Monday, February 9, 2009

AN UPDATE FROM JIM HADDIX

An update from some of my kin in Kentucky

OK, so you're all aware of the ice storm we've had, but I thought I'd send you some updates. Approximately 700,000 people in Kentucky alone lost power last week. Some of the rural counties expect it to take 3 - 6 weeks to get everyone back online, and Louisville is hoping to get everyone back up today (10 days later). The temperature 2 nights ago was 0, by the way. In rural Kentucky, the water plants have no electricity, so there is no water, and the county governments do not have the resources to provide shelter - they don't have electric either. They've asked everyone who can to leave, but there's no place to go.

Sooo, a couple of days after the storm, FEMA said they wished they could help, but the roads were bad so they couldn't get to the places that were badly hit (no, I'm not making this up). The national guard was sent in to help clear the roads, but they weren't given chain saws, which made them rather ineffective.

Sometime in the last week, the guard came up with some chain saws so yesterday FEMA came down, and provided MREs for the hardest hit. One small problem - over 100,000 of the MREs contained the peanut butter which was recalled 2 months ago for salmonella. FEMA said that the peanut butter was only recalled as a precaution, but it would probably be best not to eat it. Yea, I'm thinking a raging salmonella infection with no water, no heat and no way to get to the hospital is not a great way to spend your weekend.

Not that I had any faith in the government to lose, but it just makes my head hurt.

I'm warm, dry, and keeping a well stocked pantry because I sure don't expect to get emergency aid if I ever need it!

2 comments:

mmpaints said...

It's the same here in southern Illinois, our 3 southern most counties still have people without water and electric. The weather here has been a bit warmer tho, it is 68 degrees right now. Government stupidity at it's finest, send in guardsmen with no chainsaws to clear downed trees, brilliant.

Phil said...

If that was not a direct warning to get yer head out of yer fucking ass and get yer shit together, I never saw one.
The Government sure as fuck ain't got their shit together, want to rely on them?

Wake the hell up.