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September 8: Trump Signs Disaster Aid, and
His Deal With Dems, Into Law
With the cleanup efforts from Hurricane Harvey running out of money and
Hurricane Irma bearing down on Florida, Congress acted quickly, taking only
three days to move the measure through both legislative bodies. But the bill,
which includes a deal struck between the president and Democratic leaders to
include short-term extensions of overall government funding and the nation's
debt ceiling, saw sizable defections among Republicans in both chambers.
September 8: Is Donald Trump Profiting Off
Natural Disasters Like Hurricane Irma? ... Donald Trump proposed to slash
funding for federal disaster relief and emergency preparedness programs just
months into his presidency. Now, with Hurricane Irma barreling toward the
southeastern U.S. coastline and Houston beginning to rebuild after Hurricane
Harvey, the first family stands to add to its bankroll during—and in the wake
of—major natural disasters striking the United States.
The president still owns his luxury line of hotels, despite shuffling the daily
responsibilities to his sons and saying he is committed to the terms of a blind
trust he announced after winning the 2016 election. The Trump National Doral
resort is one of those properties. Located in Miami, it has seen a
surge in reservation requests in the days before the huge storm hits. "We're
at full capacity," a receptionist tells Newsweek. "Luckily our windows
are hurricane-proof!"
October 1: Trump on the Puerto Rico
Hurricane Maria disaster: "Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San
Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help,"
... "They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community
effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/01/politics/trump-tweets-puerto-rico/index.html
October 2: Over the past few years, the
military has conducted textbook operations in Pakistan, Japan, Thailand and
Haiti—pumping in massive amounts of aid after devastating earthquakes and
hurricanes in those countries, no matter how rough or isolated the conditions.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/02/us-military-puerto-rico-215668
October 2: But when Hurricane Maria struck
at full strength several days later—precisely as advertised, and similar in
scale to Harvey—the U.S. military simply called off the huge resources it had
mustered for Hurricane Irma. ... An on-scene commander—crucial in crises this
large—was not appointed until nearly 10 days after landfall.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/02/us-military-puerto-rico-215668
October 2: ... in Puerto Rico and the U.S.
Virgin Islands, American citizens are waiting for the USNS Comfort
hospital ship, which won’t arrive until next week. Ten days after landfall there
was no real air bridge. Likely dozens upon dozens of heavy helicopters are
needed to move supplies until trucks are offloaded. And reservist units
specifically trained for long-term humanitarian relief, water purification,
medical care and military police? As of this writing, there is absolutely no
sign of them. Ten days in, a few Marines, small Army elements and the Puerto
Rican National Guard were ashore on their own.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/02/us-military-puerto-rico-215668
October 8:Donald Trump Revels In Recounting
The ‘Very Good Towels’ He Threw To Hurricane Victims (which was widely seen as
disrespectful to the suffering residents) ... joked
to the island’s officials that the cost of the storm has “thrown our budget a
little out of whack,” downplayed Maria as not “a real catastrophe” like
Hurricane Katrina (the 2005 storm in which many more lives were lost), and told
a family of hurricane victims to “have a good time.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-puerto-rico-paper-towels_us_59da65a3e4b046f5ad9904c6
Back to top
October 12:
U.S. House approves disaster funds as Trump criticizes Puerto Rico
A new package of U.S. disaster assistance sailed through the House of
Representatives on Thursday, despite President Donald Trump expressing
impatience with having to devote federal resources for hurricane-ravaged Puerto
Rico’s recovery.
October 13:
"I will tell you I left Texas and I left Florida and I left Louisiana and I went
to Puerto Rico and I met with the President of the Virgin Islands," [Trump] told
the audience of the Values Voter Summit in Washington.
"We are one nation and we all hurt together, we hope together and we heal
together," he said, later adding, "The Virgin Islands and the President of the
Virgin Islands, these are people that are incredible people, they suffered
gravely and we're be there, we're going to be there, we have really, it is not
even a question of a choice."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/13/politics/virgin-islands-president-donald-trump/index.html
[Of course, Trump is the president of the Virgin Islands, so he apparently met
and spoke with himself.]
October 12:
President Donald Trump
tweeted that first responders can't stay in Puerto Rico "forever," but if
history is any indicator, they can definitely stay there for a long time.
