Rapids

Do you think FEMA will do a better job in Cedar Rapids than New Orleans?

Cedar Rapids demographics is 91.86% white and Iowa is a swing state. New Orleans was 28.05% white and Democratic. What do you think will happen with the FEMA clean-up in Iowa?

Public Comments

1. FEMA spent more time so far at the Boy scout camp tragedy then they have spent in Cedar Rapids.. Don't rely on FEMA Granted the response time in Katrina was ignorant, but the last dealing of the 85million dollars in goods that could have helped allot of families and single citizens that went unknown and unused for the event was astonishing and sick to say the least.
2. I hope so! New Orleans was an administrative fiasco. Of course the sheer size of the problem and their unorganized frenzy to play catch up after bungling the initial response.
3. Iowans will help themselves and each other. They will not depend on the Federal government. It does nothing well except redistribute money from productive people to itself, and Roman Orgy lifestyle parasites.
4. FEMA won't have much to clean-up. The people of Cedar Rapids will help themselves, and that includes the 8.14% of the population that is not white. And I don't think the city government and the mayor of Cedar Rapids left the city, thus being available to coordinate relief efforts with any agency that lends a hand. Apparently you think FEMA reacts to a disaster based on politics and race. Get real!
5. The more interesting statistic should be how many are on welfare and accustomed to the government doing it all for them. Rewind: August 24, 1992. Hurricane Andrew annihilated much of Homestead, FL as a CAT 5, not a cat 3. I lived there and don't remember anything being as bad as they say it was in NO. Of course, I didn't have power for 5 weeks and no phone for 2 1/2 months so I didn't see the media coverage. Just the same, we stood in line for hours for supplies - and yes, paid for them - , were happy to have our families around, and in my family at least, didn't ask for handouts. We cut our own trees, walked water in buckets and 5 gallon jugs 1/2 a mile from the neighbor's house down the road who had a pitcher pump. We sat in traffic in an overheating car for hours to get to school or work. Yes, my dad was transferred out of town because the building he worked in was completely destroyed so my family was split up for a time. We slept in the living room with a rifle to keep us safe if looters tried to get in the house though we never had trouble with that. We cooked all our meals on a bunsen burner or the grill with only one meal out at a restaurant once a week, maybe. The roads were closed in most places so travel was difficult. But we got busy, got to doing the things that needed to be done and put our lives back together. Never got a dime from the government as far as I know. The most we got was insurance money which included a meal allowance that Mom and I used for that one meal out a week. I think FEMA will do just fine. It's not designed to give everything to people who are too lazy to help themselves. It's designed to help people through an emergency situation but you have to help yourself as well. I think it'll do fine as it seems the people in Iowa probably know how to work hard and get on with their lives without asking for a free handout. And, BTW, I do have family in NO. They got on with their lives also. Of 6 families there in 6 different homes, only 1 home survived so that one was opened up to all the family and they lived together for several months. **** happens, move on.
6. i sure hope they do
7. If you are going to claim racial bias at least be accurate when you cite statistics: The City of New Orleans at the time Katrina struck was about 65% Black and 35% White. The New Orleans metro area (1.4 million people) was about 70% White and 30% Black. The state of Louisiana was/is about 70% White and 30% Black. The main difference is the scope of the disaster. Like with the California fires last year, the power of TV is to focus on a small area and make the viewer think everywhere is like that. In reality, the flooding in the mid-west is a medium-small disaster (like the California fires). Comparing the events in the mid-west with Katrina is comparing a parking-lot fender-bender with a head-on collision at high speeds. The flooding in the mid-west is actually affecting only a small area and relatively few people have had their lives disturbed. So far, about 5000 homes are threatened and 25,000 people have had to evacuate. No deaths have been reported. Katrina was the worst natural disaster to ever strike the USA. It devastated an area of 90,000 square miles (larger than Great Britain), killed 1800 people, displaced more than 2,000,000 people for months, made 500,000 of us long-term homeless, and destroyed 225,000 buildings. The damage to the City of New Orleans alone is estimated at $200 Billion, and NOLA is only a fraction of the devastated area. To compare with the fires in 2007 (which is a completed disaster), about 700 square miles were affected, 7 deaths were reported, 1000 buildings burned, 3000 to 5000 people were made homeless, and the damage was estimated at $1 Billion. Basic services in the mid-west have not been disrupted and the flooded areas are not isolated from the rest of the world by the event. It was the same last year in CA. Katrina cut all communications to the devastated areas for more than a week and rendered state & local government across southeatern Louisiana and southern Mississippi almost incapable of functioning. On top of that was the incompetence of Governor "Blank Stare" Blanco and Mayor "Crazy Ray" Nagin (both are Democrats). Note that news media reports of civil disorder in New Orleans were grossly exaggerated. For example, there were "reports" of violence inside the Superdome at the time In reality, there were NO murders in the Dome, NO babies were raped, and there were NO gun battles (all were high-profile news stories at the time). The same was true at the Convention Center. There was plenty of bad news to go around and I don't know why the media felt a need to make it up. Reality was: - Katrina was predicted to strike elsewhere until about 60 hours before landfall (which occurred during the morning of August 29, 2005). - A comprehensive state of emergency was declared by both Louisiana and NOLA on August 26th. The evacuation order was given on August 27th. - The evacuation was wildly successful and more than 90% of the city's population was able to leave by the evening of August 28th. About half of those who did not or could not leave went to the Superdome, which was the designated shelter. - I have friends & family who were at the Dome or the Convention Center as New Orleans Police or National Guard. The news reports of violence were simply untrue, and they recall only tens of thousands of hungry, thirsty, depressed people who were praying for rescue. Also, New Orleans is NOT “below sea level”. Most of the city and metro area are above sea level and the parts that are BSL are generally only a bit below. The city flooded so badly because the levee system failed, and the storm surge was much higher than sea level (which is the same as what is happening in Iowa). I see claims all the time that New Orleans somehow "stole" money for the levees and that is why the flood protection failed. In reality, the levee system was designed & built by the US Army Corps of Engineers (a federal agency), and major repairs/renovation were also the responsibility of the USACE. Something Iowa will have in common with Louisiana is because the damage is due to > flood <, and homeowners insurance does NOT cover flood damage. That will make recovery much more difficult in Iowa, just like it is making recovery more difficult in Louisiana & Mississippi. To Cristina V, The damage to Homestaed, FL during Andrew was from the wind, and was so widespread because local government building inpectors took bribes to allow developers to build whole neighborhoods without "hurricane roofs". The storm literally blew the unsecured roofs off the buildings. That didn't happen in New Orleans. Instead, the city was flooded when the federally-built levees failed. The population was NOT ALLOWED to return for months, and the prohibition was enforced by a ring of military checkpoints. It's very nice that you can claim you didn't need help because you could drive to the store the next day, but that option was NOT POSSIBLE in southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi after Katrina.