As the gentle reader might recall, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, got hit with a torrential 15 inches of rain in about an 8 hour period. Houses were knocked off their foundations, thousands of cars got totaled, basements were flooded and at least two homeless people were swept away and found dead.
It took FEMA two weeks to get here and start assessing the damage. Matt Smith of WISN-TV caught up with FEMA spokesperson Nicole Wilson, who was very guarded about what she said and not very forthcoming whatsoever:
A FEMA spokesperson wouldn’t weigh into the politics surrounding the agency, as teams assessed flood damage from storms two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration may change how the federal government responds to disasters.
“I can tell you that FEMA is here today on the ground and in Wisconsin and Milwaukee County working to support the state of Wisconsin, to conduct assessments, to support the state’s request to conduct these assessments as they make a determination about whether they want to make a request for a major disaster declaration,” Nicole Wilson a FEMA spokesperson, told “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics, over the weekend. “All I can tell you is that FEMA is on the ground today in this community to support the state of Wisconsin.”
The spokesperson was probably feeling very edgy because the Orange Felon was feeling very edgy. And the Orange Felon was pretty edgy because people are finally getting sick enough of his bullshit and are starting to speak out.
Case in point, 181 former and current FEMA officials signed a letter stating how badly Trump is fucking things up there:
The message, in a public letter addressed to Congress and the White House’s FEMA review council, comes ahead of the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The 181 signatories said that under President Donald Trump, FEMA has abandoned the reforms designed to correct the agency’s mistakes in responding to the 2005 hurricane.
“We the undersigned — current and former FEMA workers — have come together to sound the alarm to our administrators, the US Congress, and the American people so that we can continue to lawfully uphold our individual oaths of office and serve our country as our mission dictates,” they wrote in the letter.
The letter said FEMA lacks qualified leadership, jeopardizing the nation’s ability to prepare for and respond to events. They also laid out several systemic concerns, some of which they said violated the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006.
Turns out that Wilson had good reason to be nervous. Late Tuesday, Trump put an untold number of FEMA employees on leave, including people known to have signed the whistleblower letter:
The Associated Press has confirmed that at least two of the signatories received notices Tuesday evening informing them they would be placed on leave indefinitely, with pay and that they must still check in every morning confirming their availability. It was unclear what the status was for other signatories.
The notice said the decision "is not a disciplinary action and is not intended to be punitive."
Yeah, right. Just like the Orange Felon is 6 foot 2 inches tall and weighs 215 pounds.
He recently pulled the same shit with the EPA. I tell ya, laying off hundreds of people out of retaliation. (It doesn't matter if they are union or not. That's not how we operate.) and hanging your mugshot on the US Labor Building just before Labor Day is not a very smart move. But then again, no honest person has ever accused Trump of being smart.
