Gov. Rick Perry sees Texas wildfires as statewide emergency. FEMA doesn’t?
In a strongly worded letter to President Obama on April 16, Texas Gov. Rick Perry asked for a federal emergency declaration that would release more US resources – and cash – to fight what may be the worst wildfire season in Lone Star State history.
“I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state,” Governor Perry wrote.
Ten days later, that appeal has gone unanswered, though nearly 1 million acres have burned in the meantime. Last week, Perry asked Texans to pray for rain to stall fires that have scorched nearly 2 million acres since late last year – the amount that had burned in 2008, when President Bush, a Texas resident, declared a federal emergency in Texas on March 15
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Gov. Rick Perry sees Texas wildfires as statewide emergency. FEMA doesn’t?
That picture is from somewhere close to Bowie, Texas, it presents only a small cross section of what Texas is dealing with.
I have had issues with Rick Perry in the past, that’s no secret, I have taken him to task on this blog. Here’s the thing about Rick Perry, love him or hate him, it makes NO difference, when it all washes out, Rick Perry is still a Texan. I have to respect that.
Perry has worked hard to get Texas the FEMA resources and money needed to combat these fires in Texas. Our own resources are stretched very thin, that tends to happen when you’re battling a ONE MILLION ACRE fire, multiple fires actually.
“We expect the [disaster declaration] to be going through approval, but we have not received it yet,” says Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for Perry. In the meantime, she adds, “Texas continues to pull all resources available toward fighting these fires, and we’re doing everything at the state level to continue fighting this and ensure that we protect property in Texas as best as possible.”
Waiting on federal resources in an emergency only tends to exacerbate the situation. An example: your house catches fire, you call 9-1-1 and you expect an immediate response, not a song and dance about money and budgets and so forth. Well, OUR house is burning and by God we need some immediate response.
Though the governor of red-state Texas and President Obama are perhaps not the best of friends, there’s no evidence that politics is behind the delay. Moreover, the US Forest Service is fully involved in supporting the Texas firefighting.
Still, some note, North Carolina received a presidential disaster declaration on April 20, four days after a rash of tornadoes tore through that state. Similarly, it took President Bush four days after the October 2007 California wildfires began burning to declare it a national emergency.
Look at the numbers, look at the timeline and locations of the almost immediate FEMA relief put in place by the Obama regime when it was a disaster somewhere other than Texas.
“There’s two reasons why I don’t think there’s any political footdragging,” says Bruce Buchanan, a political scientist at the University of Texas, in Austin. “One, it’s not Obama’s style, and, two, it would be a politically costly thing to do when Americans are in danger.”
Texans are a hearty lot, we WILL survive and move on, bigger and better, with or WITHOUT the help of the U.S. government. Texas can stand on it own. Can the USA afford to be without Texas? We were an independent nation once, we can be again.
Yes, WE CAN!
Of course we can and will survive, even without the assistance from the Feds… We defeated a whole country once while the U.S. stood by and watched.
That is not the issue… We deserve the aid, we have already paid for it through our tax dollars, it is the same principal as a personal tax refund, it is already our money, we just loaned it to the Feds for a short time.
Of course Obama is denying the aid because of his piss fight with Gov. Perry and other Texans, He hates Texas.
Last year Texas was hit with a Hurricane, no Federal aid, major flood, no Fed Aid, 2 million acres burnt, no Fed aid..
I realize FEMA use made grants available because of the fires, that is a very small part of the total aid that occurs after a Federal Declaration of Disaster.
I would like to see more outrage in the newspapers and Television, we deserve better and fairer treatment.
Numbnuts, and fatass hillary are too busy giving aid to the third world dinks to think that maybe Texas, or for that matter any other state that didn’t carry his worthless ass needs help. Texans should remember this, and when numbnuts comes courting next year, pandering and kissing ass for votes, Rick Perry needs to get some cajones and remind the SOB about the wildfires that Texas had to fight on their own with NO help from him. If HE wants to play politics,…… then by all means Texas SHOULD play politics………..chicago style.
We Texans need to show the leftist Obama government the disgust it deserves. Would be nice if Texas could withhold the tax revenue due the feds to cover what’s neede for these disasters. “Come and Take It”.
It’s payback from Obama. Perry once mentioned Succession and now Obama is dealing out some political payback. He doesn’t care how many people are hurt in the process, he wants to rub Perry’s face in it along with Texas.
It’s sad to see our wonderful State being ignored with about 2 Million acres of land scorched by wildfires.
We do pay for emergency funds to the federal Government and that they would ignore us is a signal of the politics in D.C. and how the potus sees us.
