Disgraced Healthcare.gov Firm Ensnared In New Jersey Sandy Recovery Flimflam

A federal watchdog is throwing a red flag on a $60.2 million Hurricane Sandy Recovery contract New Jersey officials awarded to the Canadian firm behind the disastrous Obamacare Healthcare.gov web site.

CGI Federal lost its $93 million contract for Healthcare.gov after it crashed within hours of going live in 2013 and contained so many design flaws the Obama administration had to assemble an emergency team to make the Obamacare website minimally operable.

Five months before that widely publicized digital disaster, CGI won the New Jersey contract in a procurement process that the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general now says was rife with serious flaws.

New Jersey officials were required to comply with federal procurement rules because the $60.2 million was awarded as part of Washington’s $1.5 billion disaster recovery assistance to the state in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

The contract was to design and operate the Sandy Integrated Recovery Operations and Management System for administering the federal funds. New Jersey officials claimed they complied with all applicable federal requirements in their selection of CGI.

But state officials “did not procure services and products for its system in accordance with federal procurement standards or comply with all federal cost principle requirements for supporting salary and wage compensation,” the IG said in a report made public late Friday.

“Specifically, it did not prepare an independent cost estimate and analysis before awarding the system contract to the only responsive bidder. It also did not ensure that option years were awarded competitively and included provisions in its request for quotation that restricted competition,” the report said.

“Further, it did not ensure that software was purchased competitively and that the winning contractor had adequate documentation to support labor costs charged by its employees,” it said.

Via: Daily Caller

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The Town FEMA Turned Down The tide goes out on religious liberty

When Sandy swept across the Jersey shore in October 2012, the coastal town of Ocean Grove was spared the worst. Sure, half the town’s boardwalk was destroyed and its pier was swept out to sea. And yes, sand, trees, and concrete benches were carried two blocks inland, while entire buildings were picked up and moved across town. But Ocean Grove’s crown jewel, an ornate and beautiful 6,250-seat auditorium, built in 1894, survived. It only had a third of its roof torn off. The auditorium’s foundation was intact and, most important, its 11,561-pipe organ was unscathed by the wind and rain.

CORBIS/ AP WAYNE PARRY / NEWSCOM

So despite everything, the residents of Ocean Grove counted themselves lucky. That is, until they had to deal with the federal government. Ocean Grove has been denied rebuilding funds from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In one sense, this denial is part of the Obama administration’s quiet campaign against religion in the public square. Yet the story of FEMA’s conflict with Ocean Grove is about more than just Barack Obama. It’s the story of modern America’s rebellion against its religious foundations, rendered in miniature.

In the late 1860s, a Methodist preacher named William Osborn assembled a small group of pastors from around Philadelphia to purchase a patch of land at the shore in central New Jersey. On July 31, 1869, they christened their one square mile of paradise “Ocean Grove.”  

Via: Weekly Standard

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Superstorm Sandy anniversary: One year later, thousands still not home

BREEZY POINT, N.Y. -- Thousands of New York and New Jersey residents displaced when Superstorm Sandy barreled ashore one year ago are still fighting with insurance companies, slogging through red tape and waiting for government aid – and many still aren’t home. 

The storm, which made landfall in the U.S. last Oct. 29, killed an estimated 160 people here and dozens more in the Caribbean, according to the National Hurricane Center, and inflicted billions of dollars in damages, including some 366,000 structures in New York and New Jersey.

The state of rebuilding in the region varies. In some hard-hit neighborhoods, there are empty lots where homes once stood. Storm-wrecked residences stand vacant with “for sale” signs outside. Some families forge ahead with the often slow, costly construction process, with some living in their partially repaired homes. And others who lack the resources to rebuild, including those battling for insurance money or waiting for government aid, are still shacking up with relatives or living in temporary apartments. 

Kieran Burke, 41, is living with his family in an apartment in Yonkers, N.Y., about an hour’s drive from their home in Breezy Point. For much of the last year, Burke said he fought to obtain the building permits and insurance money necessary to rebuild his Breezy Point bungalow, one of nearly 130 that burned in fires sparked by Sandy’s floodwaters. Burke said he has received almost his entire insurance payout and expects to get the permits soon, but he is reeling from the frustration he experienced along the way. 

Via: NBC News

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Company behind Obamacare website in charge of nearly $2 billion in Sandy relief

CGI Federal Inc., the mastermind behind healthcare.gov, is assisting the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the distribution of $1.7 billion in relief for Hurricane Sandy.

