FEMA'S SELECTIVE HELP

When there is a natural disaster, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Administration, key word here being emergency) is supposed to be set-up to help the state, or states, effected by said disaster. Every taxpayer's dollars help pay for this aid not just those in certain states.

It doesn't seem to work that way though. Some states find it very easy to get FEMA's help, while others are ignored.

On Wednesday, 28 September 2005, Fema announced that it would be giving California $1.2 million to help pay for the firefighting of the Topanga wildfire. This is not the first time that FEMA has sent aid to help pay for firefighting costs. They have done this for Nevada, Oregon, Hawaii, Washington, Arizona, Utah, South Dakota, and Colorado just this year.

I am not saying that help was not needed in these states for these fires, but it does seem that FEMA picks and chooses which states receive help and which don't.

Let's use Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming, and Wisconsin as a few examples.

Last year, hurricane season 2004, every time it looked like Florida would be hit by a hurricane FEMA was already set-up to help with disaster relief. As soon as the hurricane would pass, in came the needed supplies, food, water, generators, and housing where needed.

Of course, last year was an election year, and the incumbent in the White House had to look good.

This year, when Hurricane Katrina was racing towards Louisiana, we have a completely different reaction from FEMA. Those in charge, Michael The Horseclub Lawyer Brown, sat on his hands, waited, and did nothing for days. There are still parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama that have recieved no help from FEMA.

Then Hurrican Rita comes along. It appeared that Rita would slam into the coast of Texas. FEMA jumped right on it and got aid into place so they could be ready in the aftermath. But even with that, most of the rural areas were ignored.

Now lets look a tornados in Wyoming and Wisconsin.

Wyoming has a population of 493,782, or 5.09 per square mile. Wisconsin, meanwhile, has a population of 5,363,675 or 98.75 per square mile. More people means more housing. More housing means more destrution and property loss.

On 22 August 2005, FEMA was ordered by the president to send Federal aid to the victims of a tornado in one county in Wyoming. See this link: President Orders Disaster Aid For Wyoming Tornado Victims. One tornado, just one in a state that is very sparse in population.

On 18 August 2005, four days before the president made his order to FEMA about Wyoming aid, Wisconsin was hit by 27 tornados. One of those tornados was an F3 (the scale only goes to F5). This F3 cut a path through southern Dane County, one of the heaviest populated counties in Wisconsin. The destructive path this tornado took was 17 miles long and 1/2 mile wide, killing 1 and injuring 23. The city of Stoughton was hit the hardest. There was a total of 67 homes destroyed and over 400 damaged.

Even with the amount of damage done by these 27 tornados, FEMA refused to send any form of aid at all. Of course, Wisconsin does have a Democrat as governor as does Louisiana. Unlike California, Florida, and I believe Wyoming with their Republican governors. This may very well have to do with why they all get help from FEMA and Wisconsin does not, that and the fact that Wisconsin carried Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Election. I have posted on this previously on 23 September of this year.

If that is the reason Wisconsin did not get any Federal aid from FEMA there is something drastically wrong with how FEMA handles individual natural disasters, and that needs to change, and change NOW!

The people of Wisconsin pay more taxes in to the Federal Government then they get back in the form of state aid or buisness contracts, which all states get, but when there is a destructive tornado Wisconsin gets no help. This partisan republican bullshit has to stop. We are all citizens of the United States and deserve to be treated as such.