mormons and the Amish/Mennonite organizations and they actually help rebuild, after feeding people. Those two groups do not ask for donations, they are funded by their own members. As to insurance companies, I suggest a nice comfortable sofa because you may spend months or years sleeping in one before you get paid back what you paid them. So exactly what did you think Uncle Sam was there for, the 4th of July? People should have brains of their own to figure out that “self reliance” thing, after all their grandparents and great grand parents did. Once you reach 12 you should be able to figure it out on your own. Stop giving excuses for the people who take our money. Maybe you don’t pay taxes, but most of us do. Did you know that the Red Cross is NOT required to use the funds on the disaster they collect funds for? I suggest you spend a few months doing research of their “help” and their self imposed “rules”. They even charge for the blood people donate.
I agree with you one hundred percent! And I would add that the Salvation Army also has a dubious track record, at least in the Brockton, Ma. location. After 9/11 they were soliciting donations of money, food and clothing for the first responders. Many of these donations were then taken and sold in the thrift shops, especially the main store in Brockton, Ma connected to the distribution center. I know a person who worked for them who I trust who told me this. There are also stories of valuable donations that were diverted to the Captain’s home.
That being said, this is only one location, and one administrator. Things may be a lot different from location to location and they do lead well organized relief efforts.
Make donations only after thoroughly checking the overall reputation of the charity.
The government want everybody to be dependant on them, this is so they will know exactly what you have and where it came from. The government knows for a fact that preppers are undermining their authority, this is something they can’t abide.
Never depend on or trust “government”. They are good for one thing, waste. Abolish all thes beurocratic entities and put the tax money into private organizations as subsidies with oversight committees and things will get done in the private sector. Jail is a great deterrent to do the right thing. Non profit organizations handling the crisis who actually give a crap about the people who are suffering. My goodness just the money that is spent to staff the beirocrats known as FEMA is staggering let alone to supply with food and water and medical and shelter needs of victims are lessened.
FEMA is just another creation for govt. control and an avenue to create jobs. Like war on drugs, poverty, etc.
I’ll take my chances either on my own or with the help of family, friends, and the local church/red cross before I’d go with fema.
Any chance of a real English speaking editor could hit this (and future) article(s). It (they) would end up shorter (and easier to read). Editing seems a bygone art (as is reporting since H. L. Mencken).
Yep, when SHTF we sure are going to be worried about our grammatical skills and proofreading. I apologize, I felt the need to interject.
This article was written HOW????? long after the disaster? You imply it was written in the middle of it. Now, that’s not accurate (or smart)
Food and water and security will matter before grammatical correctness. Just sayin
Yea! Your reply is a perfect example why!
Yeah because HL Mencken is such a well known and relevant expert on responding to a disaster.
Well, Hacksaw, a reporter is not supposed to be an expert in the subject matter or have you been getting your news from CNN, those “experts” on everything FAKE.
That many sets of parentheses within one paragraph may be tactically correct, but strategically, it is nothing short of barbaric.
Now with that said, I won’t go medieval on either you or the author of the article, because IMO it’s defensible to allow grammatical standards for Web postings to be lower than for a published book. Further still down the sliding scale are combox entries following such Web postings.
I admit, though, that I laugh when I read text apparently written with the help of Dragon, autocorrect, or some equivalent, when the speaker or typer garbles something and produces an unintentionally hilarious result. Other times, it appears that Dragon or autocorrect doesn’t know the word in question and substitutes one that it does know in its place, again frequently resulting in a head-scratcher.
Black Swan, love your comment!
I have never understood the disdain certain folk show for correct grammar, spelling and word usage. Perhaps it is a reversion to the many immigrants who arrived on these shores being able to neither read nor write. Many last name spellings in this country are due to semi-illiterate immigration officials making a stab at how they thought the recent arrival spelled his or her last name because the freshly arrived immigrant could not write his own name and certainly had no idea himself how it was spelled.
