Tag: FEMA

FEMA To The Rescue

FEMA that government organization that comes to the aid of cities and states that suffer from some sort of disaster like hurricanes, massive cold, etc.

But if you live in a Blue State then you will suffer because you did not vote for Donny….kinda like Puerto Rico that is still waiting for help from Donny’s first term.

President Trump rejected FEMA disaster aid requests from four blue states last Friday, after accepting the aid requests of six red states just two days before, according to Politico. This continues his blatant trend of prioritizing petty political beef over sorely needed FEMA funding—putting Americans at risk in the process.

New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island were all denied after requesting a total of $227 million in aid following the brutal blizzard in February. All four states were well past the damage threshold required to trigger aid consideration.

“After months of waiting, President Trump today denied our request for a Major Disaster Declaration following the blizzard that pummeled New York City, Long Island, and the Mid-Hudson in February of this year,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement last week. “New York’s communities … deserve to have access to every resource available to recover and rebuild. Instead they have a President who is turning his back on his home state.… We will appeal to ensure New Yorkers receive the federal assistance they deserve.”

Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and the rest of the state’s congressional Democratic delegation similarly condemned Trump.

“After months of inaction, on July 2, President Trump denied Rhode Island’s request for a Major Disaster Declaration related to the record snowfall and cold temperatures,” the delegation wrote on Monday.

https://newrepublic.com/post/212851/trump-denies-disaster-aid-four-democratic-states

There you go Donny’s revenge…..if your state went for the other guy then you better hope there is no disaster on the horizon for your state for if there is you will probably get the ax from any disaster relief funds.

This is total crap and anyone that agrees with Donny is lower that a day old turd.

Apparently if you live in a Blue State you are not an American and not eligable for any assistance after a disaster….this should be unacceptable to ALL Americans.

I live in a hurricane zone but I guess we are lucky for the idiots of this state went for Donny in the last couple of elections.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

They Get FEMA But Not You

I live on the Gulf Coast and we are always vigilant during storm season and FEMA is always there to help out if there is a horrendous storm….but now with this prick in the White House some disasters may go without FEMA help….

I read Little Donny Do-Little has authorized FEMA funds but not for everybody….

President Trump approved major disaster declarations for Alaska, Nebraska, North Dakota, and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe late Wednesday, while denying requests from Vermont, Illinois, and Maryland and leaving other states waiting longer for answers. The decisions fell mostly along party lines, with Trump touting on social media Wednesday that he had “won BIG” in Alaska in the last three presidential elections and that it was his “honor” to deliver for the “incredible Patriots” of Missouri, a state he also won three times, the AP reports.

The disaster declarations authorize the Federal Emergency Management Agency to support recipients with federal financial assistance to repair public infrastructure damaged by disasters and, in some cases, provide survivors money for repairs and temporary housing.

  • While Trump has approved more disaster declarations than he’s denied this year, he has also repeatedly floated the idea of “phasing out” FEMA, saying he wants states to take more responsibility for disaster response and recovery. States already take the lead in disasters but depend on federal assistance when the needs exceed what they can manage alone. Trump has taken longer to approve disaster declaration requests than any previous administration, including his first, according to an AP analysis.
  • The states approved for disaster declarations include Alaska, which filed an expedited request after experiencing back-to-back storms this month that wrecked coastal villages, displaced 2,000 residents, and killed at least one person. Trump approved a 100% cost share of disaster-related expenses for 90 days.
  • North Dakota and Nebraska will also receive public assistance for August severe weather, and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota was approved for both public and individual assistance for a June storm that felled thousands of trees across its tribal lands.
  • Trump denied four requests, including Maryland’s appeal for reconsideration after the state was denied a disaster declaration for May flooding that severely impacted the state’s two westernmost counties.
  • Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, denounced the decision in a statement Thursday, calling the final denial “deeply frustrating.” “President Trump and his Administration have politicized disaster relief, and our communities are the ones who will pay the price,” said Moore. Maryland met the conditions necessary to qualify for public assistance, according to a preliminary damage assessment, but Trump, who has the final decision on the declarations, denied the state’s request.
  • Trump also denied Vermont a major disaster declaration for July 10 floods after the state waited over nine weeks for a decision. The damages far exceed what some of the small towns impacted can afford on their own, said Eric Forand, Vermont’s emergency management director.
  • The other denials included an application from Illinois for individual assistance for three counties impacted in July by severe storms and flooding, and one from Alaska to rebuild a public safety building that burned in a July electrical fire.

