Harrison Has Left the Show Ring

Miss Garbo guest blogging here. (No, that's not really me because AHM doesn't have a picture. But it's very close.) Harrison began to put together the information below, until he started ranting and threw up his paws in disgust with what he was hearing. As he said to me "one too many idiots are pullin' my tail."

I must say I agree with him. Listening to how some of you are whining and trying to cover up your poop with kitty litter, I don't understand how you humans managed to find this country much less band together, fight a revolution, and build any sort of nation.

Oh well. Here's what he wrote earlier.

What is wrong with you humans? You should be workin' together and all I'm hearin' is a bunch of fe-lyin' crap.

What took so long? Well, the Feds didn't get into the Hurricane Andrew area until 9 days had gone past. They were in NO in five days. Do you know the difference between 9 and 5?

Why did Bush fly to San Diego and not Louisiana? Maybe because of the 10 feet of floodwater that no one expected (read last Monday's headlines how "NO Dodged a Bullet"). Oh and there's that little matter of armed thugs roamin' the streets. I didn't see the heroic Mayor Nagin waltzin' around down there. Did you?

And Senator Mary Landrieu was actually thankin' the administration for what they were doin' until her Demo-cat handlers started jerkin' her leash.

But here's my personal favorite…where was FEMA?

That seems to be on everyone's lips, from young whippersnappers--without enough American History teachin' to tell a litter box from a sand box--to big name pundits--who apparently think God's real name is FDR and His plan of salvation is the New Deal.

If we in the animal kingdom sat around waitin' for the pack across the way to help out, all of us would be extinct. Come to think of it, the dinosaurs were probably waitin' for FEMA to pull 'em out of the La Brea Tar Pits.

(OMG! One of the pups just whizzed on a chair leg! Where's FEMA to clean it up!!??)

Okay, fire Michael Brown if it will save more lives and make everyone feel better. Fire everyone in FEMA. But tell me one thing…

(Continued in Read the Rest!)

Where Was FEMA…

…in 1816, the year without summer?

"In May of 1816, however, frost killed off most of the [New England] crops that had been planted, and in June two large snowstorms resulted in many human deaths as well. In July and August, lake and river ice were observed as far south as Pennsylvania. Rapid, dramatic temperature swings were common, with temperatures sometimes reverting from normal or above-normal summer temperatures to near-freezing within hours. Even though farmers south of New England did succeed in bringing some crops to maturity, corn and other grain prices rose dramatically. Oats, for example, rose from 12 cents a bushel the previous year to 92 cents a bushel."

That, by the way, was caused by a massive volcanic eruption the year before. Today they'd claim man-made global warmin'. It's also said that experience began the great westward migration of wiped out NE farmers lookin' for better land.

…on March 14, 1870, when the media first used the word "blizzard?"

"Legend says Spencer's Lephe Wells Coates read a story about a violent-tempered Mr. Blizzard in her Free Baptist paper. During a nasty snowstorm in 1866 she remarked "My, this is a regular old man Blizzard of a storm." A state newspaper [the Easterville (Iowa) Vindicator] later repeated the term.

"In 1870…storms surprised settlers like lions ambushing prey in the bush. On March 13 of that year was one such disaster. That morning, the men of rural Hillsdale [Iowa] took advantage of the warm weather and went into town. By noon, the sky had clouded, and a bitter chill had descended. Though just reaching their destination, they decided to turn around.

"Big flakes had split up into a million little pieces and were coming at us stinging and slantways," one man in the party later wrote. "Every second it was growing blacker and thicker and colder." Most of the men made their way back home as a group. But two left a mere 15 minutes later. Three days passed, after the storm had dropped temperatures to 35 below zero, and search parties were dispatched. Both men - brothers - were found frozen to death in snow drifts."

…on October 8, 1871 during the Chicago fire?

"Before the fire died out in the early morning of Tuesday, October 10, it had cut a swath through Chicago approximately three and one-third square miles in size. Property valued at $192,000,000 was destroyed, 100,000 people were left homeless, and 300 people lost their lives."

…on May 31, 1889 after the Johnstown, PA flood?

"There was one small drawback to living in the city. Johnstown had been built on a flood plain at the fork of the Little Conemaugh and Stony Creek rivers. Because the growing city had narrowed the river banks to gain building space, the heavy annual rains had caused increased flooding in recent years.

Sound familiar to anyone?

"There was another thing. Fourteen miles up the Little Conemaugh, 3-mile long Lake Conemaugh was held on the side of a mountain - 450 feet higher than Johnstown - by the old South Fork Dam. The dam had been poorly maintained, and every spring there was talk that the dam might not hold. But it always had, and the supposed threat became something of a standing joke around town…"

Uh huh. Where have I heard that before?