We will survive, unlike other states, as we are the strongest and the best in the
nation.
Sage
When LBJ lost the vote in Harlingen, he closed Harlingen AFB. I can almost (thought not quite) understand that kind of petty crap. But when disaster strikes and FEMA doesn’t do what it is mandated to do (Presidential intervention? Nah! Not Obummer!) than that is just plain old chickensh*t.
Mr Obama, your niggardly response (and no, damn-it, that is not a racist comment for all you Harvard types out there) will definitely cost you Texas’ electoral votes in 2012 and likely some democrat seats as well.
GM — I remember my Mom and Dad talking about politics in Louisiana back in the Huey P. Long days, when they were kids, and how Huey carried every Parish in the state except Caddo…
After he was in office there were new roads built all over the state, except in Caddo Parish.. And Huey was a Democrat of the 1st order…
And I have to hand it to you, you figured out how to use Obama and niggardly, in one sentence, and did so quite correctly!
Fred, its one thing to close an AFB, after all, all of the assets are turned over to the city, and Harlingen International Airport, The Marine Military Academy, Texas State Technical Institute and Rio Grande State Center (where I used to work many moons ago) all benefited.
But when property is at risk and lives are at stake, his response is flat out cruel. Obummer may think he is acting presidential with resource allocation, and I understand that the Tornadoes in the southern states was a real disaster and too many lives lost was a FEMA priority. Having said that, there is no damn excuse for his actions, and he is an unmitigated son-of-a-bitch (no slur against his mom intended) because of his petty behaviors.
I hate the SOB, not as much for what he has done, but for acting less than presidential in all of his actions. Unfortunately, as his “reign” progresses until we toss him out on his ass, the people of this great country are the ones paying the price for his socialistic policies.
Sorry for the cussing, but he has really
pissedticked me off. ~x(Texas along with most of the other Confederate States and, with few exceptions, the Western states have sucked hind teat for over 100 years. The collectivist elitists have looked down upon and have ridiculed our heritage, our customs, our regional accents, and our very way of life. Now it seems our refusal to conform to their new political religion and bow to the enlightened one has caused us to be perceived as not only red-neck country bumpkin Vor-menschen but also unpatriotic potential terrorist threats.
It should come as no surprise to we Texans that the Lightbringer’s (aside: check a thesaurus for “Lucifer”) bureaucracy would refuse to consider Texas for any federal government assistance. This refusal follows upon the footsteps of the current residence of the White House’s refusal to include the governors of the border states in his recent illegal immigration conference and his denial of any knowledge of guns being “walked” into Mexico from at least three of those four states.
Obama has already figured out that all he has to do to retain his present federal government position is to carry the same major metropolitan areas and enclaves of misguided closeminded advocates and/or sycophants who voted for him in 2008. He feels that he doesn’t need to be concerned with Texas or with any other state that he didn’t carry in 2008. Anyone who doesn’t agree with him is an enemy and is to be treated as such.
[W3]
I just saw in the news that FEMA is denying Virginia assistance they requested because of the devastating tornadoes this year. When Virginia voted in a Republican governor last year, it was a slap in the face to Obama. It seems when Obama addressed Republicans as “enemies” when he was speaking to Hispanics, he wasn’t just using the word flippantly; he was dead serious.
I’m not sure I can add to anything above. However, Obama once again shows his total incompetence. Clearly, he is playing politics with Gov. Perry and the State of Texas in general. I wonder how many Democrat votes he picked up with his “tampering” of FEMA? How much of the land and how many of the burned houses do you think belonged to Democrats? If we were playing “Pin the Tail on the Donkey,” where would you pin the “stupid” tail?
Hussein doesn’t give a damn about Texas. He’s already written off Texas as a loss for the November 2012 election.
If wildfires were blazing in Illinois, FEMA would have already been ordered in.
I think you could sum it up very much like this, Fred: the more Demorat and Leftist states will receive favor and aid, whilst the others will receive much less or nothing. It is all politics. On the other hand, what doesn’t kill you just makes you stronger.
Of all things, don’t become Fornicalia. It’s a beautiful state and I love it, love the weather, the beauty, the mountains, the coastline. But I hate its politics and most of the damned parasites here. The hosts are fleeing. Most recently: eBay.
BZ
AOW, you’re right on spot about sacrificing others to save Illinois. The Feds just flooded tens of thousands of acres of Missouri farmland and destroyed about 90 homes to save Cairo, Illinois, a crime ridden hellhole.
The problem is that our nigger president doesn’t see it this way.
Only the 2012 election will get rid of this problem plaguing TEXAS.