Now that is a soul-less son-of-a-bitch!

How can anyone support the likes of this SOB?

In my book anyone that supports or agrees with these types of decisions is a worthless piece of excrement.

Is this how a leader should treat his fellow citizens?

If you are Donny then yes it is….it is all about retaliation and revenge not what is best for the country.

This asshole makes me sick!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is FEMA doomed?

I live in a hurricane zone and we have had many but a couple of real devastating storms, Camille and Katrina, and we got a lot of aid and help from FEMA…..and we are not alone anywhere that there was a major disaster whether it be hurricanes, floods, etc FEMA was there to lend a helping hand….but thanx to your clueless leader that type of help may be ending…..

A few folks have taken it upon themselves to try and let the country know what danger are lurking in the Trump Administration….

Days before the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, FEMA employees have issued a stark warning to Congress: the Trump administration’s cuts could leave the nation dangerously unprepared for the next major disaster. In a letter dubbed the “Katrina Declaration,” 182 current FEMA staffers criticized White House plans to shrink the agency and shift disaster response duties—and costs—to the states. The employees argue that such moves risk not only FEMA’s future, but also the readiness of the nation to handle large-scale emergencies, per the New York Times. “Decisions made by the current administration,” they wrote, could lead to “the effective dissolution of FEMA itself and the abandonment of the American people.”

Among the grievances: the Trump administration’s appointment of two acting FEMA chiefs lacking emergency management experience, new spending rules that have slowed FEMA’s disaster response, and the elimination of billions of dollars in grants aimed at disaster preparedness. Additionally, survivors now must provide email addresses to access FEMA aid, a hurdle for those with limited internet. The letter’s signatories argue the Trump administration is blatantly ignoring requirements of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, including a provision preventing the Homeland Security secretary from interfering with FEMA. Most signed anonymously, fearing retaliation. Nearly 140 EPA employees were put on leave following a similar letter of dissent last month, per the Washington Post.

Trump is the kiss of death for FEMA and in return the kiss of death for people affected by a disaster……and transferring the cost to the states is a stupid idea for most of those effected are dirt poor and cannot afford the programs they have now.

So the heart-less SOB in DC will make damn sure that people suffering continues and will buy another gold ornament for his fireplace.

Side note:  i heard that 30+ employees of FEMA have been put on leave for criticizing the agency.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

And Then The Rains Came

For week now the major story in the MSM has been the rains then flooding in Texas that has killed 100+ people and 150+ still missing presumed dead….there has been lots of back and forth on blame for this tragedy….there seems to be a wealth of misinformation in the saga so far….

I begin with an article in France24….

The catastrophic floods over the weekend have left more than a 100 people dead, including more than two dozen girls and counselors at a riverside summer camp, with rescuers racing on Tuesday to search for dozens of people still missing.

Multiple left-leaning accounts on the platform X peddled the unfounded claim that staffing cuts at the National Weather Service (NWS) by President Donald Trump’s administration had “degraded” its forecasting ability.

While the NWS, like other agencies, has experienced deep staffing and budget cuts under the Trump administration, experts say its forecasters rose to the challenge despite the constraints.

“There have been claims that (weather agencies) did not foresee catastrophic (Texas) floods — but that’s simply not true,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, wrote on Bluesky.

Read On….

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250708-texas-floods-misinformation-across-political-spectrum-sows-confusion

Then as usual there is a wealth stupid coming from Donny and his minions….

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem renewed her call Wednesday to “eliminate” the Federal Emergency Management Agency calling it “slow to respond” to the deadly floods that have killed more than 120 people in Texas over the past week.

…

Multiple sources said Noem waited until Monday to authorize the deployment of these search and rescue teams, more than 72 hours after the flooding began. Aerial imagery to aid in the search was also delayed waiting for Noem’s approval.