We have such powerful use of the English language in the writings of our Founding Fathers that it makes me wonder where we took the left turn. Is it all part of the scheme of the socialists to denigrate the richness of the English language? They seem bent on changing the meaning of historic words and phrases.
Whether you agree with their politics or not, reading the prose of great writers such as William F. Buckley, Jr. or Winston Churchill is so refreshing. The words flow with a majestic feeling. I agree with Mr. Redman. While this article is a stirring diatribe against federal agencies, it loses its effect with the incorrect word usage and just plain typos.
Any writing replete with such errors loses the impact the author intended.
Ten don’t read it you ungrateful Moron ! how much did you pay for the information ? ignoramus !
Dang, don’t just drop in to a website and attack people you know nothing about. Take a couple minutes to think things through and then make a positive contribution to the talk.
Ivy, a friend of mine once told me, “What’s in the well, comes up in the bucket.”
We all need to keep that in mind when a rude comment enters the conversation.
Are we going to hear from the grammer police on every article? How about if we take what we can from the information and enjoy the discussion.
What? Did you flunk English or do you have issues concentrating? Some article can be short, others long, depending on what they are discussing. This is not 4 Minute Books or CliffsNotes. Since you want editing to make reading easier, let me oblige. “Please edit the article to make it shorter. Editing seems a bygone art.” I left the second sentence in, being that I have a degree in English literature (among others) and agree. Hint, dear, real English language writers tend to be wordy. You should read some of my posts (on YouTube), you would fall asleep, which is usually my goal, when responding to fools.
FEMA = Fix Everything My Ass! It is sad to see the waste and abuse of government services. Non-profit agencies are better organized and implemented. And we heard from our tax preparer this year that those that claimed losses after the floods here in Tennessee were basically told by IRS agents “it sucks to be you” and “you should have got flood insurance”, even though they weren’t in a flood zone and the flooding was even greater than the 100 year flood models! Meanwhile Democrats are railing on Trump because he said he’d bus the illegal aliens to sanctuary cities that are in defiance to US laws! Unbelievable! And the band plays on while the Titanic slips under the water…
I own and have 9 acres of West Texas dirt! And even though it is in West Texas, before buying any property, I always check to see what the flood plane rating is. Mine is located in flood plane X, and is 2,912 ‘ above sea-level. I have never been able to understand why anyone wound buy and/or build a home/business below sea-level, a few hundred yards from an ocean or lake, then when it rains and floods, expect FEMA to pay for the damages?!
I do understand and believe that FEMA should assist with certain other natural and that are basically unpreventable. And I do believe that FEMA is “broken”!
Most of the economic generating heart of any nation is located along coastlines or in land around waterways. Farmland is much richer in flood zones. Even small waterways are often inundated these days as forests are cut to make way for houses in large urban areas, and basements in houses well inland are flooded.
Most of the civilized earth is in a coastal area, riverine area, or abutting a stream. All are
threatened by flooding.
This is to say that floods are a fact of life, and are unavoidable for the vast majority of humanity.
I live on the coast, so I have seen this first hand. People want the view and the cool breezes off the water, then whine when, inevitably, a bad storm causes beach erosion and flooding that destroys their house.
On the other hand, flooding can happen almost anywhere if it rains enough and infrastructure is unable to divert the water.
“FEMA”…Created in 1979. Another Government organization designed to help people that are unable to help themselves. Sorry, but those people need to quit farming. Your ancestors didn’t have “FEMA” and they made it through the tough times with hard work.
Good farmers have been self-reliant since the 1700’s in the United States. My farming family sure has been. Like most everyone farming in our area, we save for the bad times and take care of ourselves. People need to relearn self reliance again and quit putting their hands out to the government when disaster strikes. If you can’t afford to bail yourself out of a bad year, you need to sell the farm and move to the city where you belong.
