FEMA Didn’t Answer Thousands of Calls From Flood Survivors

This is not "NIMBY". Warning systems need to be where they're needed, and if that's your backyard then that's your backyard. Complaining about "damn sirens going off in the middle of the night" during a life and death scenario is on an entirely different level.

Several months ago, in Southern California, we had a cell phone earthquake alert.

Essentially it was “An earthquake is coming now, seek cover”.

I picked up my phone, read it, gave it a kind of WTH look, and, indeed, an earthquake hit. And it was a notable quake.

I rode out the quake at my desk.

And that’s the thing. Where I’m at, we get hit all the time. Rollers, shakers, slammers. We had a week or so last year where we got hit by a swarm of a dozen of them.

But they’re small. Close 3s. During the swarm, I felt for the folks about 2 miles away. All of them originated beneath them, so they were getting more than I was.

So, it’s hard to take an earthquake warning very seriously. First, I didn’t even know we had warnings. Second, we’re (I’m) used to just riding them out. With that kind of warning, all we can do is duck and cover, assume the worst, hope for the best.

I will say this, next time I get that warning, I’ll heed it. The quake that hit us was interesting enough to justify caution should they send another one, and, one way or another, it’s going to be over soon. So the overall precaution in response to the warning is quite low.

On the other hand, we also get the flash flood warnings. They’re broadcast over a huge area, 95+% of which is, honestly, not susceptible to the flooding.

These are long lasting warnings. With 12 hour durations. The most interesting one is the one for a local river basin. That warning goes off when crossing the river on the freeway.

There are certainly areas susceptible to flash floods. Lots of mountains and canyons. Especially in the foothills in the deserts. Down here in the greater LA, Orange, Inland Empire regions, it’s less of an issue. 100 years of development, dams, and flood control infrastructure actually do the job quite well.

Spamming us with flood alerts just numb us to alerts in general when things might really go bad.

I can't speak to tornado warnings, but here in NZ we've been getting tsunami warnings once every year or two and it didn't take long for people to go "yeah yeah yeah" instead of "oh crap".

They refused to spend the money because it was from Biden (also "climate change"), then refused to return it because it might go to a blue state. First I'm hearing they actually spent it, but not surprised where it ended up

Most people don't consider giving yourself a bonus to be "spending" money.

10 million designated to be spent on early warning sirens get spent on sheriff bonuses and police radios, where's the dishonest cheap shot?

Yes, it was very rich, but it did disrupt operations a lot and the new space wasn't as nice - we moved from team offices to an open layout, with my boss praising the open layout - we then found out he would get a private office.

Not every person in the state voted for this. The dead children didn’t vote for anyone. Have an ounce of compassion or empathy.

I thought that there was a bar somewhere, a line that would not be crossed, but there isn't, it's just straight up identity politics, or owning the libs, whatever you want to call it.

And they are going to vote for them again. Next November is a million years from now. Though for that matter this will be forgotten by the November.

Depending on which flavor of outrage you prefer, this could apply to either party.

You’re being harsh. They have a moral duty to maximize shareholder returns.

I, for one, think a fascist dictatorship will do wonders for large cap returns.

> ~The voters~ didn’t shovel hundreds of millions of dollars towards the installation of a senile tinpot dictator pedophile rapist.

Has it still not occurred to you, that this is part of the reason people voted against you?

The voters very much put Trump in office. He won the popular vote. They knew exactly what they were getting.

And people didn’t know exactly what they were getting? Trump is exactly who America is and who America has always been.

Everyone wants to blame social media. People knew exactly what they were getting from Trump. He had been in office for four years. They wanted Trump and he still has an almost 50% approval rating. Despite what Michelle Obama said, this is who this country has always been.

We have been effectively divided by the billionaires, oligarchy, and foreign autocrats