» But if one does hit NYC, it’ll cost a bundle: CoreLogic, a data-analysis firm, estimates that the area most in danger of major financial loss if a hurricane hits it is New York City — with some estimates reaching as high as $100 billion in insured losses. To give you an idea of how bad it could be in NYC, Hurricane Irene, which was a fairly minor tropical storm when it hit the city last summer, still caused $6 billion in damage in the New York/New Jersey region.
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As president of the United States I want to make it very clear that we are going to meet our federal obligations because we are one country. When one part of the country gets affected, whether it’s a tornado in Joplin, Missouri or a hurricane that affects that eastern seaboard, then we come together as one country and make sure that everybody gets the help that they need.President Barack Obama • Speaking about the need for federal disaster funding during a visit to Irene-ravaged New Jersey yesterday. This is an issue as a result of some stuff Eric Cantor said last week, suggesting that federal funding of disaster cleanup would only happen by cutting matching funding elsewhere. We like the point The Bergen Record’s Mike Kelly makes about this: “Memo to conservatives: You make good points about the need for America to get serious about government spending. But this is not a John Wayne western, with steel-eyed gunfighters making black-and-white decisions about life and death.” Conservatives are right on a surface level on this — we need to cut spending — but get down to the nitty-gritty and it’s simply not clear-cut. source (via • follow)
The guy’s acting like he’s having a hard time standing up, and you see people just strolling along behind him. I thought, what a great contrast. Why didn’t he just stand up and say, ‘We were very lucky’?Former FEMA head Michael “heckuva job Brownie” Brown • Somehow turning media critic after Hurricane Irene (in ripping CNN for their coverage of the storm). Hey, Michael, no offense, but you’re the last person that should talk here. Glad to see that the crisis was weak enough that you can rip the media for the coverage. You and Ray Nagin should probably keep your media commentator cards to yourselves. source (via • follow)
Alright, who gave this Hurricane Irene photo better play, the WaPo or the NYT?
Bill Stinson, his daughter Erin, left, and his wife Sandra, center, now have a very different view at the site of their historic home. The images have come to stand for all that Hurricane Irene erased.
Shocking damage.
A notable edit to Eric Cantor’s Wikipedia page we just noticed. (See yellow highlight.)
Any projects that have not come in for approval, we’re not going to be able to fund those as this point. We’re going to postpone those. Our goal is to keep this disruption as short as possible, but it was prudent.FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate • Describing the reasons that FEMA is putting their long-term work to repair Joplin, Mo. on hold, and instead putting that money towards Hurricane Irene. Another issue arising in the Hurricane Irene situation? They might run into yet another wall of House Republican suck. That’s because House Majority Leader Eric Cantor makes no guarantees about funding Irene cleanup unless there are budget cuts to match, which is a real jerk move which shows how out-of-touch with reality that the GOP is. Now, granted, Ron Paul pitches ideas like these all the time. But when the GOP leadership continues to do so without regard to the current situation at hand, it makes you you want to vote all the bums out en masse next year. source (via • follow)
How many have to be killed for you to assess this as serious enough?Piers Morgan • During a suitably dramatic debate on whether the media overhyped coverage of Hurricane Irene. Morgan and a couple of his fellow guests — New York Times super-reporter Brian Stelter and meteorologist Chad Meyers — ripped into the Washington Times’ Joseph Curl, who claimed that the storm was in fact overhyped. Curl was against a stacked jury: Stelter (who is on Tumblr) had just gotten back from North Carolina, Meyers is a meteorologist and Morgan is a sucker for passionate quotes. The overhyped argument loses again in the media sphere. Now, let’s go talk about getting some donations to people who need it. source (via • follow)
The Philadelphia Daily News will be embarrassed to show its face after reading this article.
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Before Katrina, it was a longstanding tradition in our country for political officials to wait until the last minute to warn, to take action, to evacuate. No more. With Irene, you had mass evacuations — mandatory ones — issued days ahead of time. That was the right thing to do.Retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore • Regarding the changing approach to hurricanes since Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall in Louisiana six years ago today. Honore was one of the officials whose work on the recovery from that storm was widely respected. To put his point another way: “I’ve been in the storm business for years and I’ve never seen officials be prudent enough to cancel commercial and sporting events before a storm. Folks in the Northeast did that. The day before Katrina, we had a football game in Baton Rouge. That’s how far the community has come.” So there you have it: The guy who coordinated much of the the Katrina response says they did the right thing on Irene. source (via • follow)
Our emergency management people are flat-out trying as hard as they can to avoid loss of life. We have been encouraging any Vermonter who lives near a brook, river or lake should head to higher ground.Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin • Offering a message to people in his state affected by the now-former tropical storm Irene, which is really now just a giant storm that’s dropping a ton of rain on Shumlin’s state. And the state wasn’t expecting it: According to Shumlin, officials expected the storm to nail the Connecticut River Valley, but the storm track changed and now it’s over Vermont. Some locals have called it the worst flooding the region has seen in a generation. So yeah, Irene’s nothing to screw with even though she’s no longer a tropical storm. source (via • follow)
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