Campaign Blog: News & Updates

HoustonChronicle.com - Perry, White thrash FEMA

Gee, you mean it's not just Democratic Governors that realize FEMA is a craphole of ineptitude after the Clinton years?

Gov. Rick Perry and Houston Mayor Bill White on Tuesday separately criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency's continued hurricane recovery efforts in Texas and Houston.

In a sharply worded letter, Perry protested FEMA's decision to cut recovery funding to Texas, said tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees soon will soon be evicted from temporary housing with no place to go and said FEMA has been slow to identify sex offenders and other violent criminals among Katrina evacuees.

He also said in his letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, sent one day before Chertoff is scheduled to speak in Houston, that FEMA was treating Texas victims of Hurricane Rita differently from Louisiana victims.

The lack of work done in East Texas and other locations hit hardest by Rita are the second shoe dropping on FEMA's woes. That's not, as our Republican friends like to suggest, a failure of government in the abstract. That's a failure of George Bush's government. No other way to write that off.

HoustonChronicle.com - Stoic, storm-struck Texans issue a call: 'We need help'

This hits a bit close to home since I've got friends helping out in the still ongoing recovery in East Texas. There's still a load of hurt in those parts that just seem to be getting ignored by too many.

Twenty-six days after Rita ravaged homes, businesses and forestland, turning nine counties into federal disaster areas, about 12,500 electric customers still lacked power Monday, down from 1.5 million originally, according to the Governor's Division of Emergency Management. Six school districts remained closed, according to the Texas Education Agency.

About 40 percent of Jasper County and 65 percent of Newton County lacked power, water and sewage services this week, Diggles said. Many East Texans haven't worked for weeks as businesses remain closed.

The price of Rita's destruction is still being tallied, but insured losses alone are expected to be $10-20 billion, according to the Southwest Insurance Information Service.

"I'm at the point where I've been so overwhelmed," said Newton County Judge Truman Dougharty. "I just want the system to work, but it's buried in bureaucracy."

East Texas leaders have complained about slow, disorganized and inconsistent relief efforts from FEMA and the Red Cross.

They say FEMA offered more benefits to Hurricane Katrina victims, and the Red Cross excluded most East Texas counties from automatic relief for damaged homes, even though President Bush declared many of the counties disaster areas.

The agencies have insisted they are doing the best they can.

The Red Cross procedure allows Rita victims to appeal for damage assistance later, but Red Cross officials have acknowledged that the new procedure has caused confusion and frustration.

Tyler County Judge Jerome Owens estimates that at least 95 percent of land and business owners in the county have sustained some kind of damage.

"These people need relief now. It's no longer sufficient to promise them something in the mail. How do you tell a baby to wait for formula or for diapers? How do you tell an older person, 'We can't provide you your medicine today?' " Owens said. "We're just asking for equality, not any special handout.

"Our people, they're hardworking people. They pay their taxes, they contribute to all these charitable organizations, and yet it seems that when they need it the most, they don't have the same relief and the same generosity extended to them as has been extended in other disasters."

The last part of that blurb ought to really stand in stark contrast to the "Do Nothing" caucus of Republican activists who think a bumper sticker slogan is good enough.

No, not me ... the other W. from Texas:

President Bush was supposed to land here on Friday afternoon on the first stop of a tour intended to make clear that he was personally overseeing the federal government's preparations for Hurricane Rita's landfall. But the weather did not cooperate.

It was too sunny.

Just minutes before Mr. Bush was scheduled to leave the White House, his aides in Washington scrubbed the stop in San Antonio. Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, explained that the search-and-rescue team that Mr. Bush had planned to meet and thank here in San Antonio was actually packing up to move closer to where the hurricane would strike.

So instead, Mr. Bush flew straight to Colorado Springs ... (ed. note - which, last I checked, is the exact opposite direction.)

...

Another White House official involved in preparing Mr. Bush's way noted that with the sun shining so brightly in San Antonio, the images of Mr. Bush from here might not have made it clear to viewers that he was dealing with an approaching storm. (ed. note - I feel your pain.)

In flipping through the channels, I realize now what I despise most about televised news. Well, the local brand, that is. Easy call, really. It's Wayne Dolcefino. Watching him getting whipped around by live hurricanes makes me root for the hurricane, much like Hitler at a Rodeo would make anyone root for the bull. Funny moment relived on the current broadcast ... dude is getting whipped around in the winds of Lake Charles, yelling at the top of his lungs never mind that he can be heard just fine. Wayne goes over to show a tree getting similarly whipped around. Since it's dark, Wayne holds a tiny flashlight up to the tree so we can see it.

Nevermind that big light atop the camera that's filming him going nuts (ok ... nuttier). That 10 watt bulb he's got on the tree really added to the moment. Five bucks says Wayne's kicking back at the Lake Charles casinos after he files this report.

May I never live to say this again, but I hereby second everything Ken Hoffman says. It's not that I've had previous disagreements with his reviews of fast food. I mean, I found his previous work on the Jack in the Box Ultimate Cheeseburger both inspiring and informational. But I usually don't take pointers on my worldview from folks whose news beat includes the drive thru at Wendy's.

Solid Gold:

And how come fuel trucks couldn't make it to Houston, but Tom DeLay and Sheila Jackson Lee had no problem getting here? The wrong bags of gas got through.

Power back! About 2am, I started getting some power burps and you just knew one of them was going to be the last. Sure enough, 4am saw the last one.

It never really seemed to rain all that bad here, so I'll be a bit shocked to hear about flooding here in Houston. News on now and they're buzzing around East Texas & Lake Charles, which got the worst of it.

All in all, we got off easy here in Houston.

UPDATE: Ah, sweet normalcy! The local Fox station is off the news binge and is showing the regularly scheduled broadcast of ... King of the Hill. How sweet it is!

UPDATE 2.0: Catching up on things I've missed ... apparently, Laurence finds inspiration in the strangest places.

Just had the first power outage here for a few seconds about 10 minutes ago. Probably not the last one.

Landfall is looking more and more like Lake Charles, LA. Flooding, winds, and power outage still a concern locally. Take the good news where you can find it and add a prayer or two for those folks in Cajun Country who are looking at this a bit more directly.

Red Cross has 100 shelters ready

Just checking for lists of shelters ... again, JUST in case. And apparently, Red Cross is saying that they're $1 billion short of meeting the needs for Katrina and Rita.

That's Billion ... with a B.

... and all's well.

Sorry, I couldn't pass up an Iron Maiden reference.