Noem used these very delays to justify her calls to disband FEMA entirely.

“Federal emergency management should be state and locally led, rather than how it has operated for decades,” she said. “It has been slow to respond at the federal level. It’s even been slower to get the resources to Americans in crisis, and that is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today, and remade into a responsive agency.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/noem-fema-delays

A 72 hour delay in response time and then a call for an elimination of FEMA….was the delay [part of the pl;an to eliminate FEMA or just idiots playing golf and sipping martinis to be bothered with a response?

You tell me?

As suspect as this story is there was even more usual moronic blame being passed around….as usual it will be the Dems fault that this even took place….

Rightwing podcaster and influencer Charlie Kirk has claimed the death toll from the Texas floods “would not have been as high if it wasn’t for” diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Kirk made the comments during his program on Real America’s Voice, saying, “The Democrats are so despicable. The Democrats are not lifting a finger to remember the well over 100 that have died in Texas Hill Country.”

He added that what “you are not being told by the media anywhere, is that the death toll likely would not have been as high if it wasn’t for DEI.”

“This Texas tragedy is just the latest example,” Kirk went on. “It’s not just incompetence. This is DEI working to undermine meritocratic institutions, and more people likely died than otherwise would have because of DEI.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/charlie-kirk-texas-floods-dei-death-toll-b2785957.html

I am surprised that he did not blame immigrants….but is probably another story…

Oh there is more stupidity.

As Texas recovers from one of its deadliest floods, some Republicans are spreading a conspiracy theory that suggests that weather manipulation is to blame for the deadly flash floods that have killed at least 89 people.

Republicans, including Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, have accused the scientific practice of being used to harm and kill, with Greene proposing a bill on Saturday that would make weather modification, also called cloud seeding, a felony.

Greene has previously suggested that weather manipulation has been used to harm Republican-majority areas in the south.

Fellow Republican and Congressional candidate Kandiss Taylor, who is vying for a seat alongside Greene in Georgia, also slammed the practice while directly blaming it for Texas’ incredible deaths and destruction.

“This isn’t just ‘climate change.’ It’s cloud seeding, geoengineering, & manipulation,” she posted on X, without supplying any supporting evidence. “If fake weather causes real tragedy, that’s murder.”

“Fake weather. Fake hurricanes. Fake flooding. Fake. Fake. Fake,” she added in another post.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/weather-manipulation-conspiracy-theory-texas-floods_n_686c0c45e4b0082b3c90c01c

FOOLS!

But not to worry His Majesty plans to tour the damage today….

As President Donald Trump heads to Texas on Friday for a firsthand look at the devastation caused by catastrophic flooding, he has remained conspicuously quiet about his previous promises to do away with the federal agency in charge of disaster relief.

The Trump administration isn’t backing away from its pledges to shutter the Federal Emergency Management Agency and return disaster response to the states. But since the July 4 disaster, which has killed at least 120 people, the president and his top aides have focused on the once-in-a-lifetime nature of what occurred and the human tragedy involved rather than the government-slashing crusade that’s been popular with Trump’s core supporters.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-texas-floods-fema-phase-out-b77d9681d2d39f8c201351b54ecf944f

I am sure there will be another of his insulting speeches to follow….where no one is safe from blame and accusations.

Where will the next disaster hit?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Trying To Reason With The Hurricane Season

Just a few days ago the 2025 hurricane began and the people down here where I live, the Gulf Coast, will be keeping close watch on the tropics waiting for that next show to fall.

I went through Katrina and the destruction was damn near complete….the Coast looked like a war zone and that was 20 years ago this year….and thanks to FEMA, MEMA and others we rebuilt….some say better than before.

But we have another worry to plague our minds…..Dear Donny and his helter skelter mindset towards any disasters….we will be able to weather (no pun intended) any massive storm like Katrina?  (Did you know that the director of Donny’s FEMA did not know it was hurricane season?)

I have my doubts because of what he has done to North Carolina….

President Trump talked a big game on the campaign about what he deemed an ineffective response by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during hurricane season last year. In fact, during a trip to North Carolina in January, he made a point to criticize the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, saying, “This is totally unacceptable, and I’ll be taking strong action.”