"It was over in 10 minutes, but for some the worst was still yet to come. Darkness fell, thousands were huddled in attics, others were floating on the debris, while many more had been swept downstream to the old Stone Bridge at the junction of the rivers. Piled up against the arches, much of the debris caught fire, entrapping forever 80 people who had survived the initial flood wave.

"Many bodies were never identified, hundreds of the missing never found… The Nation responded to the disaster with a spontaneous outpouring of time, money, food, clothing, and medical assistance. The cleanup operation took years, with bodies being found months later in a few cases, years after the flood. The city regained its population and rebuilt its manufacturing centers, but it was 5 years before Johnstown was fully recovered."

…on March 27, 1890, cleaning up after the Louisville (KY) Cyclone?

"The early accounts tell us that telegraph dispatches came from Washington, D.C., on the afternoon of the 27th, warning of possible violent atmospheric conditions within the next few hours. All through the day the barometer steadily sank lower. How much advanced notice people received is unknown, but it is likely that news did not reach them in enough time to take proper shelter."

The storm lasted about 5 minutes.

"One of the most tragic sites of the storm’s wrath was the Falls City Hall on West Market Street… Located in the same building on the lower floor were 50-75 children and their mothers, who were taking dancing lessons… The building collapsed, burying about 200 people, many of whom perished.

"One of the great concerns was the destruction of the Waterworks stand tower, which could have resulted in cutting off the water supply to the whole city. The standpipe through which all water was forced into the reservoir was demolished; there was only enough water available to last six days… The Union depot railroad station on Seventh Street completely collapsed.

"Charles D. Jacob, mayor of Louisville, and General Taylor, the city’s chief of the police, ordered the Louisville Legion to patrol the affected streets, to watch for thieves and looters, and to control the crowds of curious onlookers who had converged onto the city to see the devastation."

The Mayor and Police Chief took it upon themselves to do that? Without FEMA?

"The Courier-Journal reported on March 28, 1890, “Thieves this morning, hearing of the cyclone, came down the river in boats to rob the ruins of the Union depot, which was full of valuable luggage and money. The thieves were warned that they would be shot on site, and not arrested.”

Dammit! Why didn't they let 'em loot! They were poor and oppressed and they deserved to grab what they could.

…on Sept. 8, 1900, in the aftermath of the Galveston Hurricane?

"Historians contend that between 10,000 and 12,000 people died during the storm, at least 6,000 of them on Galveston Island. More than 3,600 homes were destroyed on Galveston Island and the added toll on commercial structures created a monetary loss of $30 million, about $700 million in today's dollars. By 10 a.m. Sept. 9, Mayor Walter C. Jones had called emergency city council meetings and by the end of the day had appointed a Central Relief Committee…

"In the first week after the storm, according to [historian David G.]
McComb's book [Galveston: A History], telegraph and water service were restored. Lines for a new telephone system were being laid by the second.

"In the third week, Houston relief groups went home, the saloons reopened, the electric trolleys began operating and freight began moving through the harbor," McComb wrote."

6,000 dead, $700 million (today's money) in losses and almost everything was restored in three weeks. Without FEMA! How in God's name did they manage? Not only that, when they rebuilt, they literally raised the island!

"The city paid to move the utilities and for the actual grade raising, but each homeowner had to pay to have the house raised. [gasp] By 1911, McComb wrote, 500 city blocks had been raised, some by just a few inches and others by as much as 11 feet."

…on April 18, 1906, when refugees needed rescuin' from the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire?

"The terrifying rumble of an earthquake shattered the early morning silence of April 18 at 5:15 AM. The quake lasted only a minute but caused the worst natural disaster in the nation's history.

"The greatest destruction came from the fires the quake ignited. These ravaged the city for three days before burning themselves out. The maelstrom destroyed 490 city blocks, a total of 25,000 buildings, made over 250,000 homeless and killed between 450 and 700. Damage estimates topped $350,000,000…

"The most terrible thing I saw was the futile struggle of a policeman and others to rescue a man who was pinned down in burning wreckage. The helpless man watched it in silence till the fire began burning his feet. Then he screamed and begged to be killed. The policeman took his name and address and shot him through the head." ([witness] Adolphus Busch)."

Get a backbone, people, and some old-fashioned American gumption. Oh, and in case you were gonna' wait… FEMA isn't gonna' provide you with either one.

Miss Garbo again. I'll be going home soon, but I am sure Harrison will return with updates about lost animals and rescues, and eventually with his usual weird/funny stuff. (Yes, I did have a very pointed discussion with him about how he portrayed me during a gardening event last year.) However, for right now…

Harrison has left the show ring.

posted by Harrison at 1:19 PM