I have been closely monitoring the situation that has developed as a result of Hurricane Helene. I have focused on two major points; 1) the testimonies/interviews/statements of folks on the ground that know exactly what has been, and is, going on, including victims, 2) the actions of government, especially FEMA and the federal government.

If I were to sum it up in a single word…shameful.

First, my background to establish me credibility…I have multiple decades in emergency response services, hundreds of incidents of major scope and size including hurricanes and flooding. Not only do I have dozens and dozens of emergency response classes on my resume, many of those were directly from FEMA. And let me mention…I was a FEMA master instructor who taught and certified instructors for FEMA. And then there is an entire county in Florida whom I taught their county and city employees in emergency hurricane preparation and response.

Let’s be clear…very, very clear…no level of government in the affected area was ready for Helene. Most local governments, including some state governments, simply don’t have the training, the foresight, the resources, or competence to be ready for something like Helene. And this was on full display in Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina. But FEMA is supposed to be the ultimate expert in this area of disaster preparedness and response. In FY 2023 they had a $26billion budget. This is supposed to be the “go-to” expert for disasters in the US.

So how did FEMA do in response to Helene?

They had ZERO preparedness operations ahead of time. They had ZERO preparedness operations staged for quick response. They had ZERO response of any operational note for nearly a week after Helene hit.

One of the main themes from victims was the fact that 7 – 10 days into the aftermath they had seen NOTHING of FEMA. Glenn Beck had an interesting experience, he did actually spot a FEMA resource…a week after the hurricane hit. But it gets more interesting…the FEMA truck/operation was not located where people were…and the truck was NOT OPERATIONAL!!! Yeah, but the FEMA personnel were sitting in the shade of a tree in comfortable lawn chairs. Oh, except the operation’s leader. She was inside the truck that was running…relaxing…with the air conditioning on!!!

But it gets worse…

There were a number of helicopter services that were donating their helicopters to perform supply drops to stranded families and others were flying medical evacuation flights of patients to and from hospitals. They were ordered to “cease and desist” by the FAA!!

Oh, and then there is Elon Musk. He rerouted StarLink internet providing satellite system to provide free internet service to people since all the other internet services were down. And then he was in the process of delivering 1,000 laptops -free of charge- to families and communities that were cut-off from rescue, resources, and supplies with no comunications. Yeah, well, the federal government was having none of that…the FAA ordered his helicopters grounded as well and forbid him giving away any more laptops in the area.

So FEMA is a complete and total failure of epic proportions…and then the rest of the US federal government jumps in and stops private companies and individual citizens from providing critical rescue efforts and resources!! What the hell kind of government do we have?????

Oh, but it gets worse…much worse. So Joe-the-Perv decides he needs a photo op to show he is still actually alive…he decides he needs to visit the storm affected area. And yeah…what in the hell did he expect to accomplish??? Yes, I mean he can’t even walk up stairs without a medivac being called in for him…what does he expect to accomplish by “visiting” a storm ravaged area???

Sorry, I got distracted. So he flies in for a visit. Well, good-ole-Joe the Perv shuts down all air traffic in the area devastated by Helene. Yeah, that means no critical supplies can come into the area by air, no critically ill/injured patients can be flown out of the area to other hospitals, no additional rescue personnel can be flown in, and no rescues of stranded victims regardless of the seriousness of the situation or injuries…for 5 FREAKING HOURS!!!!!

Does sleepy Joe have any working brain cells left? Even one????

But not to worry…local governments weren’t much better. A Fire Chief shut done rescue operations of a private helicopter company after they rescued a man’s elderly wife but NOT the elderly man. The bozo threatened the pilot with arrest if he took off to rescue the elderly man. And get this…the Chief had no available resources to rescue the stranded elderly man…and it is unclear if or when the man was ever rescued.

But let’s not leave law enforcement out of it. Since the federal and local governments were doing a pathetic and ineffective job of providing assistance to victims a lady organized a private effort to do just that…get water and food to stranded victims. Well, well, well…a local Sheriff was having none of that!!!

This Sheriff confiscated all of her supplies that had been donated to her…all the food, water, and other supplies and took them to his county supply depot. Yeah, he stole private property. When the story got out, the Sheriff came up with a unique story…the lady had stolen the supplies. Strange…no one ever saw her steal any supplies, no one complained of any supplies being stolen. Odd, if she had stolen the supplies…then why had she been working so hard to get them to all those victims who needed them? And even more odd…if the Sheriff knew she was a thief stealing much needed supplies…ah, why didn’t he arrest her and charge her with a crime?