Yeah….. you should probably complain next why the small family farms are dead and only big corporations one still run around. I don’t mind helping the farmer. Hell we bailed out 5th he corrupt banks who didn’t need it.
i have been angered by the lack of help and coverage that this epic flood disaster. Out of sight – out of mind. Our political leadership should have been on location bringing attention to this epic flood and the dire circumstances. FEMA, spare me. Tired of tweets and Washington bickering and intrigue. Most of us at th4 grass root level even if we often disagree usually ban together to help each other and those is need but in times like this our government agencies which work for us and are paid for by our taxes need to get off their asses and hope promote the general welfare of the people in times like there.
FEMA is supposed to be working with the states, not individual or group victims. They fail, like in Louisiana, when the state government doesn’t take charge of state relief efforts. And, if as one commentor mentioned, they’re out of money, it says there’s even more they can’t do. Local help, local people banding together, is a heck of a lot more reliable than any federal government agency.
I used FEMA after my home was hit by hurricane Irma. What a waste of my time and gas. I was asked to meet a representative three times at my home. Once they never showed or called me to reschedule. I paid my insurance company over 8 thousand dollars for my portion of the dammage. FEMA didn’t help me with one penny of assistance. All they did was waste my time waiting for them to show up at my home and wasted my gas meeting them. FEMA is a big joke if they help anybody they make you suffer first.
local govt does the best job with our tax monies–and we can see what they are doing and have tangible benefits–roads, schools, fire and police services, libraries, etc. the state is a little further away, they take more money and it is harder to see if they are spending it wisely. the fed takes the most money, is the furthest away and i really can’t see what they do with our tax money.
Local and state waste our money on schools. Why people who rent get to vote on anything that raises property taxes is a crime.
The small town in Kansas was wiped out by a tornado whose epicenter ran right through the middle of that gown. I believe the name of the town was Greenfield, KS. We had visited that town on a Bike Across Kansas ride. It was a charming small town with a huge artesian well in the middle of the town. And the author is right. By the time FEMA arrived, the town, with the help of neighboring small towns, was on the way to recovery. Because we had visited the town, we were especially interested in news from the town which we followed as closely as possible on the left coast for which the middle of America hardly exists.
As Ronald Reagan is quoted as saying, “The scariest words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.'”
We visited New Orleans as the first tour group to visit New Orleans after Katrina. Again, another bike ride trip. Because we were the first tour group to book into New Orleans after Katrina we got a royal welcome form the Chamber of Commerce and the Visitors’ Bureau. We also got a real earful from the citizens of New Orleans. Any time we visit a new city we get on a bus or streetcar and ride to the end and then come back. Usually by the end of the line the bus/streetcar is empty and the driver will inquire where we are going. We tell him or her we are taking an economy tour of the city. In NO, the trolley emptied out quickly and we had a long chat with the operator. He was ready to rebuild but couldn’t because the feds and the local government couldn’t decide on new building code regulations to prevent another Katrina disaster (Ha! Good Luck with that). So he was still camping out waiting for the Corps of Engineers and the local board of commissioners or whatever the local governing body called themselves worked out their differences over new building code regulations. This was a whole year and then some after the storm.
I have great empathy for the farmers in the midwest as they will also be subject to miles and miles of red tape between the feds and the locals as they try to out macho each other.
I don’t think the farmers in the midwest are sitting on their laurels. That implies that they are deliberately doing nothing based on past success. I think they are stymied in any efforts they might immediately undertake to ameliorate the dire situation they find themselves in. Until the flood waters recede and the threat of additional flooding dissipates, there is little they can do or should do, aside from trying to pump water from not-too-flooded areas and perhaps more sandbagging to protect fields not currently flooded.
The track record alone of this agency isn’t good. What many fail to understand is that the govt., and it’s related agencies are simply not going to come to the rescue–plain & simple. State agencies, and federal agencies have literally wated their funding on God knows what, but if anyone is counting on Uncle Sam coming to the rescue when the weather, and other things totally fall apart–I’ll give you some loose change–just so you can buy a clue. If & when a scenario of civil unrest, or SHTF ever happens people who are fully counting on, and are fully dependant on the govt. are in for the worst they could ever imagine. I do not, and I will never advocate violence, and outright craziness. What I do advocate is that people within their communities get to know their neighbors, relay on one another, and help one another through all things–pulling together–sharing time, money, resources all within their own community. One never knows when they will need to knock on your neighbors door, and say–“Can you help me?”