In a memo obtained by FreedomWorks titled, “Minutes of the 295th meeting of the members of the Housing Trust Fund Corporation held on May 9, 2013, at 8:30 a.m.,” CGI Federal is tasked with implementing the Disaster Housing Assistance Program. Additionally, they are asked to aid in the implementation of the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program, an assistance program that had recently obtained $1.7 billion.

Item five of the meeting agenda reads:

Mr. Nelson presented that the State received a $1.7 billion allocation in CDBG Disaster Recovery aid from HUD to aid impacted businesses and residences.  He stated that the State’s Action Plan was approved on April 26, 2013 and HTFC is currently in a phase of implementing the program.  He stated that in this phase, the corporation needs to stand-up its recovery programs as soon as possible to deliver critical resources, and in order to do so, the corporation requires immediate access to consultant services to assist in policy and procedure development, training, surge capacity, and call center assistance, and stated that CGI Federal Inc. could provide such services.

The resolution was passed and scheduled to “take effect immediately.”

The Associated Press revealed Tuesday that a mere $700 million of the $60 billion federal aid package – 1.2 percent of the total funds – has been given to victims of super storm Sandy.

Nearly a year after the devastating storm, a majority of the 24,000 families that have requested monetary assistance have yet to receive a penny from the federal aid package.

Via: Daily Caller

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HURRICANE SANDY AID BILL INCLUDES $150 MILLION FOR ALASKAN FISHERIES

One out of every $20 spent in a new bill to aid victims of Hurricane Sandy will go to "non-relief-related pork," says American Majority Action Spokesman Ron Meyer in an email to Breitbart News.

On Friday, the U.S. Senate passed a $60.4 billion bill that contains expenditures for areas that were unaffected by the storm, including $2 million roof repairs for Smithsonian Institution museums, $150 million for Alaskan fisheries disasters, and $58 million in taxpayer dollars to plant trees on private property in areas where Sandy never touched down.  Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) attempted to remove the $150 million fisheries “pork” spending from the bill, but his amendment was defeated.  Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) tried to strike down the tree subsidies but his amendment failed as well.

“It’s disgraceful to load a bill like this that has good motives, that has good intentions that is going to help people, with pork,” said Mr. Meyer on Fox Business.  “Why are you putting your own projects in it? It’s disgraceful.  It’s typical of Washington.”

Particularly troubling, says Mr. Meyer, is the fact that 85% of the bill’s allocations do not kick in until after 2014.  “That’s not immediate relief,” says Meyer.

The bill passed the Senate on a 61-33 vote.  Twelve Republicans supported the bill.

Via: Breitbart

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370k New Jobless Claims; Gallup Reports Unemployment Jump to 8.3%

After a few post-Hurricane Sandy weeks of new jobless claims hitting over 400,000, it looks as though we've settled back into the new and accepted normal of new claims landing somewhere in the 360,000 to 390,000 range. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this week saw 370,000 new claims filed.

Keep in mind, though, that it's only in Barack Obama's America that we've learned to celebrate any number under 400,000. We're nowhere near the point where our economy creates enough jobs to keep up with those lost every week. But because the media will never allow Obama to fail at anything, only 370,000 new unemployment claims is an occasion for pom-poms and much dancing around the golden calf.

Meanwhile, Gallup is reporting that unemployment spiked last month from 7.0% to 7.8%. Adjusted seasonally, the rate is 8.3%. This is the sharpest one-month increase Gallup's seen in two years:

It is unclear what caused the increase in the unemployment rate in November, although some experts speculate that it was caused by jobs lost as a result of superstorm Sandy. It is also possible that lackluster holiday hiring is to blame.

Silly Gallup; floating the idea that a spike in unemployment was caused by slow holiday hiring… What a waste of time. Thanks for playing, but the media will tell us what the "truth" is and the "truth" will be that lackluster hiring wasn't our Lightbringer's fault. It was the fault of a hurricane that was the result of Global Warming that was the result of American capitalism that was the result of not enough socialism that was the result of the Founding Fathers owning slaves.

Tomorrow, we'll get the November job creation numbers. Those too are expected to be disappointing… Due to a hurricane that wouldn’t have happened were it not for Christopher Columbus.

