Obama: Kentucky is major disaster area

[darrels joy]

Obama: Kentucky is major disaster area

Order clears way to get cleanup aid

By Dan Klepal dklepal@courier-journal.com February 6, 2009
Obama declared Kentucky a major disaster area yesterday, clearing the way for the federal government to reimburse state and local governments -- including Louisville -- for 75 percent of their costs in responding to last week's ice storm.

_________________________________________________
February 4, 2009


deadly Jan. 27 ice storm struck Kentucky.

The storm is being blamed for 60 deaths across several states -- at least 25 in Kentucky. Half of the state's 600,000 residents are waiting for power to be restored.

(storm on Tuesday, help authorized on Thursday of the next week. sigh)

[SuperScout]

How long did it take Obama's FEMA to respond to this disaster? Did the residents of Kentucky, bright as they are, have 4-5 warning that an ice storm was going to ravage their state? I stand corrected: it took the blithering idiots of Obama's FEMA twice that long to respond to the disaster.

Where is Geraldo Rivera and his whining ways, in the midst of all this suffering in Kentucky? Where is the public outrage about the ineptitude of the Obama FEMA?

No wonder that some well-known and respected psychiatrists have written that 'liberalism' is indeed a type of mental illness. I believe them.

[darrels joy]

AP sanitizes FEMA from Ice Storm report
Posted by Catmman on Monday, February 02, 2009 3:47:12 PM

One story critical of the lack of FEMA response to Kentucky after the big ice storm.

Another story from the same agency (AP) and the same reporters dated the same day, curiously not critical of FEMA. In fact, there is no mention of a FEMA response at all in this story.

You can actually see the new Ministry of Truth forming before your very eyes..

http://robertsteely.blogtownhall.com...m_report.thtml

[darrels joy]

Many pleading for faster response
MARION, Ky. (AP) — A crippling winter storm has plunged about a million customers into the dark from the Midwest to the East Coast, and thousands of people in ice-caked Kentucky have sought refuge in motels and shelters.

Dozens of deaths have been reported and many people are pleading for a faster response to the power outages. Some in rural Kentucky ran short of food and bottled water, and resorted to dipping buckets in a creek.

Thousands fled frigid, powerless homes for hotels and even a heated auditorium at Murray State University that was converted into a shelter following Monday's storm that left some areas in up to 1 inch ice.

Utility workers hoped to speed up efforts Saturday to turn the lights back on. Still, rural communities feared it could be days or even weeks before workers got to areas littered with downed power lines.

Temperatures were expected to rise just above freezing Saturday for the first time in days.

At least 42 people have died in the icy arc of destruction that began in the Midwest. At least nine deaths were reported in Arkansas, six each in Texas and Missouri, three in Virginia, two each in Oklahoma, Indiana and West Virginia and one in Ohio. Most were blamed on hypothermia, traffic accidents and carbon monoxide poisoning from generators.

In Kentucky, where 11 people had died, a man and two women were the latest victims after they were found dead in a southwestern Louisville home. One woman was found in a bed; the other two were found in the garage with a generator, police spokesman Phil Russell said.

Meanwhile, the uncertainty of when power might be restored had many appealing for help. Officials urged those in dark homes to leave.

"We're asking people to pack a suitcase and head south and find a motel if they have the means, because we can't service everybody in our shelter," said Crittenden County Judge-Executive Fred Brown, who oversees about 9,000 people, many of whom spent a fifth night sleeping in the town's elementary school.

Local officials grew angrier at what they said was a lack of help from the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In Kentucky's Grayson County, about 80 miles southwest of Louisville, Emergency Management Director Randell Smith said the 25 National Guardsmen who have responded have no chain saws to clear fallen trees. He said roads are littered with fallen trees and people shivering in bone-chilling cold are in need.

"We've got people out in some areas we haven't even visited yet," Smith said. "We don't even know that they're alive."

Smith said FEMA was still a no-show days after the storm.

