Stop Trying To Politicize The Response To Hurricane Harvey

Originally Posted at Free Market Shooter

At the outset of Hurricane Harvey, President Trump tweeted a message that was simple enough; this could be bad, so if the authorities tell you to do something, it’s probably best to listen:

I encourage everyone in the path of #HurricaneHarvey to heed the advice & orders of their local and state officials. https://t.co/N6uEWCZUrv

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2017

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It was a fairly straightforward warning, one that you would expect any President to issue, but that didn’t stop the Twitter trolls from going after Trump.  In a series of replies to Trump’s tweet, Ed Krassenstein raged about wanting to see Trump resign and/or get impeached, and finally ended his tweetstorm off with a real zinger:

Why should we take the advice of a bigot and racist?

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) August 25, 2017

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Yes, Krassenstein actually made the link that because Trump is a racist (even though he’s clearly not), that means residents in the path of Hurricane Harvey should have ignored his advice.  It would be comical, if it weren’t so sad.

It should come as absolutely no surprise to know that Krassenstein works for IR.net, an ardently anti-Trump outlet that recently published a dubious story which alleged that Melania Trump OK’d the President having a “regular girlfriend”.  IR.net better watch out; Melania Trump sued several news outlets and won sizeable settlements related to a claim that she was once an escort. One can imagine that she won’t look glowingly on this article.

…but it appears he didn’t realize that the internet is forever, and his blind hate of the right led him to politicize a natural disaster, instead of helping those in the path of Harvey to determine the best course of action.

For the record, I’m not even criticizing the decision of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner for not evacuating on Governor Abbott’s suggestion; he was making what he thought was the right decision, with the information he had available to him. It is very easy to second guess the decision in hindsight, but it is far more difficult to say that someone else would have acted any differently in Mayor Turner’s shoes.

What I am criticizing Mayor Turner for is his petty, obstructive conduct in the wake of Hurricane Harvey’s landfall.  Instead of acknowledging that he made an incorrect decision, and coordinating a proper response with the governor…

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says he hasn’t yet spoken to Democratic Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner — despite repeated attempts.

Abbott said Sunday at an Austin news conference he’d called Tuner’s cell phone “several times” to “let him know that, whatever he needs, the state of Texas will provide.” Abbott said he’d yet to hear back.

Abbott’s office later clarified that the governor had called Turner four times since Friday and left two messages, to no avail.

The governor and mayor clashed before Hurricane Harvey made landfall Friday, with Abbott suggesting people in Houston might want to evacuate but Turner saying fleeing unnecessarily would clog highways for those leaving other communities facing bigger threats.

Still, Abbott said Sunday, “We’ve moved beyond whether or not there should have been an evacuation.”

…he instead chose to ignore Governor Abbott’s calls, days after Harvey made its destructive landfall.  It’s not as though Abbott governs a tiny state such as Rhode Island; he’s the Governor of Texas, the second largest and second most populous state in the nation, and has a literal army of resources at his disposal.  Why wouldn’t Mayor Turner work with him to ensure rescue assets are properly deployed?

No one should be surprised to find out that Turner is a Democratic mayor, one who is (sadly) content to use partisan politics with the Republican governor to interfere with the proper coordination of a natural disaster response. Turner clearly had more than enough time to retweet former President Obama‘s (instead of current President Trump’s) content on Harvey response…

…but he didn’t have the time to take a call from the governor of his state regarding the welfare of his residents.  It’s incredibly sad, but it appears Turner decided it was more important to politicize a natural disaster than it was to coordinate help with the governor.  

Amazingly, the calls from the “climate change” crowd to ascribe blame for the storm came right at the onset.  The Independent posted an article blaming the storm on climate change, making sure to throw shade at President Trump in the process:

President Trump can now witness the ferocious power of nature at a time when has consistently been wrapped in a cloak of skepticism and denial about climate change. The world is reaching a tipping point. No country is immune from the repercussions of hurricanes, floods, torrential rain, cyclones.

President Trump should take a note and work with other nations to avert a climate catastrophe before its impacts become irrevocable.

And earlier today, Axios, the outlet this website has previously exposed as a corporate-sponsored front to promote liberal causes and values, released an article blaming climate change for “worsening” the storm:

• Rising waters: Sea level rise attributable to climate change (some is due to coastal subsidence due to human disturbance, e.g. oil drilling) is more than half a foot over the past few decades. “That means that the storm surge was a half foot higher than it would have been just decades ago, meaning far more flooding and destruction.”
• Warmer waters: The rise in sea surface temperatures in the region by about a half-degree celsius in recent decades has led to a roughly 3% rise in atmospheric moisture content. “That large amount of moisture meant the potential for much greater rainfalls and greater flooding,” Mann writes.

For reference, take a look at the list of major recorded hurricanes to make U.S. landfall throughout history, as per Wikipedia:

And view some context on the most powerful storms, again per Wikipedia:

As of 2007, the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 was the most intense hurricane to make landfall on the country, having struck the Florida Keys with a pressure of 892 mbar. It was one of only three hurricanes to move ashore as a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale; the others were Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which had a landfalling pressure of 900 mbar and 922 mbar, respectively. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was the third most intense hurricane to strike the country with a pressure of 920 mbar, though its winds were not as strong as Andrew.

The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 was the deadliest hurricane in the history of the United States, killing at least 8,000 people. The 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane caused at least 2,500 casualties, and in 2005, Hurricane Katrina killed about 1,500 people. In the 1893 season, two hurricanes each caused over 1,000 deaths.^[2]

The costliest was Hurricane Katrina, with damage amounting to $84.6 billion, though in normalized dollars it may only be second to the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926.

Human beings could stop burning all fossil fuels and revert carbon emissions back to pre-Industrial Age levels, and it still wouldn’t stop devastating hurricanes from striking American shores.  Linking hurricanes to carbon emissions is typical “climate change” behavior – using any natural disaster as a convenient effect to fill in for their already predetermined cause.  

Though it was more than obvious even before the storm hit that the left would blame it on climate change (ignoring their own hypocritical behaviors), it wasn’t equally as obvious that they would hinge human lives on partisan politics.  It is far past time for everyone to stop politicizing the response to this storm, and work together to save as many lives as possible.

As recent forecasts have indicated, this storm could very well be anything but over.  While all we know for certain is how the “climate change” crowd will react, politicizing any subsequent response to the storm will only endanger more lives.  

Note: Jon Hall contributed to this post.