Trump in North Carolina
Compare and contrast to the previous administration:
True to his word, Trump, along with First Lady Melania Trump, touched down in the Old North State Friday morning. He was immediately swarmed by the crowd of well-wishers desperate for hope after four months of getting the runaround from FEMA. …
While there, Trump also floated the possibility of either reforming FEMA or getting rid of it altogether, saying states more so than the feds were in a better position to know the needs of their people. He also indicated the money to North Carolina would “go through us” and not FEMA.
I had read something long ago, written by Amity Shlaes I belive, about Pres. Calvin Coolidge and his limited (or zero?) financial assistance to his home state of Vermont during disaster times. I went searching for detail and found this material, though I don’t have time to thoroughly digest it now.
Mississippi River flood of 1927
https://www.britannica.com/event/Mississippi-River-flood-of-1927
https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-executive-branchs-response-to-the-flood-of-192
https://www.mynbc5.com/article/vermont-flood-1927-brave-little-state-calvin-coolidge-bennington/61561780
Some fascinating stuff. The Britannica piece blames the federal response to the flood of 1927 for a big switch in African American’s support from Republican to Democrat. (Never heard that before.) Also, Hoover was a very active Commerce Sec. under Coolidge. I knew some of that story, but not the extent.
I don’t see how Brittanica works that, since Hoover ran as a Republican.
We watched most of Trump’s appearance in western NC today. Some of the stories were heartbreaking. The scope of the damage and numbers of destroyed and seriously damaged homes and businesses dwarf what happened to southern California.
Read the definitive work, Rising Tide, by John M. Barry. He well explains the great flood of Southern blacks pushed by circumstance to the North by the 1927 flood, as well as the devastation, a wall of water destroying all before it when the levees broke in central Mississippi. Over the flat plain, that wall went for 50 miles East. Massive destruction, much worse, much more deadly to man and beast than the Asheville hurricane.
Well, I think Barry’s is the definitive work!
Thanks Cicero.
Kate, Britannica claims that blacks were heavily used (some died) and often mistreated during the rescue and recovery. Some of that recovery occurred under federal assistance orchestrated by Sec. Hoover. Both Coolidge and Hoover ran and won as Republican Pres. candidates. But Sec. Hoover had a substantial track record before running for president. Not all of it good apparently.
But it is so much easier for the media to cover the devastation in southern California, and of course more beautiful people there?
om – “more beautiful people there?”
Or at least more influential…
Tommy Jay-
Oh, come on.
All presidents make errors. ALL.
So what is your point? That Coolidge and Hoover “mistreated” blacks?
Strikes me as a baseless accusation.
I am fairly well-versed in the history of America and slavery. Those who pre-1865 escaped Southern slavery and fled North were often re-enslaved there, and on returning South reported worse treatment up North.
Has it escaped your notice Britannica is left-leaning?
It’s hard to tell what FEMA is doing for North Carolina. Its website is busy clearing up “misinformation” about its efforts in NC.
https://www.fema.gov/fact-sheet/myth-and-fact-north-carolina-helene-response
But it seems there are still many unhappy people in NC. I’m glad Trump visited them first.
Some decades ago I resided in a small western NC town, Tryon, a village actually, beloved by Chicagoans and other Midwestern wealthy before air travel became mass transport, and they drove to FL each winter (for the season). They drove thru these beautiful WNC mountains where land was literally priced at $5-10 per timbered acre, and Asheville was, and is, its hub. So these folks bought up most of the land and turned those mountain folks into servants.
Not kidding! A butler called to ask me to make a house call because something might ail her Ladship’s puppy.
Pete is in. I am sure Neo will have a post up tomorrow. Mitch is snorting C.
I watched Trump’s town hall In SoCal. What a tour de force. I don’t know how long it lasted, much longer than planned. Aside from the occasional pat on the back for himself, he was totally attentive to the people speaking; and interacted with them on a personal level. I would imagine that he made quite a few friends in California if the visit and session are accurately reported.
But he lit into the California power structure. He told Mayor Bass and the rest to get out of the way and let people get on with rebuilding. He pledged to waive, or fast track, all Federal permits and challenged the locals to do the same. He also expressed considerable understanding of fire prevention–assuming what he said was accurate. He quoted conversations that he had years ago with authorities from Finland and Austria who told him that they simply don’t have wildfire, despite being heavily forested, because of the aggressive forest management. (In truth, they don’t have the dry climate) He pounded California authorities on water management.
Newsom showed up at the airport apparently uninvited. Trump kept him standing at the foot of the boarding stairs for a long time before he emerged from AF1. They had a brief conversation before Trump left. Newsom was notably absent from the tour and gathering.
Good description pf the Trump meeting in LA, Oldflyer.
Anyone with a half-way open mind has to be impressed.
Southern California’s fire mitigation problem is different from Austria or Finland because they don’t experience the deep droughts that California has.
We lived in Orange County for a few years when I flew out of LAX. Basically, the climate is generally nice, but the bad weather brings drought and dry conditions that create high fire danger. Then the heavier than normal rains bring mudslides.
I flew with a Captain who lived in Malibu Canyon. Standard equipment for living there was a D-4 Cat. He used it to keep brush cleared, push mud out of the way, and doze a fire line on the ridge above his house, He had lived there for many years and had seen both fires and mudslides. And his house had never burned or been buried. I thought he was crazy, but he loved the place and knew how to be prepared.
California has gotten away from that kind of preparedness because of the climate change activists. If Trump can put a stake through the climate cult’s heart, it would be a huge favor to us all.
That was in the 1970s and California was already talking about building more reservoirs because the population was growing. But the Sierra Club and others came out against it, and the eco-Nazis have been in charge in Sacramento for a long time. They built their last reservoir in 1973. Trump says they don’t need more reservoirs, but I think he’s wrong. We’ll see. Theyhave plans for another one, but it was authorized in2014 and nothing has happened yet.
More reservoirs are needed, as well as expanding existing ones (Shasta Dam should be higher).
It would help a lot if the excessive water released during droughts in vain attempts to save a supposedly endangered bait fish stopped. Of course how did it survive historically before dams released water during droughts? My view just lawfare to achieve environmental goals.
Grim at Grim’s Hall is retired Army officer from Georgia now living in western North Carolina who is also a volunteer first responder. Between posts on philosophy and motorcycle riding, he’s been periodically posting on his experiences with Hurricane Helene recovery (the current post today is his thoughts on Trump’s comments regarding FEMA). A couple of other folks, Texan99 and Doubting Thomas also make periodic contributions to the blog.
Oldflyer,
The libs I monitor are going crazy that Trump actually demanded that California start sending water to the southern part of the state and that they get their act together for forest management before fed money comes in. I agree, in part. Yes, people there need help in a disaster. However, I don’t want to see my fed tax money going to a state that just keeps repeating the same ridiculous policies that got them into the situation the first place.
In the clip I saw this morning Trump is attaching strings to federal assistance to California — stop wasting water by letting it flow out to sea and start requiring VOTER ID.
Naturally Democrats are indignant, Jon Stewart burst a blood vesssel over any conditions. I don’t know that Trump can succeed in forcing voter ID on California, but we are going to have a conversation about it.
Progressives love conversations, don’t they?
Progressives love the kind of “conversation” known to the rest of us as pontification.