The Worst Ice Storm In 20 Years; Where's FEMA?

The middle of the country has been hit by the worst ice storm in 20 years. Hundreds of thousands of people are without heat, power, and in some cases, food and water. To make matters worse, in some areas, it is almost impossible to get to some people to check on them, due to roads being blocked by trees.
We lost power in my home town on Tuesday night, about eight pm, and when I say we lost power, I literally mean the entire city of 18,000 plus the surrounding rural areas and the small towns in the country were without power.
This morning, we were still without power, and I had heard nothing about this on MSM. (I had a generator, so I was able to hook up the tv and satelite and channel surf the news. It wasn't even mentioned.)
Now get this. My sister in law, an ardent Obamaite, called at 5:30 in the morning to inform her sister that Obama was sending help, in the form of the national guard. My response was "Yeah, right. This is a national emergency on par with Katrina. If Bush was still in office, the MSM would be all over it. But even Fox has ignored this."
This morning, when I finally got cell coverage, I called Congressman Marion Berry (D-AR), was told that FEMA and the National Guard were in my city, even as I was speaking to the young lady in Washington. I asked her if she could tell me where they were based, since no one I had talked to knew anything about it. Of course she couldn't. I let it slip that I had a generator, she said, rather sarcastically that I was luckier than most. I agreed but I told her I was worried about those people that didn't have heat or power, all she could do was keep saying "I'm sorry." She continued to insist that FEMA and the National Guard were in my area and were working.
I decided to go hunting. I went looking for FEMA. I went looking for the National Guard. I asked people if they had seen any sign of them, I told people what I was told, while I was in Walmart. Of course Wally World had power. I told people when I stopped at the gas station what I was told, and asked them if they had seen any federal help. These people included residents of Missouri, who were looking for kerosene to provide heat for their homes. None of them had seen FEMA or the Guard.
I guess the dems don't care about us rednecks who "resort to our bibles and our guns when we feel threatened." Is it any wonder we feel this way?
Obama? Bush? FEMA? All of it's BS.
Folks, learn to take care of yourselves. Teach your neighbors to take care of themselves, if they are willing to do so.
Find some older people who lived through the Great Depression and WWII and learn from them. Pick their brains. Record what they tell you. Write it down. And put it into practice.
And write your idiots in Washington and let them know!

(To the Mods: Not sure where to put this. Please feel free to move it to where it will do the most good.)

theyre not here.. thank god. dont want them or need them anywhere near these parts.

Hint: there aren't actually that many FEMA or national guard personnel (less than seven thousand for FEMA, and I think only about 10,000 national guard troops get deployed as emergency relief, and they certainly can't all be sent in at once, in case something else comes up), and the Midwest is pretty huge. If you plan on living in a rural area, don't expect timely assistance from the federal government. They're probably focused on cities. Not that they're very good at accomplishing their goals in the first place.

So there's probably like 1 aid worker per hundred or more people, and they're probably grouped around the cities.

Moral of the story: Don't stake your life on the weather staying nice. If it's the worst storm in 20 years, it's been worse within the lifetimes, and even memories, of a good fraction of the populace. Learn from experience.

You miss my point. We were prepared. But a lot of people weren't. And if this had been the Bush administration, or any Republican administrtation, the MSM would have been all over the government failure to deal with the emergency.
People still beleive Obama can do no wrong.
And although we were prepared, I saw mistakes, things I misses planning for. We are fine tuning our survival plans now. For example, extra gas for the generator. We tend to take gas stations for granted.
Keep the wireless phones but get an old style phone that doesn't depend on a charger.
Obama wants a socialist state that provides everything for the citizens. He just failed his first test.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that I saw on the news that even as the storm was in progress, Obama signed the necessary papers to declare a state of emergency, and hence released funds and personel to help out. A heck of a lot quicker than the Bush admins reacted for Katrina that's for sure.

Before bashing the President, maybe you should do some research on what he has actually done to help you.

Here you go...it was on the 29th that the decrees were signed.

State of emergency

Some more info for you on the help...

Kentucky's governor is praising the Obama administration's prompt reaction to the fierce wintry weather that slammed his state.

"They really hit the ground running," said Steve Beshear, interviewed by CNN. "They're working very hard to get all the equipment and supplies here that we need."

Crews have been working to restore power and water service to hundreds of thousands of people. Beshear said that while he realizes "nothing moves fast enough," he said the federal assistance "has been a great help to us so far."

KY Governor - Obama people hit the ground running

I heard on a report from cnn FEMA is in Kentucky.

reply to post by kettlebellysmith


Also remember, that even though you have a Federally declared state of emergency, your state governor has to officially request help.

Call your governor's office and call FEMA - from what I see on their website, only Kentucky.Arkansas and Missouri are included in the emergency declaration.

There is also a major disaster declaration for Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Washington State

FEMA's # is 800-621-3362

You can ask them where they are located to help you

Sorry, but according to MSNBC's web page, an article about the storm in Kentucky says 25 national guardsmen were sent in. With NO CHAINSAWS. And there was still no sign of FEMA. That is on the site now! Sorry, I don't know how to do the quote for breaking news.
But somebody's seems to be prevaricating.


