Five days after Hurricane Sandy struck FEMA finally placed a rush order for 2 million self contained meals of the type used by the military (MRE’s Meals Ready to Eat) for relief for storm victims in NJ and NY in need of food.
The deadline for response was 8PM same day. Within 4 hours FEMA doubled the order to 4 million meals. The order was to be delivered 4:30 PM local time on Monday Nov. 5th to a staging area, with half the order delivered by Nov. 6th to NY and the remaining half to NJ on Nov. 7th.
This isn’t the first time FEMA has failed adequately to anticipate the need for food supplies during an emergency. In September of this year during Hurricane Isaac they made a similar “flash” request. At that time they wanted 1 million meals delivered within 48 hours. There is no record of any company being awarded a contract for the meals.
And 5 days post storm Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano insists that help is on the way.
Nestle on its own account without coordination with FEMA donated and distributed 500,000 bottles of water for NJ and NY. If you saw a water bottle during any video news coverage of the disaster areas it had a Nestle label.
Budweiser at a plant in GA has suspended beer production to package 1 million cans of drinking water sans any FEMA involvment - Bud turned to the American Red Cross to aid in the distribution effort.
And speaking of photo ops Napolitano while on the ground at a disaster site and describing what a great job FEMA was doing in response to the storm posed in front of an American Red Cross truck and Red Cross volunteers passing out relief supplies.
FEMA knew where landfall would occur but failed to move its inventoried supplies of water and food in warehouses in MD and GA either just before or immediately after the storm. FEMA's own policy directives require it to "pre-position" those supplies in order that they can be distributed within 24 hours on site at the disaster. FEMA can't seem to move water out of GA but Budweiser can !
On Friday, November 2 FEMA requested an additional 2.3 million gallons of bottled water, for delivery on Monday, November 5 to NY.
And 6 days post storm Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano insists that help is on the way.
FEMA's supply lines for Gasoline, Clothing, Shelter, and Power have been similarly screwed up with frantic requests after the fact not in anticipation of need.
Seems FEMA planners and administrators haven't been paying very much advance attention to the meterologist's warnings on the Weather Channel as to how dire the effects of the "Superstorm" would be - what with all the "planning" and "administrating" that they've busily been doing.
Now, that very cold weather has moved in for the past 3 days FEMA says the focus has shifted to providing temporary shelter for the displaced.
And the storm victims, I meant to say "displaced" - well, 7 days after the storm you can take it to the bank, Janet Napolitano says "help is on the way !"
An open plea to the folks who live in eastern Pennsylvania.
FEMA and the Obama administration are incapable of getting relief to the people who need it, when they need it and where they need it - Big government can't do it - but a continuous caravan of volunteers can.
With cold weather moving in it's gonna get worse long before it gets better.
If you already have, "God Bless you and yours"; everyone else now while you're thinking about it is a good time to open up those wallets to support all the volunteer efforts to aid in the storm relief.
Some legitimate volunteer agencies
AmeriCares
88 Hamilton Ave.Stamford, CT USA 06902
1-800-486-HELP (4357)
https://secure.americares.org/site/Donation2?df_id=11784&11784.donation=form1&gclid=CJyNs4GesbMCFQSg4Aod8DMAng
American Red Cross
Samaritan's Purse
P.O. Box 3000
Boone, NC 28607
Phone (828) 262-1980
Fax (828) 266-1056
P.O. Box 3000
Boone, NC 28607
Phone (828) 262-1980
Fax (828) 266-1056
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