Two days after catastrophic floods roared through Central Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters.

  • zqwzzle@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Wasn’t that county asking for a warning system for the last decade?

        • crusa187@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          The Sheriff in Kerr County was interviewed the day after the floods, and his first comment was about “when I woke up this morning, I could hardly believe it!…”

          This fucking guy slept through the flooding all night as kids were drowning in his county he was elected to protect.

      • NobodyElse@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        While the county ultimately kept the funds, they allocated the majority, about $8 million, to sheriff’s department upgrades and public employee stipends.

        Just $600,000 went to staffing and community amenities. No money was set aside for a flood alert system.

        • kautau@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          But think, now they all have new trucks and tac gear and shit so that they can look cool when they show up for those kids funerals

            • kautau@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Here’s hoping. Fuck that county. They could have saved lives but they didn’t. Those kids deserved better parents

    • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Biden gave them 10 million for the system and they gave it to the sheriffs department instead. This is 100% on Kerr County

      • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        No no, they got the money. They refused to use it for this and instead gave it to the sheriff.

        They’re stupid and “welfare queens”.

        • onslaught545@lemmy.zip
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          2 months ago

          I thought they had the opportunity to apply for a $1m grant, but they’d have to put up $72k and they decided not to.