Ikes trumped Noem after McCook Lake flooding

So, what’s not to like about six (seven? eight?) month winters, rampant racism, chilling effects on civil rights, an extremist legislature, living in a chemical toilet, sacrifice zone, perpetual welfare state and permanent disaster area? 

Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is from the government and says she's here to help but is she really? Recall US Representative Noem voted against federal disaster assistance when acts of god ravaged blue states. But when a tornado hit Castlewood Mrs. Noem praised that god for sparing her campaign war chest because science karma chickens came home to roost where the governor is a climate change denier. 

At least as far back as 2011 Republicans wanted to gut the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service so it comes as no surprise the Trump Organization wants to privatize the agencies. In 2022 South Dakota was tied for first place with three other horrible red states where the loss amounts from climate disasters caused a billion+ dollars in damage since 1980. North Dakota had 45 billion-dollar climate disasters since 1980 and my home state had suffered 38 and is still getting pounded.

In April the Federal Emergency Management Agency was finalizing flood insurance so Mrs. Noem aimed floodwaters at McCook Lake because she knows the Feds will pay the bills; but it wasn't the State of South Dakota that raced to help, it was the Isaac Walton League of America or Ikes. Now, Noem is facing pushback from those who doubt her ability to run the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA's parent agency.

Renae Hansen, the Chapter’s caretaker, had been monitoring the weather and water levels. Once it became clear the flood was going to be catastrophic, she used Facebook Live to keep the community up to date. And she would continue to work at the hub of a makeshift—but effective—emergency response system in the absence of a state or local agency that could immediately help. Hansen says it was four days before the Red Cross provided assistance and five days before the South Dakota Office of Emergency Management got involved. [Ikes in Action: "A Beacon of Aid" in a Time of Crisis: McCook Lake Chapter Steps in to Help a Flood-Ravaged Community]

My great-grandfather Ulysses Kretsinger donated about seven acres to the local Ikes chapter who built their clubhouse above Medary Creek about two hundred feet from our farmhouse near Elkton. Maybe the Ikes' most ambitious achievement was the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972 that's now at risk to Kristi Noem's Earth hating political party. 

A cynical observer might expect that if she's confirmed for DHS Mrs. Noem will slow-walk or even deny compensation for victims of disasters in blue states like New Mexico.

Learn more at AlterNet.

By the way, this was from NOAA's critical Arctic Report Card, so here's a reminder of what the soon-to-be-running-the-government authors of Project 2025 want to do with that agency

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— Dave Levitan (@davelevitan.bsky.social) December 10, 2024 at 12:34 PM