There’s a Fox News report out today of total chaos at the FEMA staging area at Ft. Dix, New Jersey, in the days following hurricane Sandy. An excerpt:
Hurry up and wait.
That’s what first responders were left to do after being deployed by FEMA to assist in the storm-ravaged areas in the initial days after superstorm Sandy, FoxNews.com has learned. A FEMA worker who spoke to FoxNews.com described a chaotic scene at New Jersey’s Fort Dix, where emergency workers arrived as the storm bore down on the Atlantic Coast. The worker said officials at the staging area were unprepared and told the incoming responders there was nothing for them to do for nearly four days.
“They told us to hurry, hurry, hurry,” the worker, who works at the agency’s headquarters in Washington and volunteered to deploy for the storm recovery effort. “We rushed to Fort Dix, only to find out that our liaison didn’t even know we were coming.”
“The regional coordinator even said to us, ‘I don’t know why you were rushed here because we don’t need you,’” said the worker, who spoke out of frustration with the lack of planning and coordination following the devastating storm.
Hurry up and wait.
That’s what first responders were left to do after being deployed by FEMA to assist in the storm-ravaged areas in the initial days after superstorm Sandy, FoxNews.com has learned. A FEMA worker who spoke to FoxNews.com described a chaotic scene at New Jersey’s Fort Dix, where emergency workers arrived as the storm bore down on the Atlantic Coast. The worker said officials at the staging area were unprepared and told the incoming responders there was nothing for them to do for nearly four days.
“They told us to hurry, hurry, hurry,” the worker, who works at the agency’s headquarters in Washington and volunteered to deploy for the storm recovery effort. “We rushed to Fort Dix, only to find out that our liaison didn’t even know we were coming.”
“The regional coordinator even said to us, ‘I don’t know why you were rushed here because we don’t need you,’” said the worker, who spoke out of frustration with the lack of planning and coordination following the devastating storm.
The whole thing here.
Now compare that to coverage of Katrina. Michael Brown, along with President Bush, were targets from the start.
And there’s no media outrage in the aftermath of Sandy. Stories of FEMA discriminating against victims, vacant hotel rooms, refusal to provide trailers, and general bureaucratic nightmares go unreported.
I guess just stick it in the “if this were George Bush” file.
But there’s something else to consider as we hear MSM stories of the dysfunction in D.C., etc. Maybe if reporters actually did their jobs and didn’t give administrations a pass for partisan reasons, things might get fixed. Here’s a story the New York Times, et al. might consider: How could New Jersey, New York State and New York City be so woefully unprepared for Sandy just one year after hurricane Irene and billions of dollars of DHS money spent since 9/11 to prepare the area for a major emergency?