Lessons from Hurricane Sandy

Having lived in the Tornado Alley for 30 years, I have learned many valuable lessons. After many raging tornadoes, straight line winds, and hurricanes I understood that churches and other Americans near and far, not the big government, were the first line of defense after a disaster.

Mennonites, Baptists, Mormons, and the National Guard came by truckloads with bulldozers, shovels, and chain saws to extricate their fellow Americans from trees and debris. Utility trucks from places as far away as Utah helped restore our power.

I have never met a Mormon who was not giving and caring to their fellow man. For this reason, I do not understand the sheer hatred against Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. At the same time, liberals bend over backwards to appease and co-exist with “religions” that preach hate and terrorism.

How can New Jersey turn down utility crews from Alabama who came to help restore their power, just because they were not union members? There are still one million people in New Jersey without power yet crews from Alabama were told to stand down. They are either going back home or to New York. Does the Democrat pro-union political machine trump the misery and suffering of Americans?

When FEMA was run properly, help was forthcoming. The Red Cross fed us hot meals when our homes were unusable and the entire food supply had spoiled in freezers, refrigerators, and grocery stores. We barbequed meat for the entire street before it spoiled. We took showers at the YMCA, schools, or the local gym if they had generators.

We survived Katrina. Mississippians never complained or blamed the president when entire communities were razed off the face of the earth – the only remnants were the concrete outlines of the former homes’ foundations. We rolled up our sleeves under the leadership of the Republican governor Hailey Barbour and we rebuilt because that is what resilient Americans do, we do not wait for Uncle Sam to come to the rescue.

We were never so arrogant to claim, in shameless hubris, that humans were in control of Mother Earth. We did not cause global warming and we are not responsible for cycles of disastrous weather. Bad weather events such as Sandy have occurred periodically throughout our planet’s history. Soil samples prove that massive tsunamis and hurricanes had occurred long before humanity reached the industrial age. Time and effort would be better spent to find a way to minimize the damaging effect of natural events. Destroying our way of life and returning to pre-industrial age is not a rational answer.

Liberals are fond of mixing climate with weather events. Mayor Bloomberg was eager to point out, “Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be – given this week’s devastation – should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action.”

I would prefer that leaders take immediate action and reduce our national debt, the number one threat to our national security. Taxing us more is not a solution.

Bloomberg continues by promoting their sustainability plan (U.N. Agenda 21), PlaNYC 2030 (www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/html/home/home.shtml),

carbon foot print reduction, and C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, “a partnership among many of the world’s largest cities – local governments are taking action where national governments are not.” While he stops short of blaming global warming for hurricane Sandy, he implies it, touting the steps taken by the current administration in reducing carbon consumption, enforcing cap-and-trade, implementing higher fuel-efficiency standards, tighter control on mercury emissions, and closing the dirtiest coal power plants, the very same steps that supposedly saved 13,000 lives each year but killed millions of jobs.

Bloomberg, a rich urbanite, cannot fathom the idea that climate has changed for millennia and people had to adapt or die off. Rural residents are not deluding themselves and others that the power of nature can be controlled by man. You can ask the dinosaurs that even a 100 percent tax to offset carbon footprint cannot change global events. It is just a scheme to make money and to make people like Al Gore rich.

The fact that millions are crowded into high-rise apartments in densely populated areas, leaving people exposed, more vulnerable, with more casualties in the wake of a weather related event, escapes the liberal mind. We now track and keep very accurate records of catastrophic weather events. In the past the data was scarce, records sketchy, and news did not travel so fast without the Internet.

It is common sense that coastal areas are prone to flooding. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure it out. The Washington Post was quick to point out that “Climate change predictions foresaw Hurricane Sandy scenario for New York City.” There is at least a show a week on National Geographic or the History Channel predicting global Armageddon and what life would be like after people and coastal areas disappear. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/climate-change-predictions-foresaw-hurricane-sandy-scenario-for-new-york-city/2012/10/31/b78de428-2374-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_buzz)

Computer modeling and satellites enable scientists to forecast and track massive super storms. Forecasting of weather events is done by a $13 billion program run by NOAA and NASA. There is a problem with satellites that are nearing their life cycle or have already passed it. These satellites fly pole-to-pole, across the Equator, scanning the planet for weather patterns, helping to predict major storms five days ahead. Launching replacements called Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) will not occur until 2017, possibly causing a gap in the continuity of the ability to forecast weather accurately. It is unclear how the JPSS-1 spacecraft will carry the scientific payload into space. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/27/us/dying-satellites-could-lead-to-shaky-weather-forecasts.html)

Mercy Chefs, a relief agency that serves hot meals to disaster victims, is staging operations in lower Manhattan to serve Hurricane Sandy’s victims while rich liberals think that it is a good idea to host the New York City marathon surrounded by so much need. Mercy Chefs served 900 people after the initial setup. According to Gary LeBlanc, there are 40,000 people in the vicinity where they are serving hot meals, many residents still without power and water for the next 10 days.

I understand need, pain and suffering – I’ve lived through many hurricanes, a few earthquakes, and many tornadoes. I hope Democrats use this painful lesson to ponder the fact that immediate help and relief does not come from Big Government, it comes from ordinary fellow Americans who do extraordinary things.

Liberals have always lived in the capitalist lap of luxury but have yearned for the poverty of communism. As they ardently advocate and support utopia at all costs, liberals are finally getting painful lessons from a hurricane, of what everyday life is like under communism - power goes out for weeks on end, water is turned off, hot water is seldom available, heat is anemic, wood, coal, gasoline, and heating oil are hard to find and expensive, and food is very scarce, distributed in long lines, with rationing coupons, or on the black market. The only difference between communism and a natural disaster is the culprit that causes all the pain and suffering – irrational control freaks or Mother Nature.