"I'm not saying we can't handle it," Smith said. "We're handling it. But it sure would have made life a lot easier."

FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak said some agency workers had begun working Friday in Kentucky and more help was on the way. Hudak said FEMA also has shipped 50 to 100 generators to the state to supply electricity to such facilities as hospitals, nursing homes and water treatment plants.

"We have plenty of folks ready to go, but there are some limitations with roads closed and icy conditions," she noted.

From Missouri to Ohio, thousands were waiting in shelters for the power to return. Others were trying to tough it out at home.

In Poplar Bluff, Mo., a man used a barbecue grill inside to cook and keep warm, deputy police chief Jeff Rolland said.

"Luckily, one of our volunteers was in a position to see what he was doing and inform him of the carbon monoxide dangers of using a charcoal grill inside a residence," Rolland said.

President Barack Obama on Friday declared a federal emergency for Missouri, making the state eligible for federal funds even as power outages lingered in much of the southern portion of the state.

In Kentucky, Gov. Steve Beshear said crews were working around the clock to restore power and get food and water to needed areas. Beshear said state government would "spare no expense" in recovery efforts.

"We are pulling out all the stops, using all of our resources and devoting our entire energy to this emergency and we will continue to do so until the last home has power, the last road is cleared and the last family is safe," Beshear said.

Beshear said 200,000 customers were without water or under an advisory to boil their water Friday night.

"By the end of this weekend, we hope to have generators at a majority of the water plants," he said. "In the meantime, we are trucking bottled water into every place we know that needs it, so no one should be without drinking water over the weekend."

Laura Howe, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross, said the organization had opened more than 34 shelters for some 2,000 people.

Doris Hemingway, 78, spent three days bundled in blankets to ward off the cold in her Leitchfield mobile home. News that it could take up to six weeks for power to be restored sent Hemingway and his husband, Bill, into a shelter at a local high school.

"I'd pray awhile and I'd cry awhile," Doris Hemingway said. "It's the worst I've ever seen."
___
Associated Press writers Roger Alford in Leitchfield; Dylan T. Lovan, Rebecca Yonker, Brett Barrouquere and Janet Cappiello Blake in Louisville; Betsy Taylor in St. Louis; and Randall Dickerson in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this report.

---

http://www.courier-journal.com/artic...EWS01/90131003

[darrels joy]

KY deploys full Army Nat'l Guard for storm cleanup

By BRUCE SCHREINER and BETSY TAYLOR, Associated Press Writers Bruce Schreiner And Betsy Taylor, Associated Press Writers 44-0800>Sat Jan 31, 6:18 pm ET

MAYFIELD, Ky. – Gov. Steve Beshear deployed every last one of his Army National Guardsmen on Saturday, with his state still reeling after a deadly ice storm encrusted it this week.

More than half a million homes and businesses, most of them in Kentucky, remained without electricity from the Ozarks through Appalachia, though temperatures creeping into the 40s helped a swarm of utility workers make headway. Finding fuel — heating oil along with gas for cars and generators — was another struggle for those trying to tough it out at home, with hospitals and other essential services getting priority over members of the public.

The addition of 3,000 soldiers and airmen makes 4,600 Guardsmen pressed into service. It's the largest call-up in Kentucky history, which Beshear called an appropriate response to a storm that cut power to more than 600,000 people, the state's largest outage on record. Many people in rural areas cannot get out of their driveways due to debris and have no phone service, the governor said.

"With the length of this disaster and what we're expecting to be a multi-day process here, we're concerned about the lives and the safety of our people in their own homes," Beshear said, "and we need the manpower in some of the rural areas to go door-to-door and do a door-to-door canvass ... and make sure they're OK."

Staff Sgt. Erick Duncan of Murray said he and his colleagues have been putting in long shifts to open tree-littered roads. Duncan, who manned a chain saw, said he expects the assignment to last quite a while.