October 12: The agency is also still
spending millions of dollars this year on recovery plans in the wake of
Hurricanes Gustav in Louisiana and Ike in Texas from 2008. In fact, FEMA has
already spent $2 million in Puerto Rico relief this year -- connected to
Hurricane Irene in 2011.
October 19:
“I’d say it was a 10,” Trump told a reporter at a White House event with Puerto
Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló. “I give ourselves a 10. … We have provided so much,
so fast. We were actually there before the storm hit.”
The president’s remark conveys a different
reality than what’s going on in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory that is home to
3.4 million Americans. As of Thursday ― more than a month after Hurricane Maria
hit ― 30 percent of the island still has no drinking water and 80 percent
doesn’t have power. That’s according to government data
updated daily, which some volunteer workers on the ground say is inaccurate.
They say the situation is far more grim.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria_us_59e8d8abe4b0aa3f77dc5f5f
October 20:President Trump is living in an "alternative reality world" after he gave
his administration a 10 out of 10 rating for its hurricane recovery efforts in
Puerto Rico, the mayor of San Juan said.
... Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said Friday she would give the administration "a 1"
out of 10 rating, adding "the administration has been unresponsive."
October 20:
[Hurricane Maria] has upended the lives of 3.4 million people. It has cut
off entire towns from each other. It has left residents without water to drink
or bathe in. Enough aid has not come for many. The gravity of the recovery time
is starting to set in.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/20/us/puerto-rico-one-month-santiago/index.html
October 26:Trump signs $36.5 billion emergency aid bill for disasters
But White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said earlier this week the next
request for disaster aid, expected to cost tens of billions of dollars, should
be paired with cuts to other government programs to finance the money.
https://www.apnews.com/15c14ae204a74b31a4c2381a80e144ad
November 10: Puerto Rico's emergency
management director resigned Friday as the island's slow recovery continues
nearly two months after Hurricane Maria made landfall.
The governor also announced that
Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, who was appointed by the Pentagon to lead all
military relief efforts, will be reassigned outside the island next week.
December 18:House Republicans will introduce Monday an $81 billion disaster aid
package after the hurricanes and wildfires this year.
This is almost double the $44 billion figure the Trump administration requested
recently and come in response to efforts Republicans from Texas and Florida
pressing for additional resources.
January 4:
In a shift, Trump administration says houses of worship can apply
for FEMA funding for Hurricane Harvey relief
https://www.washingtonpost.com/
January 11: Disaster Mitigation Targeted by
Trump Saves $6 for Every $1 Spent, Report Says
Federal programs to protect Americans against extreme weather and other natural
disasters save even more money than previously thought, according to a report
funded by the same agencies that have proposed cutting many of those programs.
The report, released Thursday by the
National Institute of Building Sciences, found that every $1 the federal
government spends on so-called mitigation projects, such as elevating homes at
risk of flooding, improving stormwater management systems or strengthening
buildings against earthquakes, reduces future costs by an average of $6. That’s
higher than the 4-to-1 savings the institute last estimated in 2005; the
increase reflects the growing effects of climate change as well as better data
and measurement, according to the group.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-11/disaster-mitigation-programs-targeted-by-trump-seen-saving-money
January 31: Trump Tells Puerto Rico ‘We Love
You’ as FEMA Cuts Off Food and Water Aid to Island
“A third of Puerto Rico still lacks electricity. Many do not have running water.
But FEMA will ‘officially shut off’ tomorrow,”
wrote activist Erin Schrode on Facebook Tuesday. Schrode is COO of World
Central Kitchen, who is leading the #ChefsForPuertoRico project with chef José
Andrés to distribute millions of meals on the island.
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-tells-puerto-rico-we-love-you-fema-cuts-food-water-aid-island-795928
February 6: In the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina, Congress launched a bipartisan investigation into how the Bush
administration’s response had fallen so fatally short. That probe found, among
other things, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had neglected to line
up potential contractors in preparation for a major natural disaster — an
oversight that led FEMA to rely on wasteful, fraudulent, or inefficient partners
once the levees broke.
Now, some on Capitol Hill are beginning to suspect that FEMA made the same error
under Trump, in the run-up to last year’s devastating hurricane season. Cause
for such concerns isn’t hard to find. In November, the
Associated
Press revealed that the agency paid a single firm $30 million for emergency
tarps and plastic sheeting — none of which was ever delivered.