Via: Breitbart

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MORMON VOLUNTEERS OUTPERFORM GOVERNMENT IN NEW ENGLAND SANDY AID

Many who are still without heat, water, and power following Hurricane Sandy, are looking to the federal government to provide the kind of organized and effective disaster relief that can restore their lives. Can private groups and citizens offer what is needed in this time of crisis?

In Milford, Connecticut, for example, where entire expanses of beach homes have been destroyed by the storm, one family member reports to us that FEMA and the Red Cross were nowhere to be seen. What she did see, however, were “dozens of people in yellow vests helping to gather up all the debris that residents were putting out in the road.” Our observer tells us that these individuals assisted homeowners in clean-up, helping to load town trucks to remove destroyed decks, furniture, siding, and other debris. 

Recalling that she saw the same group of people “in yellow vests” helping out after Hurricane Irene last year, she later discovered that the helpers were Mormon Helping Hands volunteers.

The Mormon volunteers consisted of both adults and older children. Our observer tells us that what she noticed about this group is that they were “friendly, very busy, and, yet, unobtrusive.” She comments, “They didn’t get in the way of us getting our cleanup done, but they really helped the overall effort of getting the streets cleaned up.”

"If anyone wonders how people will survive without big government, they need look no further than our beach in Milford. The residents put their heads down and worked, and the Mormon Helping Hands volunteers chipped in big time,” she states.

Let’s thank and give credit due to all private individuals, church, and community groups that are helping those in need in practical, labor-intensive ways. This is the idea that is America in action.

Breitbart

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Our choice for America’s future: The Daily News endorses Mitt Romney for president

Four years after endorsing Obama, News finds the hopes of those days went unfulfilled

America’s heart, soul, brains and muscle — the middle- and working-class people who make this nation great — have been beset for too long by sapping economic decline.

So, too, New York breadwinners and families.

Paychecks are shrunken after more than a decade in which the workplace has asked more of wage earners and rewarded them less. The decline has knocked someone at the midpoint of the salary scale back to where he or she would have been in 1996.

LIVE BLOG: FOLLOW THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN THE AFTERMATH OF SANDY

PHOTOS: THE DAMAGE LEFT BEHIND BY HURRICANE

Then, the subway fare, still paid by token, was $1.50, gasoline was $1.23 a gallon and the median rent for a stabilized apartment was $600 a month. Today, the base MetroCard subway fare is $2.25, gasoline is in the $3.90 range and the median stabilized rent is $1,050, with all the increases outpacing wage growth.

A crisis of long duration, the gap between purchasing power and the necessities of life widened after the 2008 meltdown revealed that the U.S. economy was built on toothpicks — and they snapped.

Nine million jobs evaporated. The typical American family saw $50,000 vanish from its net worth, and its median household income dropped by more than $87 a week. New Yorkers got off with a $54 weekly hit.

Our leaders owed us better than lower standards of living, and we must have better if the U.S. is to remain a beacon of prosperity where mothers and fathers can be confident of providing for their children and seeing them climb higher on the ladder.

Via: The Daily News

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Obama Hit By Storm Backlash

Natural disasters usually follow the same political trajectory: First the incumbent experiences a bounce as he tours the impacted area, shows his concern, and pledges help to his beleaguered constituents. But then reality sets in and the shortages, delays, mishaps, deaths, and devastation becomes apparent and people turn against the incumbent.

George W. Bush had his Katrina.

And now Barack Obama has his Sandy.

Last week, Obama asserted a kind of ownership of the storm by touring New Jersey in the now infamous embrace of Republican stalwart Governor Chris Christie. Now that we are all appalled by the lack of food, gas, water, heat, and the basic essentials of life throughout the storm zone, Obama’s government doesn’t look so good anymore.

Why didn’t FEMA stockpile food, water, and gasoline? We had a week’s notice to prepare for Sandy. There was no shortage of time. Did the government not realize that people needed to eat, drink, and drive?

All throughout America, we are asking these questions of our television sets as we watch the evolving story of human misery.

Meanwhile, Obama has resumed the campaign trail, pounding the opposition in the same relentless and partisan style which he used before the storm. When Obama said that voting was “the best revenge,” he threw away whatever presidentiality he displayed in touring storm damage earlier in the week.

As he entered the last week before the Congressional election of 1994, President Clinton returned to the U.S. after having presided over the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. He called me on his return and asked where he should campaign? Which incumbent Democrats should he try to help get re-elected?