"It's a mess and we're just in the city limits," he said. "We're not even out in the county yet. And there's plenty of cities and counties to go to."
Thousands of people were staying in motels and shelters, asked to leave their homes by authorities who said emergency teams in some areas were too strapped to reach everyone in need of food, water and warmth. The outages disabled water systems, and authorities warned it could be days or weeks before power was restored in the most remote spots.

That uncertainty had many appealing for help and officials urging those in dark homes to leave, if they could — many were stuck in place by blocked roads and other obstacles.

The storm that began in the Midwest had been blamed or suspected in at least 42 deaths, including 11 in Kentucky, nine in Arkansas, six each in Texas and Missouri, three in Virginia, two each in Oklahoma, Indiana and West Virginia and one in Ohio. Most were blamed on hypothermia, traffic accidents and carbon monoxide poisoning.

From Missouri to Ohio, thousands were waiting in shelters for the power to return. As far away as Oklahoma, around 10,000 customers still had no electricity.

At Graves County High School in western Kentucky, where 490 sought shelter Friday night, Ruthann Taylor, 23, said she tried to ride out the early part of the storm at home with her 1-year-old son, but it simply got too cold.

"I woke up the next morning and my son was pretty much an ice cube," Taylor said. "I said 'OK, we've got to go.'"

Fuel shortages, a problem since the storm, spilled into the weekend, with radio stations that normally broadcast music telling people where they could get gas and oil businesses ranking customers according to how urgently they needed it.

"We're trying to prioritize to get fuel to hospitals, nursing homes, ambulance services," said David Dunlap, regional sales manager for MFA Oil Co., which has 10 locations in southeast Missouri.

With the power back on in Tennessee's northeast corner, Kentucky residents headed across the state line to get fuel. Obion Co. Propane Gas general manager Ken Walker said he gets five customers on the average day at his shop in Union, Tenn.

He saw 200 in a single day Thursday.

"They are bringing their propane cylinders, camper bottles and whatever else they can to do what it takes to stay warm," Walker said.


The community of Caruthersville, Mo., about 200 miles south of St. Louis, had its own supply of about 8,000 gallons of diesel and another 8,000 of gas. Workers used generators to power pumps to get fuel to power other generators around town, including one that kept the water plant going.

Reserve water supplies were on hand in case of additional emergencies.

"I can't feel real good about it until all our people are back in a comfortable environment," Mayor Diane Sayre said.

___ Betsy Taylor reported from St. Louis. Associated Press writers Roger Alford in Leitchfield, Ky., and Janet Cappiello Blake in Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090131/...s/winter_storm

[Packo]

when it's a different President. I have been yelling at the TV for over a week over this. WHERE WAS FEMA???? Oh, wait-a-minute, Kentucky is a predominately white state. Guess this makes Obama as Racist as Bush. Had it been a freeze in N.Orleans.....maybe he'd have helped, but as long as it's Ky....well, get out the KY. I'm sure some are saying, "heck, only an ice storm and only a "few" died. You can't compare this to Katrina". Well, that is just appologyism. Those people needed help and Obama FAILED to save those 20+ people from dying and the hundreds of thousands more from suffering. Sure hope we don't have a major disaster in this country in the next 4-8 years if this is his response. Actually though, he was pretty busy kissing moslem ass recently, so I guess it's just a matter of priorities. I also think the Ky Governer blew it. He JUST called out the NG, but, as in Katrina, it's the Presidents fault. He's Captain of the ship. Shame on you Obama. I just lost more HOPE.

Pack

[SuperScout]

C'mon, all you fire-breathing liberals! We want to see and hear your screams of anguish and condemnation of the White House for their collective and collectivist failure to provide assistance on a timely basis, just like your incessant whining about what happened in New Orleans. You whiners and snivelers of the liberal platoon are the world's most pathetic hypocrites, whose collective integrity level is below valueless. You are more transparent that used cellophane, and twice as useless.

America deserves better.