Those with the “I” and “Me” mindset–unwilling to pull together, and help, and pull together now when things are going ok will soon learn when things get bad that it sucks being alone. Bad weather, fires, flooding, loss of a job, loss of a spouse, broken things around the house, on & on–we all need one another no matter what anyone would tell you. It pays to plan, help, and aid one another now–long before total desperation sets in, and you are standing their asking–“now what do I do?”
Agreed that it’s good to get to know your neighbors now, before disaster strikes, whether said disaster is large and permanent or smaller-sized and time-limited. You will have the added advantage of knowing the upstanders from the glommers in advance, and deciding how you will deal with both groups if they come knocking.
Let me be clear that the truly needy, such as a disabled or extremely elderly neighbor, or one who has been bankrupted by medical bills or whatever that were beyond their control, are not what I mean by “glommers”. I am referring to those who will take all they can from you, but wouldn’t give you a thin dime if you were the one in need. They are capable of either working or paying their way, but will choose to do neither if they can get what they want for free.
I guess I won’t let the glommers actually starve if the SHTF, but they better not come here begging very often–let them spread their sponging around! Nor will they get to stay here for a NY minute if their own place becomes uninhabitable.
“A large part of the nation’s “bread basket” will be untellable this year, causing food prices to rise and many farmers to go bankrupt.” Did the author mean *untellable*, or *untillable*? Both are probably true though. 🙁
Hey Chucky,
Writing is a form of communicting to others, and we (dropouts) can always count on someone like you to try and keep us from doing that as best we can! Its the elites favorite way of keeping us down!
Actually, I am trying to encourage communicating by using the correct words with correct spelling so that the intended actual meaning is conveyed rather than “untellable”. I guess the author means “untillable” but if I assume that is what he meant, I could be guessing wrong.
I seriously doubt the farmers are resting on their laurels. They may be sitting on pins and needles waiting for the flood waters to recede so that they can get to work repairing the damage done. After they get their farms back up and in good condition they might rest on their laurels but certainly not before.
It is the socialistic left who is constantly changing the meaning of plain English which makes me wonder whether the failure of our schools to teach mathematics and English is part of the overall socialistic plan to make everyone so dumbed down they accept what they are told.
That’s why they tell us that the people’s right to keep and bear arms doesn’t mean what it says. It says something entirely different. If you don’t know and understand clear English, you just might be gullible enough to accept their version of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
Good comeback. It is annoying to have to worry about grammar and punctuation when responding online but your point is well taken.
Too bad there is not a thumbs down option. I would give you one. I have known dropouts that can out write (correctly) people with a PhD in Literary Studies. They were dropouts for reasons beyond their control, but that did not mean they stopped learning. The favorite way of the elites keeping “us” down is the opposite, they dumb down the schools and as a result the people. Did you name yourself after the cartoon, the root or the Potter character? Just trying to figure your age. By the way, English is my second language and I had no problem following the article. Of course, I do tend to collect degrees and languages. Trying to learn Korean at 72. Disclaimer: I do have a “thing” for people who believe learning is a bad thing.
Mandrake the magician.;)
I’m in the midst of severe flood damage in Nebraska. FEMA is stopping us from repairing damage because we(local and state) have to kiss their asses to have any hope of Federal reimbursement of repairs. We can’t use inspected bridges that would be safe for cars/pickups to use and instead have to travel an addition 50-100 miles to go to work or see our doctors.The state by itself couldn’t possibly afford the billions in damages to roads, bridges, livestock and personal property damages. So we wait and jump through their hoops in hope of getting financial help in form of FEMA reimbursements of a minimum of 3 years down the road. God Bless all the private donations.
