In 2005, the press savaged former President George W. Bush for his administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina.
Bush’s praise for then-FEMA administrator, Michael Brown – “Heckuva job, Brownie” – served as hostile media’s “proof” of Bush’s detachment and incompetence.
Fast forward to September 26, 2024, when another killer storm left a path of destruction from Florida’s Big Bend to roughly 400 miles inland.
Hurricane Helene’s track and ferocity were accurately forecasted days before landfall.
Appalachian mountain areas of Georgia, Tennessee and, especially, North Carolina sustained massive damage. Up to 30 inches of rain produced the worst local flooding in North Carolina’s recorded history. Catastrophic floods and landslides washed away homes, businesses and bridges.
Hundreds died.
At one point, North Carolina authorities declared 400 roads unsafe for travel. Many were completely washed out.
Early search and rescue missions were carried out by volunteers, while the Biden/Harris administration’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) remained MIA.
Federal response was delayed while alleged President Joe Biden lounged on a Delaware beach, and Vice President Kamala Harris was fundraising in California, telling coastal glitterati, “it’s good to be home,” while thousands of people in Appalachia no longer had one.
As of October 4, credible on-the-ground sources reported that almost all help was being provided by private citizens, mainly churches, charities, and private helicopters, and that federal officials were actually impeding private recovery efforts. Elon Musk donated Starlink satellite equipment and services for emergency communications.
If a Republican were president, ABCCBSNBCCNNMSNBC would have had on-air “personalities” waist-deep in floodwater reporting the administration’s failures, updating the death count in the crawl.
However, unlike Bush/Katrina, regime media is disinterested in assigning blame to an administration whose profoundly incompetent vice president they’re desperate to drag over the finish line in November.
Worse, FEMA announced it lacks the funds to make it through hurricane season. $1 billion allocated for disaster relief was reportedly squandered on the illegal aliens “Border Czar” Harris waved into the country. Congress never allocated FEMA funds for Kamala’s invaders. The money was just taken.
Biden waited ten days to send troops to Western North Carolina. The 1,000-troop “task force” Biden committed was one-third the size of the full brigade President Bush staged before Katrina made landfall, and Biden’s detail lacked the “medical, engineer, corps-level logistics, signal/communications, and Division/Army HQ command and control capabilities that defined Katrina support.”
Meanwhile, Harris staged photo ops at a DC “command center” hundreds of miles from the devastation, while thousands of storm victims were stuck in their homes – if they still had homes – without power, water, food, medicine – or a way out.
On October 5, days after Helene struck inland, Harris issued a message on “X” fretting about a “dire humanitarian situation,” and “the security and well-being of civilians.” Harris announced “$157 million in additional assistance [total $385 million]…for essential needs such as food, shelter, water, protection, and sanitation…”
But, none of the assistance money Harris committed was for American storm victims. It was for “suffering in Lebanon,” a dysfunctional Eastern Mediterranean nation largely controlled by Iran-funded Hezbollah terrorists.
Harris later announced that storm victims would receive $750.00 – per household.
Got that? Millions (billions?) for illegal immigrants, failed terrorist-harboring states, and pennies for American taxpayers who lost everything – maybe, but only those who have power and a phone or computer to apply.
Heckuva job, Kammie!
One suspects that, if Appalachia were renamed “Lebanon,” “Ukraine,” or more people there voted for Democrats, Biden and Harris would find the resources to help victims.
Days later, as Hurricane Milton gained strength in the Gulf and approached Central Florida, FEMA bureaucrats reported a shortage of frontline workers.
Fortunately, while Kamala glammed up for a Vogue photo shoot and drank beer with Stephen Colbert on late-night TV, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis provided the leadership Harris and Biden lacked.
Pre-landfall, DeSantis declared a state of emergency, ordered evacuations, activated 8,000 National Guardsmen, stockpiled fuel, and staged generators, food, water, tarps and 37,000+ linemen to aid in recovery. Cleanup began immediately on the Gulf Coast, then across the peninsula, as the storm moved east.
Hurricanes Helene and Milton proved that there are still capable, noble people – leaders – in America, but none in the comprehensively incompetent Biden/Harris White House or administration.
Proven unworthy, nonetheless, Kamala Harris thinks America will reward her with the presidency.
Are Americans really that obtuse?
Contact columnist Jerry Shenk at [email protected]
