Saturday, June 26, 2010

FEMA Fails Again!


ANOTHER FEMA DISASTER
Two weeks ago tonight, we had a terrible night of tornadoes that hit on the western edge of Toledo, Ohio and then skipped to the eastern edge of town to a little farming community about four miles from where we live. Five people died, the police department was totally flattened, homes were reduced to rubble (see picture) and the high school was completely blown to pieces. (This was supposed to be the shelter for people without a "safe place") Luckily, it was a Saturday night and school was not in session. The next afternoon was supposed to be graduation, but it was postponed for a few days and held at a local Community College. Even the school busses were picked up and tossed about like Matchbox cars. When daylight came and the officials could survey the total damage, they found a terrible carnage of homes, public buildings, vehicles and even a turned over train. All the trees were denuded and the official damage report made it a Category F4 tornado. The amazing thing was the outpouring of local support for this small community. My daughter has a group of young adults from church that meets for food and fun every Tuesday evening. She called her people and said , " Bring sturdy shoes and work gloves....we're going to Millbury this week." They picked up debris for hours, working side by side with inmates from the Sandusky County Jail. Hundreds of people came from miles around, including a football team from a town south of Findlay, Ohio, to do anything they could for the people. National Guardsmen told my daughter on one of her trips, "Hey, don't do such a good job... it will affect the damage rating when FEMA gets here." Well, guess what? Yesterday, FEMA turned down the request for a Disaster Designation, because most of these hard working people had insurance and the citizens were cleaning up much of the mess by hand. Men were using chain saws to cut up fallen trees and women were dragging branches to the edges of roads for volunteer trucking to the dump. They had been burning large piles of wood, but the Environmental Agency told them they had to stop to protect the Earth from Global Warming. Duh! So, now Lake Township has no high school and no police department and no help from the government in this disaster. Why are the people of New Orleans still whining and not working on their city's five year old mess, but receiving aid from the government, when the Governor of Ohio has to beg for a little help for a town obliterated by a tornado. Funny, these folks did not have five days to get out of town....only about ten minutes warning that a severe storm was heading their way. Life is not fair, but neither is our Federal Government.

6 comments:

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

oh my word! this is horrible! i was also wondering where they are in the gulf spill??? i am speechless!

hugs, bee
xoxoxoxoxoxo

Frequent Traveler said...

It is wonderful the initiative that the townspeople have taken after this Level 4 Tornado.

The government is a disgrace.

Andrew McAllister said...

That's horrible! I can't imagine what it would be like to root around in rubble that used to by my family's home. Kudos to them for working hard to clean up the mess. (Oh, and "just plain hi" after a lonnngg time away from the blogosphere...)

Changes in the wind said...

I am so sorry for this situation but proud of your town folks.

Anonymous said...

as someone who grew up in that (Toledo) area, I applaud the surrounding communities for thier help and support.

I've always said you can never count on help from the government. This typifies it. it's sad...

Glad to hear y'all are okay.

Granny Annie said...

Another truly heartbreaking disaster story. It is not a case of the fittest surviving because the least fit are the ones who get all the government help and the fittest struggle to work hard and have to save themselves.