There has been a major regional disaster in Kentucky and adjacent states where an ice storm has delivered sub-freezing temperatures [thank you Al Gore] and has knocked out power to more than a million people.
AP reports:
Dozens of deaths have been reported and many people are pleading for a faster response to the power outages. About 536,000 homes and businesses across Kentucky were without power, down from more than 600,000 the largest outage in state history, surpassing the damage last year from the remnants of Hurricane Ike.That's right, dozens of deaths, widespread suffering, local officials overwhelmed -- just the sort of thing that FEMA is supposed to take care of, but...
The outages disabled water systems in much of the western part of the state, where some in rural areas resorted to dipping buckets in a creek. Authorities warned it could be days or weeks before power was restored in the most remote spots.
Local officials grew angrier at what they said was a lack of help from the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.Read it here.
Hey, just like Katrina without the widespread looting and shooting at cops and relief workers. And there is one more significant difference -- there is no media outrage. No denunciation of the federal authorities whose response to the disaster has been woefully inadequate.
The Jammie Wearing Fool writes:
Can you imagine the media reaction if this were George W. Bush? Heck, we're still hearing about Hurricane Katrina nearly four years later.Read it here.
Is Obama even aware what's going on in Kentucky? I know he's very busy between trashing Wall Street and Rush Limbaugh, but could he at least acknowledge these poor folks and get them some help?
And the Thinker writes:
[W]here is our president? Shouldn't he be visiting these ravaged areas? It must be that he HATES WHITE PEOPLE AND WANTS THEM TO DIE. That is the only possible explanation for this incredible failure of our national government to relieve the suffering of these people.
Isn't it interesting that now that we have a Democrat as president that all of a sudden, disaster relief is a state and local matter and the federal government should stand aside and allow them to do their jobs?
Read it here.
Indeed it is.
UPDATE:
From the Sundries Shack, a concise definition of the situation:
[I]t’s not unfair for us to hold the Obama administration to the same standards the MSM and Democrats held the Bush administration.By those standards, the President is failing and people are dying.
And the Anchoress writes: "Hell of a job, Barry!"
[W]hy isn’t the president down there, hugging people? Why was he schmoozing congress with steak dinners* while people were suffering? Why is this going on for almost a week without the president going in there and fixing everything? It’s been way more than 100 hours! Where is Obama? Why does the government not show us what is really going on? Where are the pictures of stranded people? We want to see the pictures! People have died! Show us the bodies!
Hey, I’ve watched the professionals in the mainstream media - I know these are the questions we're supposed to be asking. They'll get to them any day now...any day.
Read it here.
Obama did make a phone call after the event expressing his condolences. That's it..., that's all!
Anchoress asks:
Remember when Bush called Nagin and a dithering Gov. Blanco days in advance of Katrina declaring a state of emergency ahead of the storm and begging both of them to evacuate NOLA, and asking Blanco to please let the Feds in to take control of the situation - and her refusal? Does anyone remember this stuff? Seems all Bush had to do was make a phone call a few days after the fact and that would have been sufficient, after all!
