Saturday, August 27, 2011

Obama administration had trained for NYC hurricane

I've been writing about the fact that it is the role of the Presidency to implement good government. That doesn't just happen. It takes foresight and planning. Like the kind we saw in the President's prescience about an Arab Spring.

Now we learn that this administration had also done a training exercise for a NYC hurricane.

If the possibility of escaping from New York seems like something only for Hollywood to you, you probably do not work for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In May 2009, the Obama administration conducted a simulation exercise around the possibility of a Category 3 hurricane hitting New York City, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Friday.

The National Level Exercise, as it is known, was part of a coordinated effort by federal officials to prepare for a variety of disaster scenarios, including one very similar to what is likely to take place this weekend. President Obama himself participated in the exercise, one of the first of its kind by the new administration.

"The federal government's preparation for this storm didn't just begin as the clouds started to gather and form a tropical depression," Earnest told reporters traveling with President Obama to Martha's Vineyard.

"The federal government and this administration in particular is constantly exercising and preparing and testing and evaluating our readiness for situations like this," he said.

I believe that this is the kind of government the people of the United States expect and deserve. We just have to work a little harder to get through the noise to tell them that they've got it.

3 comments:

  1. Great post. It also should drive the stake even further into the heart of the ridiculous meme that Obama is "just as bad or worse" than Bush.

    Irene will be a pretty devastating storm, but this will NOT be "Obama's Katrina" no matter how they try to twist it.

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  2. This is an awesome post that rebuts the right-wing and poutragers assertions that Obama=Bush; obviously the Bush admin was woefully unprepared for Katrina. Thanks for all that you do-- I've been visiting your site everyday since I discovered it-- thought it was time to post my appreciation.

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  3. A president who directs his emergency agencies to prepare is markedly different from the one that did not even respond. I happened to be on a plane delayed at the Ontario, CA airport while Air Force One dawdled waiting for Bush to come back from a golfing fund raiser - on the day Katrina hit New Orleans. So not only was FEMA not ready, the President was 3000 miles away from his command and did NOTHING - golfed while New Orleans drowned.

    President Obama CARES about human beings - all of us without regard to party or belief - while his predecessor cared about "his base". You know - millionaires.

    I know the difference. How can anyone think there is not a world of difference between the two presidents and their actions?

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