I believe the Govt is testing to see how far they can push the “obedience” of it’s pawns. If our local Govts. had any stones, they would clear the bridge of trash and allow light traffic to pass over them. But no…we have to be obedient little servants.
The Federal government has absolutely no Constitutional authority to help individuals who they do not have a contract with (think Military and government employees). When there is a disaster the State has to declare such and then ask the Feds for help. This was the problem with Katrina. State government froze and the Feds have no right to go into a State without invitation. Here in Nebraska help has been coming from all over. Farmers and ranchers across the country are sending feed, fencing, tools, food, clothing, cleaning materials and much more. You aren’t hearing about it because it does not support the agenda of “Government must save me” which is pushed by the MSM and others in the leftist camp. FEMA is here, in droves. The Agriculture Dept. is here too as is the Small Business Administration. They will do what they can in the days ahead since this disaster will take years to recover from. Roads, dams, bridges, and entire farms and ranches no longer exist. For some it will be the end of the line, for others it will be a monumental struggle but they will eventually overcome this disaster. When Ks. and Ok. had massive wild fires Ne. and other states sent them aid. That is being reciprocated. Unless you have grown up in and around agriculture country, you will never understand the mindset that exists here. People pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and get to work. Not 8 hour days 5 days a week, but for as long as it takes, along the way helping others as well. What happens in the cities and towns in the Omaha area will probably be a completely different situation. That is where you will find those whining for some government agency to come save them and make them whole again. I thought the whole idea of this website was to promote preparedness and self reliance. Self reliance means exactly that, not expecting help that may or may not get there in time to do any good. Don’t blame FEMA, and don’t blame the State, Don’t blame the County, and don’t blame the City. Bad things happen, and if you have not prepared for that, blame the person staring back at you from the mirror.
Once you accept money from someone that person or entity wants to tell you how to spend that money. It exists in person to person interchanges and it especially exists in government to person interchanges.
The guy next door to me right now lost his home int he December 2017 fires. It burned to the ground. The debris had to be hauled away. He told me that he already had a contract with a licensed “toxic waste” hauler to do the job for $26,000.00. Somehow, FEMA came in with their “toxins waste” hauler who became the only “approved” hauler for cleanup in the burn area. The “approved” hauler, according to the guy next door charged him $43,000.00 to clean up his lot. That means there is $17,000.00 less to finish reconstruction of his house, which, according to new code provisions hastily adopted by the city, cannot exceed the former height nor footprint of the old house. And, of course, the new house must meet all the current code provisions. If you had a single-car garage on your old house you now have to have a two-car garage. How you manage to shoehorn that into not exceeding the footprint of the old house leaves my mind awhirl. FEMA had a trailer here for three weeks. I don’t know what they did except to issue edicts about who could and could not work in the burn area.
People wanted to stay in their motor homes in front of their property while they sorted through the ashes to see what could be saved and to protect whatever was left from the looters that descended on the burn area like locusts on a wheat field. The city told them they couldn’t do that. The police would provide protection. The cops blocked off one road into our tract before it was officially “opened to habitation.” So everybody who came back before the official imprimatur to live here came in on the other streets that lead into the tract which apparently the cops didn’t know exist, although one street eventually runs by the county sheriff’s main office and jail.
One family whose citizenship is open to question was arrested and convicted of grand theft for stealing from burned out home. All the others, apparently got away without hinderance from law enforcement. Moral of the story: If your house isn’t burned, sneak back in and tell them you have been there all along. There’s probably more than way way to your house and the cops are just there for show.
They voted for this Orange Ignoramus who gave corporate welfare to the largest companies in the USA and this prepper page does nothing but kiss Trumps ass. I got no mercy.
Excuse me, correct me if I am wrong and name the presidente who did the deed, but didn’t Barry Obama bail out General Motors who repaid the major bailout by moving more manufacturing to Canada?