[edit on 31-1-2009 by kettlebellysmith]

Yeah so, I'm in Louisville KY, and i haven't had power since tuesday. Beshear pocketed the money we get for situations like these, and low and behold we have ourselves a state of emergency. On a lighter note though, I've yet to see and FEMA-ites, nor National Guards persons. Lucky for me i have a job and i can escape the cold, but our electric company LG&E says most won't have power for another week.

edit for spelling

[edit on 31-1-2009 by J Orobus]

reply to post by redhatty
I would think my congressman's office would know where they were. I was not given any phone numbers, and as I said, no one in town that I talked too had seen or heard of any federal help. And there sure as heck wasn't any national guard around.
I was hitting the web, Thursday night and Friday, trying to find ANYTHING about FEMA or Obama declaring any of these areas a disaster area, as well as having the news on all day. Guess what? I couldn't find a thing. And I know how to do research. So google, yahoo, fox, and msnbc were all screwed up by aliens (break out the tin foil hats), or I don't know how to look up things on the web, (I've been fooling with the internet of at about 20 years, back in the days when the main computers were Commodores).
I have checked the links, but none of these came up in my searches. Why wouldn't it show up in these other engines? Why would the MSM ignore this until today? And trust me, it was ignored. I the tv and satelite conneted to a generator, and when I was at work, there were tv's on constantly. (And I was at work until 7:30 on the 29th. Then I had the radio on on the way home.

reply to post by J Orobus
Thank you for verifying what I read on the MSNBC website about the failure of FEMA to appear. Again, if a Republican was in office, the MSM would be all over this blaming the administration. But the media believes Obama to be the Messiah, so he gets a free pass!

reply to post by kettlebellysmith




The Northeast went thru a similar ice storm ~6 weeks ago. No power for over a week.
I took it as a wake up call to get yourself prepared for what is coming in the near future (IMHO)

You need to be able to survive without the grid for at least a month. .02c

We had generator, ran it a couple hrs a day, woodstove back up, food stored in canning jars etc.....



[edit on 31-1-2009 by Pinktip]

reply to post by kettlebellysmith


Lucky for us its starting to heat up a little bit. Thank you Meitreya, for sending helpfull imaginary entites to our aide. Hope things aren't as bad for you are as they are here. And didn't I just see something that they were setting up FEMA camps all over the place? But where?

reply to post by kettlebellysmith


Lucky for us its starting to heat up a little bit. Thank you Meitreya, for sending helpfull imaginary entites to our aide. Hope things aren't as bad for you are as they are here. And didn't I just see something that they were setting up FEMA camps all over the place? But where?

I did see on my local news last night that a handful of red cross workers were headed out for help. A handful isn't much.

I see the OP's point. Everybody's talkin but you aren't seeing the action. Having endured a similar ice storm in my area a few years ago I feel ya, there is so much we take for granted.

As far as Wally World, the news also said two of the roofs in the areas of the storm had caved from the weight of the ice and snow.

Be safe.

reply to post by kettlebellysmith


Here's FEMA's site about Kentucky Disaster Recovery and here is the Emergency Declaration on FEMA's page.

The designated countries are:

This assistance is for the counties of Allen, Anderson, Barren, Bath, Boyd, Boyle, Breathitt, Breckinridge, Butler, Caldwell, Calloway, Carlisle, Clark, Crittenden, Daviess, Edmonson, Elliott, Estill, Fayette, Floyd, Fulton, Garrard, Graves, Grayson, Hardin, Harrison, Hart, Hickman, Hopkins, Jackson, Jessamine, Johnson, Larue, Lincoln, Logan, Lyon, Madison, Magoffin, Marion, Marshall, Mason, McCracken, Meade, Mercer, Metcalfe, Morgan, Muhlenberg, Nelson, Nicholas, Ohio, Owsley, Perry, Powell, Shelby, Todd, Trigg, Union, Washington, Webster, Wolfe, and Woodford.

It also notes that there is no individual assistance available for this storm. From what I can find on the FEMA site, they are mostly financing and coordinating efforts that are available already in the state.

HUD's Disaster Relief for Kentucky

Kentucky Division of Emergency Management

From the above link:

Vast power outages and lack of communications have hendered emergency response in some areas. If you are having difficulty contacting a local emergency management office please call

1-502-607-1600 for assistance or information.

Kentucky Community Crisis Response Board

Kentucky Emergency Management Offices

American Red Cross

Find your United Way or dial 211 from any phone for more United Way coordinated help.

Hopefully between these resources you can find some of the help you need, quickly

We had some preps made, but found things we had missed. My brother, who lives with my mother, has a generator. And she has natural gas heat.
We spen a a night with her. I bought extra gas for the generator.
Before next year, I will have a generator, and some way to generate heat in my home. (It's all electric. And I really don't want Gas. I do have a fireplace, but it's small.)
Batteries, LP lanterns, and possibly a LP or white gas stove for cooking.
We've been moving more and more to get off the grid anyway so it's no big deal. Just coming up with the cash.

reply to post by J Orobus

It's heating up for us here in Arkansas too. The sun is shining, and the ice is gone from the trees. I'm going to wait until later in the week to start the cleanup in my yard though. I need a new chainsaw, and I'm going to have to wait until Lowe's get some in. (Want to get a Husky. Something that will hold up. I may be trying to cu and burn wood by next winter. Besides, I have a lot of pecan and maple around here, and it burns real well in my grill when I want to smoke a shoulder or a Boston butt.)

Can anyone tell me if FEMA is giving assistance in your town, what exactly do they do? Can you get your insurance deductible paid, trees that did not hit your home or other property cut down, etc...

Thanks for the info.