Just how bad was the situation? The hospitals in the area ran out of oxygen. Which is unfathomable to me. Any hospital administrator in their right mind, with any experience and training at all always have a large supply on hand. AND…they have multiple contingencies to get in HUGE amounts of oxygen containers in an emergency BEFORE the emergency occurs. AND…they have back-up plans to get more oxygen AFTER and emergency occurs. So they failed. But here is where private individuals step up…Glenn Beck, through his charity organization Mercury One, heard about it…and flew in the supply of oxygen that the hospitals needed.

Yeah, okay…not the hospitals, not the county or state governments, not FEMA…none of them could do something so basic as get critical oxygen supplies to the hospitals…but a private charity group did. Hummm…

And as quickly as it was possible Samaritan’s Purse (Rev Graham’s charity) and Helping Hands (LDS church emergency response organization) were on the ground helping people who were stranded, trapped, wounded/injured, and in desperate need of help.

As soon as the skies allowed multiple helicopter companies and individuals were flying -free of charge- rescue missions, medivacs, and dropping supplies. And again… As soon as the skies allowed multiple companies and individuals with aircraft were already flying in desperately needed supplies.

But most of all…within minutes of the hit by Helene average private citizens were out there rescuing neighbors, clearing roads, and one community even built a temporary bridge within a few hours that was was the only way in/out. As soon as roads would allow it…private citizens from around the country poured into the area to help, there were lines of trucks bringing in food, water, clothes, tents, medicine, etc. for the victims.

For the most part local governments, as I understand it from those on the ground, were not anywhere near prepared for this event and responded very, very poorly. I give them a little break because they are usually not trained to handle this kind of disaster.

As for FEMA…it is nothing less than shameful in regards to their response. Or rather their entire lack of and incompetent response.

So you ask why the problem…or rather what is the problem?

DHS Secretary Alejandro Nicolas Mayorkas stated that FEMA was out of money for the year. Why is Mayorkas getting involved? He is the head of DHS which is the parent government agency for FEMA. And let’s review this as well…FEMA was given a budget of $26billion by the US Congress. That is almost $800million more than than Biden asked for. So Congress steps up and gives FEMA more money than the President or Mayorkas asks…and yet they run out of money?  forHummm…

But it doesn’t stop there…FEMA has spent well over a billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) on illegal immigrants in FY 2023. And don’t let anyone tell you that isn’t true…it is documented and factual. So while FEMA is helping provide cell phones, hotel rooms, daily food money, clothing allowance, transportation, and debit cards to criminal illegal aliens…US CITIZENS CAN’T GET HELP FROM THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT WHEN A DISASTER HITS??!?!?!?!?!?!?!

It doesn’t stop there…The US federal government has spent more than $30billion in direct aid to criminal illegal aliens this year…to those criminal illegal aliens who crossed the border illegally just THIS YEAR!!!

What the hell are those dimwits in Washington thinking???? Have they no morals, no ethics, no common sense, no conscience?

But it gets worse…We have sent hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine so they can kill people. Oh, and we’ve sent billions and billions of aid to Israel so they can kill people. Oh, and we sent hundreds of millions of dollars to international organizations to perform abortions around the world. Yeah, we’ve sent nearly $80billion overseas in foreign aid just in FY2023! Yeah, including 3billion dollars to the Muslim Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan!

Need I go on?

All of this…and we can’t get our government to render appropriate aid to victims of a horrific disaster? What has this country come to? Why do we tolerate idiots in Washington to be the lowest kinds of humans on the planet wasting our hard earned money on crap…and allow US citizens to suffer? Why? Why in the world? Can you explain to me why we keep electing these dimwits, morons, and criminals to political office just so they can hire even more useless pieces of oxygen wasting flesh as government employees and bureaucrats?

When does it change? How does it change? Why don’t we have enough sense and courage to change it?

I have made the case that it is an incredible amount of gross incompetence that is the problem…maybe I am wrong. Maybe it is malice or maliciousness? Then again…maybe it is treasonous?

Question is…what do we do about it?

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You can help…

If you would like to support a very worthy charity (sponsored by Glenn Beck) that helps immensely in disaster times there is…

For a great christian based charity that also helps in times of disaster needs there is Samaritan’s Purse (Rev Graham’s charity)…

If you are not LDS you can donate to church humanitarian services  by < clicking here > or click the “Helping Hands” logo.

If you are LDS you can donate to “humanitarian relief” efforts when you pay your tithing.

 

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