Bethany Mandel
Commentary Magazine
11/14/2012
The pictures from New Orleans after Katrina were iconic. Stories breathlessly filed from the Superdome warned of rampant crimes, inadequate access to basic sanitation, even babies getting raped (which was later proven to be a rumor). CNN’s Anderson Cooper berated Senator Mary Landrieu on air about the government’s response to the storm. Spike Lee made an entire documentary about the impact the hurricane had on the city and its residents. Famously, during a telethon for Katrina’s victims, rapper Kanye West told viewers, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
The week before the election, Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast, bringing unprecedented destruction to the seaside communities in the tri-state area. Parts of New York City went dark, as sections of the city were completely submerged in flood waters for the first time in modern history. Seaside towns across the Jersey Shore lost their famous boardwalks in an instant, and in Seaside Heights, parts of a roller coaster ended up sucked into the ocean.
After several days of dominating the news cycle, the nation moved on to the election, and now, to the unfolding scandal involving CIA Director David Petraeus. For those left in the worst of Sandy’s wake, no matter what CNN may be covering, few have had the ability to move on…
…With the media’s silence and the public’s amnesia over the impact of the hurricane, President Obama has once again received a free pass on yet another issue of national importance. The media’s outcry over the devastation after Katrina led to a massive influx of aid in the form of governmental agency involvement, subsidies, and private charitable organizations’ assistance. Without that outcry, the victims of Sandy should be wondering what kind of attention they would be receiving if the president’s party began with an R, not a D.
The complete article is at Commentary Magazine.
Related: Scientist Shoots Holes In Obama’s Latest Statements On Climate Change
“What we do know is the temperature around the globe is increasing faster than was predicted even 10 years ago. We do know that the Artic icecap is melting faster than was predicted even five years ago. We do know that … there have been an extraordinary large number of severe weather events here in North America but also around the globe.” ~Barack Obama
Sorry Barry… Earth Is Not Warming – Antarctic Sees Record Growth in Sea Ice
Global Warming stopped 16 years ago.
Update: FEMA Orders Citizens to STOP Helping Others
(Times Review) – Newspaper: FEMA orders residents to stop giving out supplies after Hurricane Sandy — It was great until they stepped in, says local woman. Televised and published pictures plus personal appeals of Hurricane Sandy victims in New York and New Jersey touched the hearts of Shelter Islanders who generously filled truckloads of clothing and other goods bound for Island Park and Long Beach last week. But the word from the Federal Emergency Management Agency now is “stop.”
It’s not that the victims of Sandy have their needs met, but that FEMA has strict rules what can and can’t be accepted. “We stopped taking things now,” said Marie Eiffel whose boutiques on Shelter Island and in Sag Harbor have been drop-off centers for goods that Sweet Tomato’s Jimi Rando trucked to neighborhoods devastated by Sandy. “It was great,” Ms. Eiffel said. “We did get to those people before FEMA stepped in and it was a great turnout,” she said of the goods contributed by her friends and neighbors to boost the relief effort. Not only did Ms. Eiffel make her stores a drop-off point, but she contributed some of her own store inventory…
FEMA sold disaster shelters as ‘Frankenstorm’ gathered strength
Federal officials sold hundreds of emergency trailers for disaster victims at fire-sale prices in the months before Hurricane Sandy churned toward the United States, The Washington Examiner has learned.
Now, with thousands of families left homeless in New York and New Jersey by the hurricane, those same federal officials are poised to spend more taxpayer dollars to buy brand-new trailers…
Hurricane Sandy Thanksgiving Relief with Mercury One and Somebody Cares
As Thanksgiving approaches and thousands of people are still recovering from Hurricane Sandy, several organizations have hit the ground running to provide much-needed relief to those in need. Mercury One and Somebody Cares have joined with HopeNYC and Crisis Relief International to organize three days of service for volunteers to help individuals and families in some of the hardest hit areas of New York…
Three days of volunteering beginning 11/16.