While GM isn’t what it used to be, it certainly fits my definition of “Big Business” But then American Motors got a “small business loan” from the LBJ administration before the Romney family decided to fold the company and throw thousands of auto workers out of work and start the slide of Detroit into the dustbin of manufacturing. I don’t remember how many thousands of workers American Motors had at the time but according the the regime in power they met the definition of “small business.”
I guess I am just a small thinker, but I always envisioned a small business as Jones Ford Agency with twenty mechanics and ten salesmen. Using the federal definition then, Bud Antle who owns or leases major portions of the San Joaquin Valley is a family farmer.
Talk about wrong, site! Sure, we could have voted for the female that STILL has Haiti’s money, almost 10 years after the huge earthquake, that destroyed that nation (which was considered the poorest of all poor nations, even before the destruction). I thought I was donating money to them, not to your candidate. Did you know that Haiti’s population is 95% Black? And you wonder why Trump? Of course you have no mercy, you are the female’s accomplice. I bet you sleep just fine. The people in Haiti, still have to rely on mud cookies to fill their bellies. (Type mud cookies for photos. There is one of a little child.)
To no mercy, what does that have to do with the subject of the article? And as far as I can tell, correct me if I’m wrong, nobody has commented on trump on this particular feed. It has been very helpful through the comments to help us learn how useless fema really is and the best way to help each other in an emergency. Do you have anything to offer as help or advice or wisdom we can all glean from or are you just going to rant about a topic that has nothing to what we are talking about?
As a former State Emergency Manager I worked directly with FEMA several time. I also attended FEMA and National Fire Academy course in Maryland many times. 20 years ago FEMA worked with the States as a training agency, helped develop large / state wide exercises and distributing money for disaster response. FEMA WASvery valuable to the states 20+ years ago.
perhaps if fema spent some of their firearms and ammo budget on shovels and sand bags, the public would be better served…..
MICHIGAN’S MITTEN: No hurricanes, no earthquakes, no catastrophic floods, rare & only minor tornadoes, no mudslides, no avalanches, no sinkholes; fairly mild summers, moderate winters, rich fertile soil, beautiful woodlands, freshwater seas without sharks; ALMOST HEAVEN! Do have big leftest cities (Detroit, Lansing, Flint) which slant government left, country folks mostly conservative; need more conservatives to move here & then it would be perfect!! Y’ALL COME!!
A lot of Muslims up your way. Can’t forget about that.
Only in limited areas around metro Detroit. Never see any around my kingdom of Huron Forest! ; ) They have not had too much effect here in Michigan.
I saw what works and what doesn’t work first hand almost two years ago when south Texas and parts of east Texas were ravaged by flooding. Things get done when individuals, local businesses, local churches , fire departments, people loving and caring for others in need. People getting their boats and going out to rescue total strangers but still their neighbors even though they lived a hundred miles away from each other. FEMA wanted to step in and confiscate the donations delivered to distribution centers and haul it to Houston and the sheriff had to step in and tell them to back down and don’t go over the the centers and bother them anymore. People were helped, fed, sheltered just like it should have been. Thousands chipped in and millions in food, water, clothes, medical supplies, cleaning supplies, personal hygiene supplies, toys, sleeping bags, pet food, feed for larger animals, small animal kennels, etc etc etc. Even Red Cross is a joke and you should not go to their shelters unless you have no other choice. They hoard donations given to them. Trust me folks, I saw all this with my own eyes. All you have to do is be willing to help and then do it when the need arises because it just might be you next time.
FEMA’s budget was placed under Homeland Security, that’s where the money is. Fighting make-believe terrorists and promoting a police state is big business. Most American’s fall for it every day. Just like fake wars and a Trillion dollar military budget. The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming.
The war machine makes a lot of money, has done for a long time, so we should always be ready for an attack, Pearl Harbor is not returning, the countries that hate us, do so because we interfer with their countries. Simple solution, let the war machine go broke, look after our people, stop being the world policeman.
Ask A Prepper does more for the American people that FEMA ever will.
Keep up the great work, Claude!!!
God Bless YOU!