Turns out that “strong action” would be telling the state, “Nah fam, you on your own.”

According to ABC News, FEMA has rejected a request from the North Carolina governor to continue matching state funds for efforts in cleaning up the damage left by Hurricane Helene. The Biden administration issued a cost-sharing directive last fall to match 100% of the funds the state spends on cleanup operations. Hurricane Helene was a Category 4 storm that killed over 230 people and resulted in record flooding throughout the state.

“After a careful and thorough review of all the information available, including that contained in your initial request for a cost share adjustment and appeal, we have concluded that an extension of the 100 percent federal cost share for debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance for an additional 180 days under major disaster declaration FEMA-4827-DR is not warranted,” acting Administrator David Richardson wrote in the letter.

Richardson is…an interesting fellow, to put it politely. A former Marine, he was named the acting director of FEMA despite having no experience managing natural disasters. In his initial remarks to the agency, he warned he would “run right over” any person who doesn’t agree with the changes being made to how FEMA operates.

His appointment seems to be yet another instance of the Trump administration valuing blind loyalty over an innate ability to do critical jobs. This isn’t even speculation, as Richardson more or less confirmed this when he told FEMA employees, “I will achieve the president’s intent. I am as bent on achieving the president’s intent as I was on making sure that I did my duty when I took my Marines to Iraq.”

North Carolina Denied Hurricane Relief Amid Changes At FEMA

How can this soulless son-of-a-bitch deny Americans the chance to rebuild their lives and communities after a catastrophic storm?

But yet he can find money to throw that the most wasteful and useless appendage of the government….the War Department.

He has no priorities other than making money for himself and his merry band of thieves.

You voted for this asshole….are you happy now?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is FEMA In Danger?

I live in hurricane alley and after a destructive storm like Katrina FEMA was there to try and help the Coast recover…..granted there is a pile of bureaucracy that one must navigate but nonetheless it was a godsend to our recovery.

The new president has hinted that the department could be on the chopping block.

The president went on his first official trip to California and North Carolina two states that is dealing with disasters like storms and wildfires….

In Asheville, North Carolina, Trump reiterated to reporters his plan to sign an executive order to overhaul—and maybe eliminate—the Federal Emergency Management Agency, reports USA Today. “FEMA has been a very big disappointment,” he said, per the AP. “It’s very bureaucratic. And it’s very slow. Other than that, we’re very happy with them.” Trump said he would prefer that states take care of their own disasters. “Whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA,” he said, per CNN.

“FEMA has turned out to be a disaster … I think we recommend that FEMA go away,” he said during a tour of North Carolina to see damage done by Hurricane Helene last year.

In case you are not aware of what FEMA actually does…..

According to the agency’s website, it’s mission is “helping people before, during and after disasters.” The agency says it employs more than 20,000 people and has 10 regional offices nationwide, allowing it to “leverage a tremendous capacity to coordinate within the federal government to make sure America is equipped to prepare for and respond to disasters.”

FEMA was officially created in 1979 through an executive order by President Jimmy Carter, and the agency says its history can be traced as far back as 1803. In 2003, FEMA became part of the Department of Homeland Security.

The agency aims to help people and communities understand and prepare for possible disaster risks, coordinates the federal response to disasters, and supports disaster recovery, according to its website. For more information about what specifically FEMA does and how it operates, you can visit the FEMA website.

Is eliminating FEMA part of the “Make America Great Again”?

If you have never had to deal with the aftermath of a real disaster then you have no damn idea what FEMA does or how it aids people in a crisis.

Like most of Trump’s ideas this is a piss poor one.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Covid-19 And Hurricanes

Every year on the first of June I post on the upcoming hurricane season….it is important to me for I live in Hurricane Alley….I use to say when sites asked my location…”Just north of a hurricane”….

This season could be a bit different from all others in my life…..the devastation of a hurricane combined with the lethality of the Covid-19 virus…….does not bode well for the Gulf Coast….

I was pleased to see that someone has tackled this dilemma that is approaching…..at least giving it a bit of lip service…..