Via: Dick Morriss

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Obama Refuses to Answer About Storm Victims’ Frustrations

President Obama this morning ignored a reporter’s question about the mounting frustration victims of Hurricane Sandy are having with the response to the storm, refusing to let a question from the press interrupt a FEMA photo op in which he was on display taking action.

An excerpt rom the press pool report, which starts with a quote from Obama:

“There is nothing more important than us getting this right. And we’re going to spend as much time, effort and energy as necessary to make sure all the people of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut know that the entire country is behind them in this difficult recovery effort.”

He spoke for about five minutes. Pool asked about frustrations of people, particularly Staten Island. He did not respond.

No doubt aware of the political perils – and potential benefits – of the fallout from the hurricane, Obama arrived at FEMA with multiple members of his Cabinet in tow in a massive display of presidential concern. Even Cabinet secretaries you wouldn’t expect to be involved in hurricane relief – such as the Secretary of Labor and the Small Business Administration Administrator – have been enlisted and were at this morning’s meeting.

Obama’s effort will indeed have some practical effect – anytime a president shows he is personally engaged in an issue, it helps get the various agencies involved into a higher gear.

But with scenes of devastation proliferating on voters’ TV screens around the nation and evidence mounting of an insufficient response, Obama obviously felt he had to be seen at FEMA for a second time this week before heading back out to campaign.

After the visit to FEMA, Obama departed for Ohio.

Via: White House Dossier

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Report: NYC Mayor Bloomberg Wouldn’t Let National Guard Into Brooklyn Over Their Possession Of Guns…

Mayor Bloomberg has snubbed Borough President Markowitz’s impassioned plea to bring the National Guard to Hurricane Sandy-scarred Brooklyn — arguing that approving the Beep’s request would be a waste of federal manpower and turn the borough into a police state.

“We don’t need it,” Mayor Bloomberg said on Wednesday during a press update on the city’s ongoing Hurricane Sandy cleanup. “The NYPD is the only people we want on the street with guns.”

Markowitz demanded the National Guard’s help just an hour before Bloomberg’s press conference, claiming that the NYPD and FDNY are “brave — but overwhelmed” by all the challenges Sandy brought when it visited the borough on Monday night: flooding, power outages, and looting.

“All of our resources have been stretched to the limit,” Markowitz said. “In the name of public safety we need to send more National Guard personnel into Coney Island, Manhattan Beach, Gerritsen Beach, Red Hook, and any other locations.”

Markowitz hopes that the sight of an armed soldier would deter criminal activity in the still-unaccessible evacuation zones — such as the rash of break-ins that took place in Coney Island hours after Sandy kissed the borough goodbye — but the Mayor said the NYPD was more than capable of handling the job.

“There are plenty of locations upstate and in surrounding states where they don’t have a police department the size of New York and they can use help [from the National Guard],” said Bloomberg.

Markowitz said he was surprised by the Mayor’s response, but was sticking to his guns.

“We stand by our statement 100 percent,” said Markowitz spokesman John Hill. “We hope the governor will listen to our request.”

Via: The Brooklyn Paper

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Painful Lessons from Hurricane Sandy

Having lived in the Tornado Alley for 30 years, I have learned many valuable lessons. After many raging tornadoes, straight line winds, and hurricanes I understood that churches and other Americans near and far, not the big government, were the first line of defense after a disaster.

Mennonites, Baptists, Mormons, and the National Guard came by truckloads with bulldozers, shovels, and chain saws to extricate their fellow Americans from trees and debris. Utility trucks from places as far away as Utah helped restore our power.

I have never met a Mormon who was not giving and caring to their fellow man. For this reason, I do not understand the sheer hatred against Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. At the same time, liberals bend over backwards to appease and co-exist with “religions” that preach hate and terrorism.

How can New Jersey turn down utility crews from Alabama who came to help restore their power, just because they were not union members? There are still one million people in New Jersey without power yet crews from Alabama were told to stand down. They are either going back home or to New York. Does the Democrat pro-union political machine trump the misery and suffering of Americans?

Via: Canada Free Press

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NEW JERSEY AN 'APOCALYPTIC VISION' TWO DAYS AFTER OBAMA PHOTO OP

Two days after President Obama flew into storm-ravaged New Jersey on Wednesday for a 90 minute photo op with Governor Christie, parts of the state have descended into what one local resident calls "an apocalyptic vision." On Friday, in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, this New Jersey resident described the situation there:

New Jersey right now is experiencing an apocalyptic vision. Gas lines are a mile long. Hundreds are standing in line with gas cans. Fights are breaking out. Police and national guard have been called out. I've not had power or taken a shower since Sunday. Pray for us here.

