Frankenstorm

As I write, parts of New York City are underwater. Hundreds of thousands of residents have been evacuated and city, county, and state shelters are filled. Although Hurricane Jessie, with 90+ mile per hour winds, is still some 200 miles away, the city and coastal New Jersey is already hard hit. State officials and FEMA officials and are working together to keep Americans safe and save as much property as possible.

No one knows what will happen when Jessie collides with the storm front moving in from the west and the Alberta clipper heading south from Canada, but everyone knows it won't be pretty.

About 50% of the American population is threatened by this huge storm, which is affecting the entire Eastern seaboard from Florida to Maine, and some inland states, like West Virginia. Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic took heavy damage days ago.

President Obama spoke to the nation earlier today, saying the storm will be big, but all preparations have been made. "The most important message that I have for the public right now is, 'Please listen to what your state and local officials are saying.'" Just before his briefing, he was in a meeting with Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano, FEMA administrator Craig Fugate, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and National Hurricane Center Richard Knabb.

"The president emphasized that he has been working with state and local officials to ensure everybody has the resources they need, including food, water and electricity generators" (Bendery, 2012).

A massive storm like this requires coordination at state and federal levels so people can be saved from high waters and food, water, and supplies can be brought in. Sometimes it fails, as happened during 2005 with Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Sometimes it works, as seems to be happening with Sandy.

Coordinating rescue and relief among a dozen or more states is a huge effort and requires some sort of overarching support. That's exactly what the Federal government provides in disasters like this, when we are threatened by hostiles as happened on 9/11, and when disease strikes. Without a federal government we would be screwed. With a federal government, we cope.

During the not-long-ago GOP run-up debates, presidential candidate Mitt Romney was asked whether FEMA should be closed.

"Absolutely," he said. "Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction. And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that's even better. Instead of thinking, in the federal budget, what we should cut, we should ask the opposite question, what should we keep?"

"Including disaster relief, though?" debate moderator John King asked Romney.

"We cannot -- we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids," Romney replied. "It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids..."

-- Grim, 2012

Guess what? The states are doing all they can. Right now. This very minute. And when the states get overhwhelmed, the Federal government is there to help.

It's popular among Republicans to cry for the shuttering of virtually the entire national government, but of course it would be a disaster. We need our federal highways. We need the Centers for Disease Control to respond to contagion. We need uniformity and good standards for food and water quality. We need a FAA to ensure safe airways. We need courts to protect our constitutional rights. We need social welfare programs like Social Security and Medicare. And we need a military to protect us (the Republicans argue the other way on that one).

Sure, there's inefficiency in our government. Barack Obama has done a lot to reduce that, and there's a lot yet to be done. Sure, some agencies should be closed-- but we need a strong and lean federal government so states are's overwhelmed when the next 9/11 or Hurricane Sandy shows up.

As Sandy approaches and the winds outside begin to weave in the gale, I'm really happy for our federal government.


Sources

Bendery, Jennifer. (2012, 29 October). Obama: Hurricane Sandy will be "big and powerful," but we're ready. Huffington Post. Read it here.

Grim, Ryan. (2012, 28 October). Mitt Romney in GOP Debate: Shut down federal disaster agency, send responsibility to states. Huffington Post. Read it here.