Pete Gaynor, who runs the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is drafting a document whose title sounds like the stuff of horror movies: “COVID-19 Pandemic Operational Guidance for the 2020 Hurricane Season.”

Driving the news: “We’re doing a lot of things that are not necessarily in any playbook that has existed,” Gaynor told me in an interview on Saturday. “In some cases, we write the playbook as we go.”

Behind the scenes: In preparing for the June 1 start of the Atlantic hurricane season, Gaynor must consider challenges beyond what predecessors have faced:

  • How do you evacuate people from hurricane zones while maintaining 6 feet of social distancing?
  • How much extra shelter space will be needed to house people who can no longer safely crowd into schools, auditoriums and community centers?
  • How do you protect the most vulnerable people such as the elderly and those with underlying conditions?
  • Resources already are strained — and so are tensions between many governors and the Trump administration.

The big picture: It’s the first time ever that every U.S. state and territory has simultaneously declared a major disaster.

  • “This pandemic, it is historic, it is unprecedented in many ways for FEMA,” Gaynor said.

https://www.axios.com/fema-coronavirus-hurricane-season-ef660cda-f4b3-4002-b8ac-71438c8edebd.html

Not a pretty picture being painted here.

I will post my traditional post on the coming hurricane season on 01 June….look for it….

On yet another weather related front….people need to think about the devastation of Katrina and the chaos of Covid-19 and it makes for a horrific scenario that will be worse than a nightmare.

In the next 50 years the outlook is not so rosy…..

According to a new climate model, a fifth of the entire Earth could be as hot as the Sahara Desert by the year 2070.

That would force about three billion people to either flee their homes or try survive in hellish temperatures, Earther reports. It’s a particularly dire outlook for humanity — especially because it would render farmland incapable of growing the staple crops on which we rely.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/50-years-billions-people-face-sahara-heat

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–27Sep17

Get Your Priorities Straight, Dipstick!

IST Factoid:  Puerto Rico is a US territory….ergo its residents are US CITIZENS!

The factoid was inserted because there seem to be many that did not know….

Nearly half of all Americans aren’t aware that Puerto Ricans are citizens, according to a new Morning Consult poll.

While 54 percent of Americans know that Puerto Ricans are citizens, 47 percent do not know that, according to the poll, which was first reported by The New York Times. Among Americans with a bachelor’s degree, 72 percent are aware of citizenship for people on the island.

The poll found a connection between knowledge of Puerto Ricans’ citizenship and a willingness to send emergency aid.

According to the report, 8 in 10 Americans who know Puerto Ricans are citizens support sending aid, while among those who do not know, 4 in 10 support sending aid.

It has been a week since Hurricane Maria roared ashore in Puerto Rico and demolished the island in all ways….infrastructure too the biggest hit….60% of the island has NO potable water….there is only spotty electric power and food is running ever so short.

The Island is a wreck and instead to making sure that the country stays laser focused on Puerto Rico Trump spend his Twitter time trying to ramp up some new form of division among us Americans.

After starting the shit storm about the taking of a knee he did finally Tweet about Puerto Rico……

Here are the tweets, in case you missed them:

“Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble…It’s old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars…owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water and medical are top priorities – and doing well. #FEMA”

Really?  All the compassion, empathy and concern for the people of Puerto Rico is just heart tugging….(complete sarcasm)……

I even saw a Tweet from a yahoo supporter of Trump addressed to some news anchor…..

“Trump is the president of the US….not Puerto Rico…..Move on”

The stupidity of these people is just amazing…..

Trump needs to MAN up and do more for Puerto Rico……why is the hospital ship. Comfort, NOT in Puerto Rico?  (word is leaking out the Comfort will be heading to Puerto Rice.  Why did it take so long?)

We have the perfect model for handling this disaster…..The 1948 Berlin Airlift….refresh your memory…..

Source: Berlin Airlift – Cold War – HISTORY.com

There should be planes landing at regular intervals and it should have begun mere days after Maria pushed through.

The president keeps Tweeting out that people think the US is doing a good job…..does not look like it….but please give me the names of those deluded individuals.

So far talk is cheap…..but talk does not feed, quench or shelter the Americans on the island of Puerto Rico.

