DDP Newsletter Vol. XL, No. 5
In the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, many people were asking this question. Accusations first about absence and then about slow deployment and malfeasance are widely disseminated and officially denied. Also, sensationalist theories assert that the storm was man-made or steered for a nefarious purpose, such as to affect the election or to wipe out those who oppose lithium mining in this area. Counterintuitively, influencers who promote such allegations claim to belong to the political side that was always highly skeptical about “man-made climate change.”
What is the true situation?
Whatever it is, it is not new. During Hurricane Katrina, people asked the same question, and the passage of S.3721, the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (https://tinyurl.com/8jyctvar) seemingly made no difference.
FEMA operates like any other corrupted bureaucracy: response will be slow and encumbered with red tape. There will be conflicts with local and state authorities and volunteers. As one person who did public relations for the agency during disasters described it, “FEMA sends in the money truck.” An official photo from North Carolina shows a neat trailer with staff to help people fill out forms. So far, a relatively paltry $4 million has been paid directly to families and individuals in the week after Hurricane Helene, reports Larry Bell, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has warned that his $640.9 million FEMA storm relief budget is now just about tapped out for the rest of this season (https://tinyurl.com/9a4rrwtz).
“FEMA is broke,” said Prof. Peter St Onge, because of spending on other priorities such as Ukraine and migrants. Quoting America First Legal, he said that “Over the last 4 years the Biden-Harris admin has steadily transformed FEMA into an illegal alien resettlement agency” (https://tinyurl.com/y5pxyjw5). Critics of this interpretation claim that subsidies for immigrants come from a “different source” and that the GOP-led House is responsible for the agency’s funding shortfall (https://tinyurl.com/4a5tn8p3).
But where are relief supplies going, and who is rescuing people?
Elon Musk accused FEMA of “belligerent government incompetence.” He claimed that FEMA was “blockading the disaster area and preventing private helicopters from delivering Starlink terminals, which connect to satellite internet service, and other supplies…. @FEMA is both failing to help AND won’t let others help” (tinyurl.com/25thtp8z).
Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg said, “No one is shutting down the airspace and FAA doesn’t block legitimate rescue and recovery flights.” A FEMA spokesperson stated, “FEMA has helped provide Starlink terminals…. These units are supporting state and local municipalities, Urban Search and Rescue and disaster coordination” (ibid.).
[Musk noted that Starlink likely would have already been up and running in some of these areas if the Harris-Biden Federal Communications Commission hadn’t stopped a $885 million grant to SpaceX to provide broadband to rural communities in 2022. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law set aside $42 billion to build broadband infrastructure in rural and underserved communities, but so far, zero connection have been made.]
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell called the “false” criticisms of the agency’s response “dangerous.” They could hinder FEMA’s recovery efforts. “It has a tremendous impact on the comfort level of our own employees to be able to go out there, but it’s also demoralizing to all of the first responders…FEMA staff, volunteers,” she told host George Stephanopoulos (https://tinyurl.com/mstnssvp).
One allegation is that FEMA refused to supply body bags and was planning to bulldoze an area without recovering the bodies. A responsive response would have been: “We did supply the body bags. All human remains will be treated with respect. Here is a source of information about efforts to identify them.” This has not been heard.
The task is enormous; volunteers are urgently needed. However, FEMA.gov urges you to “donate and volunteer responsibly.” You should register before volunteering. Unaffiliated volunteers who self-deploy might burden the community, FEMA warns.
As disaster response lags, FEMA’S new priorities, posted on its website, are: (1) Instill equity as a foundation of emergency management; (2) Lead whole of community in climate resilience; (3) Promote and sustain a ready FEMA and prepared nation.
Criswell said she made Equity her priority; then FEMA held Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training saying the U.S. is rooted in extreme violence, and “White Supremacy is in almost every institution” (https://tinyurl.com/yrfbrb8r). In a virtual meeting in March 2023, FEMA emergency management specialist Tyler Atkins said the agency was prioritizing LGBTQ people because they are “already disadvantaged.” LGBTQ victims should receive more support because they would have been “already struggling” before a natural disaster (https://tinyurl.com/39syehx7).
FEMA BACKGROUND
DDP was originally part of The American Civil Defense Association (TACDA). Our joint meetings generally featured a speaker from FEMA—when it still concerned itself with civil defense. In the Reagan Administration, under Gen. Julius Becton, FEMA revived nuclear war defense instead of being an “all hazards but one” agency. It supported the construction of five mobile NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) shelter displays, which appeared at DDP meetings and were taken by DDP to county and state fairs in many cities. The one made for FEMA deteriorated unused at the National Emergency Training Center until it was finally buried to use in fire-training exercises. FEMA required us to remove the medical kit as too dangerous for laypeople (the updated version can be downloaded from ddponline.org/medkit).The refurbished Arizona shelter appeared at the 2023 meeting and is now popular in Oregon at fairs and in parades. Today, the U.S. is largely do-it-yourself for all hazards as well as for civil defense.
FEMA was started by executive order in the Nixon Administration to assure the survivability of the United States government in the event of a nuclear attack on this nation. It was also assigned the task of being a federal coordinating body during times of domestic disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes.
Over the years, the scope of FEMA’s activities has expanded, as have its powers, through a series of executive orders. For example, E.O. 11921 of June 11, 1976, gives the federal government power over all “usable water” (https://tinyurl.com/39wp43j3).
Only a small fraction of FEMA’s spending goes for helping U.S. disaster victims. Continuity of government—including elaborate bunkers for selected officials—is likely the highest priority. Some say that FEMA is the most powerful organization in the U.S.—or could be in case of a national crisis (real or imagined). Meanwhile, it is busily implementing the regime’s political and social priorities, as flood victims are abandoned.
