Hurricane Harvey has been battering the Gulf Coast for days bringing in record floodwaters devastating much of southeast Texas. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has estimated that 30,000 people are in need of emergency shelter and more than 450,000 will need the help of federal aid for recovery after the devastation. The catastrophic flooding, which officials are calling the worst in the state's history, has already lead to at least five deaths and dozens of injuries.
Trump revoked Obama's executive order on higher standards for flood protection right before #Harvey took off https://t.co/UC125qOs5q pic.twitter.com/DCVuzpPtlW
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) August 25, 2017
Two weeks before the storm, President Trump revoked an executive order signed by former president Barack Obama in 2015 that aimed to make infrastructure more resilient to the effects of climate change. The Obama-era regulation meant that roads, building and other infrastructure projects needed to be built to withstand the effects of climate change such as stronger downpours, rising sea levels, and flooding. However, as part of Trump's executive order signed several weeks ago, he rolled back the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard in favor of a faster route that would speed up the time it takes for infrastructure projects to be approved.
Rafael Lemaitre, former director of public affairs at FEMA, spoke to Reuters after Trump pushed the roll back earlier in August stating that Trump is undoing "the most significant action taken in a generation" to safeguard U.S. infrastructure. "Eliminating the requirement is self-defeating; we can either build smarter now, or put taxpayers on the hook to pay exponentially more when it floods. And it will," he warned.
7 Comments
It's okay, Rand Paul and the Libertarians know what to do. Oh, I have it on good authority that Houston will become the Liberland 2.0.
They will be just fine, they voted for the Dump.
They didn't though
Having worked on a number of federal infrastructure projects the amount of bureaucratic red tape is ridiculous, making these types of projects take way too long and adding a ton of expense. Too many projects die in the process. I do not know enough about the Obama executive order to know if it was necessary or not (and from the article and tweet its clear the writers do not either), but I will say that trying to streamline the process of approving infrastructure projects is an admirable goal.
Ugh. I hate to have to ask, but what actually changed as a result of Trump revoking the exec. order? Were there steps being taken to protect people that suddenly came to a screeching halt in the ten days between Trump revoking the order and the beginning of the hurricane? Did Trump's action on this matter make the effects of Harvey worse? I suspect not. Therefore, this story isn't really about Hurricane Harvey. Its about future storms. In her tweet, Sarah Kendzior seems to be muddying the issue by linking it to Hurricane Harvey.
Uh oh. Reason.
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