Continuing Flooding, More Wildfires! Is The Government Slow Or What?
Read more articles on Science and Technology and Politics.September 29, 2009
Posted by neillevine
September 29, 2009
Posted by neillevine
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I just put up an article on the other site I am being published on, Useless-Knowledge.com, about how slow Congress has been to respond significantly and in a meaningful way to the problems of wild fires and floods and lo and behold look what happens.
More than a rainy night in Georgia, really three days of heavy rains, a foot and a half, maybe twenty inches of down pour, resulting in severe flooding. The skies, after a long period of drought, just opened up and much of Georgia and the South East area around there was under water. Nine deaths. Ruined homes and businesses. Wrecked cars. Lots of now homeless people. Making it easy to see how serious a problem flooding is and how dedicated pursuit of an important matter can result in additional emphasis being placed on the highlighted subject.
I want to point out it is still hurricane season so I expect further untoward developments because they always happen anyway, now matter what you wish for or expect, no predicting or preventing the next misfortune to befall a quiet American community hoping to live the good life, although I sincerely hope nothing significant rolls onto the mainland since no extra pain in probably needed. The lesson has been learned. Flooding is a problem that should be addressed. High water is dangerous, destructive and unwanted. Something more meaningful should be done.
Then there are wild fires. They, too, are dangerous. Scary, devastating, painful, scorching, ruinous are other good words for them. You would think politicians looking for a good purpose to create jobs to get out the vote would pay attention.
While it is probably too hard to predict exactly where Mother Nature is going to strike next, that is the danger of a hundred year storm, or of a multi-acre forest inferno leaving ruin and scorched earth behind with some reasonable course of action being better than none, allowing a lot of good Americans to sleep well at night. Isn’t public safety better than endless destruction and mindless neglect? Where and when will it all end?
The Army Corps of Engineers and the people they consult have shown a great deal of competence, creativity and uncommon skill in the past and probably can do a good job going forward as can the Forest Service and other dedicated outdoor organizations. Why not ask them for their thoughts and their help once again? They should care and should be helpful.
Why suffer endlessly when the suffering can be significantly reduced by dedicated action by the federal government. This isn’t hard to understand. Either they are going to make a good faith effort to solve the problem or they are wasting the public’s time and resources. It probably means spending more but sometimes real solutions are not cheap no matter what the political jargon is.
Unfortunately, I would expect the next big hurricane to eventually strike land to leave another broad path of destruction, leading to calls for government help. Why not help solve the problem to reduce future damage?
After the flooding on the Red River in North Dakota twelve long years ago, I thought the Congress would do something concrete to deal with the problem. The recent high water scare awoke me to the fact that the government has been slow on the uptake so I thought I would post this as a reminder that as the folks in Washington will remind you when it comes to dispensing patronage, they are in charge and it is their duty and responsibility to do a proper job, something that has not happened yet when it comes to flooding and, also, wild fires.
So you want to think that, after all, it is possible that America, the beautiful, can be beautiful once again. It is now a question of when.
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