But It’s Different

A killer tornado slashed through Moore, Oklahoma on 20 May…….if destroyed a lot of the same stuff that the tornado of 03 May 1999 trashed…….time for the country to step up and do that right thing for the victims….or should we play the same game that Congress played with the victims of Sandy?

If you recall the Repubs in Congress played a sickening game with the lives of people in New York and New Jersey……they held up disaster relief funds while playing politics……a thoroughly disgusting spectacle of partisan bullshit…….will that happen again?  Hell NO!  why?  It is different because it is the home state of the biggest douche in Congress, Inhofe…….the same person that demanded that the funds for Sandy be tied to some sort of crap legislation of partisan origins……

Inhofe railed against the relief funds……

Inhofe said the Sandy Relief bill “was supposed to be in New Jersey,” but “they were getting things … in the Virgin Islands, fixing roads there, and putting roofs on houses in Washington, D.C.” Both Inhofe and Coburn voted to slash aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy, with Inhofe saying he considered the full proposed aid amount to be a “slush fund.”

While Northeastern states like New Jersey and New York suffered some of the worst damage from Hurricane Sandy, the storm affected 24 U.S. states in total during October of 2012. Sandy carved a destructive path from the Caribbean Sea to the Great Lakes, where it produced 25-foot waves in Lake Huron.

The Atlantic walks us through more of the supposed “pork” in the bill that conservatives were complaining about:

  • $150 million for fisheries in Alaska damaged by the 2011 Japanese tsunami,which littered debris on Alaska’s shoreline
  • $41 million to repair military bases damaged by Hurricane Sandy (including ,controversially, Guantanamo Bay)
  • $13 billion for future flood preparations (that is, money that will not be spent on victims of Sandy but on preventing future, Sandy-scale disasters from occurring)

So those are all disaster relief, and disaster-related.  One, the Alaskan one, is for a past disaster that wasn’t addressed, and should have been.  So that’s not pork.  The National Review has more of the GOP argument against the bill, but to call any of what they write about “pork” is simply bs.

Inhofe has said the the tornado damage is totally different from the Sandy damage…….yes, it was…..Sandy effected blue states and the tornado effected people who vote in Oklahoma…..

I can respect Oklahoma’s Coburn who was against Sandy legislation and has said about the tornado damage….

Oklahoma’s other stingy Republican Senator, Tom Coburn, is also in a bit of a pickle over tornado relief.  Coburn has already said that any tornado relief bill must include cuts in the rest of the budget to pay for it, or he won’t support it.

Coburn may be stingy but at least he is NOT a screaming hypocrite like Inhofe……

This is all so typical of the hypocrites in Congress………those twats are a bad sitcom…..a joke around the world…..and it only gets worse year after year…….

I am waiting for my conserv readers to comment…….I want to hear the defense they will have for this douche…..I regret that I may be waiting and waiting……..it will most likely be a response written by Drudge or the like…..

Thoughts?

FEMA Steps Back Into The Past

It is good to see that some things never change.  That the government is still as worthless as tits on a boar.

Weary residents of the Texas coast foraged Sunday for water, ice, generators and gasoline as rescuers continued to save people trapped by widespread floodwaters a day after Hurricane Ike flooded roads, destroyed homes and businesses, and knocked out power to nearly 4 million people.

Under drenching morning rain that submerged more roads and underscored a mood of misery and frustration, emergency officials tried to unsnarl a last-minute snag that delayed deliveries of U.S. government food, water and ice to several million people struggling to cope. Federal officials blamed state leaders for abruptly changing distribution plans Sunday morning.
All of it — the sweaty waits in line, the flooded interstates, the rampant mosquitoes, the desperate search for life’s basic necessities — fueled a growing sense of frustration among ordinary residents and elected officials alike.

Residents peppered radio and TV news programs with angry calls about price gouging at gasoline stations and food stores, low water pressure and a delay by emergency authorities in distributing food, water and ice.

Emmett and White warned the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sunday morning that it would be “held accountable” if it did not deliver emergency supplies as promised.

The agency was roundly criticized for bungling the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Some things never change.