The work I'm doing

What you are looking at is an oil tanker, small and designed to move oil along the coast and up the canals and rivers that line the east coast. The oil that escaped when Sandy drove this ship onshore is minuscule compared to the thousands of residential oil tanks that were flooded, upset or floated away when Sandy came to visit.

When there is a flood a little bit of oil goes a very long way. Just a gallon can cover almost an acre and the the stain and odor are almost impossible to remove. There are areas in the county I'm working in where the odor of oil has forced people out of their homes. Since the average household oil tank holds about 300 gallons and if the statisticians are correct most of the tanks were within 50 gallons of being full, the amount of oil released is staggering.

In addition to helping people cope with the sheer destruction of their property I also have to talk to them on how to cope with a hazmat situation and sympathize with them while telling them that it's a very expensive process to contain and mitigate an oil spill and that their town (which is usually broke) has to initiate and coordinate the effort.

It is a simple matter to tie down a fuel tank and minimize the potential of any disaster creating a far worse situation. Go to www.fema.gov and read the literature that describes many ways you can protect you home from the ravages of violent nature. Who knows...you might not have to talk with me if disaster hits your area.

L'Envoi Again

Just last week I wrote about a beloved cat that had died and left us to join friends in the Elysian Fields. Over the years Le Contour and I have hosted many pets, primarily cats and at one time we had 7 cats that kept us honest and on our best behavior.

With the loss of Shiloh we were down to one cat…an opinionated termagant of a Maine Coon Cat that came to us some 18 years ago as a homeless and feral kitten living behind a Thai restaurant and living on scraps and crickets. We managed to capture her and after much discussion she agreed to allow us to fed, house and love her. In time she grew comfortable with the way her life had changed and even moved with us from Washington State to Kansas when the job called and we relocated to fly over country.

Tamarin was a unique lady; opinionated, stubborn and talkative; but when she accepted you, she was up in your face affectionate. All too soon her early life caught up with her and her kidneys started to fail. This morning Le Contour was told it was time to help Tamarin cross the Rainbow Bridge. She has to face this task alone since I’m a thousand miles away on a FEMA deployment and I’m not there to grieve with My Lady

A solitary Scotch will be consumed tonight to honor a special friend:

                   Tamarin    1996   2012

L'Envoi

On a warm spring day in 1990 a lady came into our lives. Born behind a bar in Louisiana and suffering from a septal heart defect a palm sized kitten allowed us to take her in care and because she was herself decided that she could easily bend us to her needs. Shiloh as never a big cat, the most she ever weighed was four pounds, and most of that was heart. If you were stressed she knew just how to apply purr therapy and if you were bad, discipline was sure to follow. Even the humans were subject to her decisions and she never played favorites.

If there is such a thing as continuity of life our tiny warrior queen has to have been an Irish cop patrolling the streets of Old New York. She knew what was right and didn't hesitate to tell you when you didn't abide by her code of conduct. She was an Iron Lady in a cat's coat.

When a new pet came into our house it was Shiloh who would take them in charge, show them where the litter box was located, decide where they would eat and remind them that even though she was the smallest of cats our house was her house and that her rules were to be followed. Period.

When we brought dogs into the family Shiloh would sigh, shrug and take on the task of training them and molding them into the Shiloh way of household management. Except for litter box training of the dogs she was always successful and was a Lilliputian queen in a Brodbignian house.

A few days ago she decided that 23 years was sufficient and it was time to cross the Rainbow Bridge. She was our companion and friend and we miss her terribly.

In Defense

The media, and the blog, has been full of finger pointing, handwringing and trenchant commentary concerning the “failure” of FEMA to save the people of New York and New Jersey when Sandy came to visit. The commentators all complain that the feds didn’t plan for this response, failed to respond in a timely fashion, took too long to get on scene, couldn’t keep the water out and didn’t get the electricity turned back on in a timely fashion.

Although I realize FEMA has many shortcomings I have to stand in defense of an agency that I work for on a part time basis. Yes, I said part time since about 85% of the people on the FEMA rolls are Reservists who commit to being available on little or no notice when disaster strikes. They have myriad skills and bring lots talent to the table, but it takes time to gather several thousand people from around the country, provide them with physical space to work from at a multitude of locations scattered around the disaster area. And FEMA has to do this while working around the failures and mistakes  caused by local politicians who ignored their constituents and their emergency planners who pointed out the dangers of failure to plan for disaster.

Just as the New Orleans flooding was initiated by the failure of a local levee whose repair had been urged for decades and whose repair was ignored by the local politicians who had “more important places to spend their money”. The tidal surge flooding caused by Sandy was made worse by the failure of politicians to heed warnings by professional staff, both local and federal, that extreme weather conditions would cause flooding. Sea walls were not raised, people were not urged to get flood insurance and infrastructure was not protected. FEMA doesn’t operate the electrical grid or run the subway and while it can tell the operators of those things the public depends on of steps necessary to protect the system it does not have the power to force people and institutions to provide for their own protection.

FEMA is there to help you plan for disaster, but only if you want their help, they are also charged with providing assistance to those who have been injured by the disaster. The can not make you whole, they can only help you get back to the position you were in the day before the disaster.  But they can’t respond until requested by the authorities at local and state level and that takes time before FEMA can legally enter the scene, those reservists don’t appear out of nowhere, they have to be found by skill set and directed to travel to the disaster site. FEMA can "lean forward" but util the signal is given they can't be there in full force.

So whose fault is it that “FEMA was slow to respond”, it’s all our fault. It’s the fault of residents for depending on someone else to think and plan and to protect them from their own failure to consider their environment and plan for survival. It’s the failure of local utilities for keep their assets resilient and protected. It’s the failure of politicians at all levels of government to ignore potential disaster and to short change and defund the very people they blame when things go wrong. And it’s your and my fault for letting it happen.

Forgotten

On 11 September 2012 Chris Stevens, a career diplomat and American Ambassador was killed in the line of duty. He died while doing his job and defending American interests in a very dangerous place.

Since then there has been a lot of talk concerning the action, or better said the inaction of the administration, and the public has been told nothing of substance as to why Mr. Stevens died. Usually when an ambassador dies the administration honors the individual with a formal funeral and (often) a medal honoring their service. But as a career State Department Officer he apparently didn't rate any recognition. Since he was not a mega donor to the party and not a political appointee he was a non person to the Secretary of State and the administration, and nobody saw fit to honor an honorable man.

There has been no public recognition other than a private memorial service in San Francisco last month and an equally private service in DC at a time yet to be determined. In fact there has been no public recognition and even his burial was shunned by the administration.

They should be ashamed of themselves but I suspect they have no shame and no sense of honor.