My Hurricane Trumps Your Tornadoes

Unfortunately yesterday, the north Georgia area had several tornado touchdowns and in one case, it took out the downtown area of a small town, the town of Adairsville, Georgia.

 

One person in southern Tennessee seems to have been killed by a tree that fell on the place he was taking refuge in.

But probably the greatest tragedy is that the area is represented by Phil Gingrey, a Republican congressman who notably voted against the Hurricane Sandy relief bill. Now you have to wonder whether the congressman will have the brass to submit a bill to bail out his constituents.

My guess is that he will, but the sheer irony presents itself.

The trouble with all this is that there is precedent in not sending aid to this area when it is devastated by tornadoes, as it is from time to time. Last time the area got hit by tornadoes, in 2011, there was significant damage from Hurricane Irene, and when the tornadoes hit later, FEMA’s resources were drained by Irene recovery efforts.

Georgia and Tennessee were simply told that there wasn’t any money left to fund their long-term recovery. So it kind of makes you wonder if, in all this bluff and bluster about having offsets before funding for disaster relief is approved is really just about payback. In 2011 FEMA turned its back on these two red states. Is turnabout, then, fair play?