Reply to Did Trump's cuts to NOAA and the National Weather Service impact predicting the flash floods in central Texas?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]40 years ago fema was a little known agency that toiled in relative obscurity to help people at the worst times of their lives.  I don’t know how it became such a scapegoat but it’s coming at the worst time—when climate change is making climate disasters more and more common.  [/quote]

FEMA received its reputation when it was trashed for the government response to Katrina.  Its reputation was solidified among conservatives when it responded apathetically to Hurricane Helene.  It's the same problem we have the FDA and CDC, which tarnished their reputations during the COVID panic.

It's a sad state of affairs.  
[/quote]

For Hurricane Helene, FEMA's disaster relief fund was underfunded by the budget put in place by Congressional Republicans.  Republicans lied about it and claimed it was because all of the FEMA money went to "migrants" and "foreign aid" even though that was false because they were totally separate programs and appropriations.  FEMA deployed $137 million in aid, 14.9 million meals, 13.9 million liters of water, and 505,000 tarps.  But if you listen to Republicans they did absolutely nothing.  Ironically after blasting Biden over Helene response, Trump and Noem didn't really do much more than was already being done.

Also, FEMA is not and has never been a first responder agency.  State and local responders are supposed to lead and request aid from FEMA.  There were a lot of problems that compounded due to many of the areas needing aid being mountainous, with roads washed, out, and they were only accessible by helicopter.  There were tons of communication and coordination issues on the ground, but with Republican desire for limited government and austerity that's what you should expect.[/quote]

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