February 11: The U.S. Department of Homeland
Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced today that
federal emergency aid has been made available to the territory of American Samoa
to supplement territory and local response efforts due to the emergency
conditions in the area affected by Tropical Storm Gita beginning on February 7,
2018, and continuing.
https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2018/02/11/president-donald-j-trump-signs-emergency-declaration-american-samoa
February 14: How Trump’s 2019 budget would
leave us vulnerable to natural disasters ... ‘This admin’s approach to science
is ass-backwards.’
... programs to study natural hazards do cost money. For example, the USGS is
working to develop an
Earthquake Early
Warning System that would give people on the West Coast of the US a few
seconds to minutes of warning before the ground starts shaking.
Those
precious seconds could give train conductors time to slow down, warn
surgeons to hold tightly to their scalpels, and get people out of elevators and
into shelter. The system, which is still in development, is anticipated to cost
$38.3 million up front, and $16.1
million for maintenance and operation each year.
March 16: With FEMA facing its deepest
scrutiny in more than a decade, the government watchdog in charge of measuring
the agency's performance is no longer assessing its initial response to
disasters.
Acting DHS Inspector General John V. Kelly said the reports, pulled last week
from the IG's web site, didn't meet proper standards for a government audit.
March 16: The Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) announced that additional disaster assistance is available to the
Territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands through an extension of increased federal
funding, including direct federal assistance, to the Territory for debris
removal and emergency protective measures undertaken as a result of Hurricane
Irma beginning on September 5, 2017 and Hurricane Maria beginning on September
16, 2017.
https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2018/03/16/president-donald-j-trump-amends-us-virgin-islands-declaration
March 16:FEMA is not preparing for “climate change.”
Last year was among the
most expensive years in the history of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency’s disaster relief program, due to record-breaking hurricanes and
wildfires that scientists say were
made worse by climate change. But the agency has
removed that very term from its strategic plan for the next four years.
November 12:
As deadly wildfires forced more than a quarter million Californians to flee
their homes, President Trump recently alleged the infernos are the result of
nothing more than poor "forest management." He also threatened to eliminate
unspecified federal funds.
The
Camp fire in Northern California’s rural Butte County had killed 42 people
and destroyed more than 6,400 homes as of Monday, making it the state’s most
deadly and destructive fire in history. Authorities said more than 200 people
remained unaccounted for. The fire started on Nov. 8, 2018 in a wooded area near
the town of Paradise.
November 24:Climate report: Trump administration downplays warnings of looming
disaster
Democrats ramp up pressure to act in wake of most sobering government analysis
yet
The
Trump administration attempted to downplay the stark findings of its own
climate change assessment, as Democrats sought to pressure the White House to
avert looming economic and public health disaster.
The
US National Climate change assessment, the work of 300 scientists and 13
federal agencies, was released on Friday afternoon. It found that wildfires,
storms and heatwaves are already taking a major toll on Americans’ wellbeing,
with climate change set to “disrupt many areas of life” in the future.
“I was with the president of Finland and he said, ‘We have a much different,
we’re a forest nation.’ He called it a ‘forest nation,’ and they spend a lot of
time on raking and cleaning and doing things, and they don’t have any problem,”
Trump said.
May 16:
Colorado is on the leading edge of technology to fight wildfires and is
testing new and potentially life-saving tools.
The Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control Center of Excellence is
partnering with Honda to test an autonomous ATV.
"(It) is essentially an ATV with advanced sensors and different attachments,"
said the Center's Garrett Seddon.
Firefighters battling wildfires can typically carry up to 50 pounds of gear,
plus hoses and more equipment with them in hot, steep and dangerous terrain. The
goal is for the ATV to carry a lot of that equipment, plus medical supplies, to
keep firefighters safe.
https://kdvr.com/2019/05/16/colorado-tests-new-technology-to-battle-wildfires/
May 24: The House on Friday failed to
pass the Senate-passed $19 billion bill providing disaster aid funding to parts
of the United States hit by hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes and wildfires
after a Republican lawmaker objected.
The House tried to pass the measure during a pro forma session by unanimous
consent, since most lawmakers had left for a weeklong Memorial Day recess the
day before. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, objected, saying the bill didn't address the
humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and that it was not paid for.
"Our nation is strong enough, and compassionate enough, to have a responsive and
fiscally responsive approach to help people who are hurting in the wake of
natural disasters," he said.
