If you don’t pay attention to the national weather scene, you may not be aware that a large, nay, even huge storm is about to pop up over the South, Midwest and upper East Coast, the result of abominably cold Arctic air sliding in underneath warm & juicy air from the south – or at least that’s my understanding from meteorologist Ryan Hall. He’s describing it as historic in proportion and intensity, with freezing rain possibly destabilizing power networks, many inches of snow, and that sort of thing.
What I’ve not seen mentioned anywhere is emergency response, including that traditionally provided by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). While FEMA nominally still exists, it’s been disassembled and doesn’t even having an acting director, according to its Wikipedia page. While I know anti-government types like to look down on FEMA, especially given its poor performance during Hurricane Katrina, in other disasters it has performed quite well and gets full marks, even from Republican governors.
If you live in an area affected by this storm, please try to be prepared for it. Assume imminent catastrophe and prepare accordingly.
And if you’re a Federal official, please be aware that shrinking the Federal government by getting rid of FEMA is just another example of blind adherence to ideology. It’s my guess that if the storm does turn out to be historic, and I hope it doesn’t, there’ll be some Federal asses roasting over an out of control fire. Yes, including him.
Stay safe.
