Failed federal response in tornado crisis

[Lost Farmboy]

People say don't live in tornado alley. Well, I guess one shouldn't live where there are earth quakes, floods, huricanes, mud slides, wild fires, ect. That would put an awful lot of people squeezed into some mighty small areas now wouldn't it? It's easy to sit in your comfy home and point fingers.....untill it happens to you. The people of Joplin have not asked for help all they asked for was prayers. To critisize them is nothing less than ignorant and self righteous dribble! A large number killed were ripped from vehicles and in buisenesses like Home Depo and Wal Mart. People judging them aren't what is right with America....THEY"RE WHAT'S WRONG with America!

+1 I'd rather have my tax dollars help Americas in a natural disaster than bomb Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

[Swampman]

I'd rather my tax dollars did neither.

"A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities."

Thomas Jefferson

[bigMikeA]

People say don't live in tornado alley. Well, I guess one shouldn't live where there are earth quakes, floods, huricanes, mud slides, wild fires, ect. That would put an awful lot of people squeezed into some mighty small areas now wouldn't it? It's easy to sit in your comfy home and point fingers.....untill it happens to you. The people of Joplin have not asked for help all they asked for was prayers. To critisize them is nothing less than ignorant and self righteous dribble! A large number killed were ripped from vehicles and in buisenesses like Home Depo and Wal Mart. People judging them aren't what is right with America....THEY"RE WHAT'S WRONG with America!

Right on Spirithawk.  You are absolutely right on as far as I am concerned.  Great post.  Thank you.

[gr8ful]

The tornado in Joplin is a terrible tragedy, as well as the ones in Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma.  Those folks need our prayers and our help.  But they don't need FEMA.  These kinds of things are best handled by State and Local Govt. and Charitable organizations.  Getting FEMA involved would just result in Billions of $ in fraud and waste with very little going to the folks who really need it.

[bigMikeA]

you are, in my opinion , right on gr8ful.  lets keep praying for them and praying that fema and the .gov will stay away.

[magooch]

Actually, the federal government can be helpful in some disasters.  They may not be able to do very much when it comes to fixing private property, but often there are things that can be done that only something like FEMA can get done in a timely fashion--if the right people are in charge.

When Mt. St. Helens blew up, it really made a mess of local rivers; filling them up with sediment and making them extremely prone to flooding.  The federal government was able to provide the money and organization to dredge the rivers and build some dikes.  If it had not been for that action, the disaster would have continued. 

Much of the money provided by FEMA is still being paid back through property taxes etc.  There are several cities that are still on the map, because of the swift action by FEMA.  Jimma Carter was President when Mt. St. Helens blew.  We had a Dumycrat Governor, but by today's standards, she was a conservative.  The bottom line was that they got the job done and I give them both all the credit.  Our county officials also had something to do with getting it done too.

[powderman]

Getting FEMA involved would just result in Billions of $ in fraud and waste with very little going to the folks who really need it.


YEP, the feds mess up most everything they touch. POWDERMAN. 

[Pat/Rick]

Magooch, hopefully WA state will never have to experience Mt Rainier disasterous eruption. From Olympia and the Nisqually delta to south Seattle could be a wreck.

Indeed prayers for those affected. Your best insurance is your own preperations that YOU make for YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.  Though nothing as destructive and disasterous as other parts of the nation, our little week long power outages and highway closures in winter are nothing. But still, we prep for those times. 

Its not where you live. But how you live where.

[Heather]

Why should there be any Federal response?  It's not the government's job to care for us.  You either have insurance or you don't.

I agree 100%!  The people should rely on themselves and family, NOT the government.  Folks around here were turning FEMA away left and right.  They offered to set up temp homes and I think for the most part the community has just pulled together and helped others out.  The people of the small community of Websters Chapel that was utterly devastated here has been fed EVERYDAY since the storms. We have people banded together donating to local restaurants who are cooking food and taking it to these people for no profit. Thousands of people are donating their time to help in the beginning efforts of search and rescue and now in the clean up. It isn't at the forced hand of an entity that causes people to help people.  It is the heart of the people that reaches out on their own to help their fellow American in times of need.

Heather