FEMA reps are meeting with people in their residences to assess how recovery assistance can be provided to them.

While FEMA representatives had finally arrived on the ground by Friday, most of them appear to be focused on providing financial assistance to victims of Hurricane Sandy at some point in the future. There is no indication yet that any FEMA representatives on the ground are actually doing anything to aid in the distribution of food, supplies, gas, or restoring electricity.

On Wednesday, President Obama promised to deliver a far rosier outcome to New Jersey residents over the next several days. In fact, the President made a specific promise that he would make sure supplies were delivered, as CNN reported. Two days later, he's failed to deliver on that promise, though he has been able to campaign in key swing states across the country during that time:

Many people across the region are still in need of basic supplies. President Barack Obama visited a shelter Wednesday in the hard-hit town of Brigantine, New Jersey, where he said he met a woman with an 8-month-old who has run out of diapers and formula.

"Those are the kinds of basic supplies and help that we can provide," he said. [emphasis added]

Obama promised the federal government "will not quit" until communities are cleaned up.

"We are not going to tolerate red tape, we are not going to tolerate bureaucracy," Obama said. "And I've instituted a 15-minute rule, essentially, on my team. You return everybody's phone calls in 15 minutes, whether it's the mayor's, the governor's, county officials.

"If they need something, we figure out a way to say yes."

The President may be right. The Obama administration has found a way to "say yes to something needed," by New Jersey victims of Hurricane Sandy, but it's not yet found a way to "do that something needed."

Via: Breitbart

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Sandy's Lesson

Here's the big lesson from mega storm Sandy. Mother Nature sneers at high tech, mocks modern convenience and couldn't care less about what kind of person you are - she will smack you if she wants.

Many of us have forgotten about nature as we have become addicted to machines. We must have gizmos. Sandy laughed and took them away. Power, gone. Internet, dark. Cell phones, not happening. Even your landline phone - not available because "all circuits are busy."

Suddenly, it was 1850 with one exception: battery operated flashlights and radios.

So what is the lesson here? 

Well, actually there are a few. First, that no government agency can help you when disaster strikes. Any assistance will be after the fact and painstakingly slow. 

Second, that in order to ride out any storm effectively, you should be self-reliant and resilient. That means you have to anticipate problems and have some solutions at the ready. 

For example, where I live on Long Island, the power infrastructure is a disaster and has been for years. The power company, LIPA, simply cannot keep the juice flowing under any duress. I have accepted that, so I bought a generator. However, during Sandy, the generator did not work. You can imagine how many four-letter words were uttered. But, I had a Plan B. I know some guys who can repair generators, and they fixed mine very quickly. I have a long-term relationship with these guys and will reward them. 

So, I rode out the storm pretty well, and that's good because there are children in my home. 

Never one time did I think the local, state or federal government was going to help me in any way. When President Obama speaks about government being there for you, I roll my eyes. In the history of mankind, no government has ever been there for the individual. Ever. 

Via: Bill O"Reilly

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Obama Declares “Al-Qaeda Has Been Decimated”…

Even as new information continues to surface revealing that the Obama White House may be embroiled in a cover-up scandal regarding the terror attack in Benghazi that left four Americans dead, the president took to the campaign trail in Wisconsin Thursday morning and actually declared that “al Qaeda has been decimated.” Recall that the carnage in Libya was, according to experts, waged by al Qaeda or pro-al Qaeda affiliates like the militant group Ansar al Sharia, which even claimed credit for the attack.

The president made the ire-inducing remark during a campaign stop at Austin Straubel International Airport Thursday morning where he spoke to a crowd of some 2,600 people. Obama, wearing a flight-jacket, addressed Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, then touched on the economy but  highlighted what he framed as his accomplishments in foreign policy, including smiting Osama bin Laden and yes, “decimating al Qaeda.”

“The war in Afghanistan is winding down,” the president said. “al Qaeda has been decimated. Osama bin Laden is dead. So we made real progress these last four years, but Wisconsin, we know our work’s not done yet.”

Obama’s statement, for many conservatives, is the ultimate in hubris and they took to Twitter to convey as much. Consider the following tweets, courtesy of Twitchy:

Via: The Blaze

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NYC Mayor Bloomberg Blames Global Warming For Hurricane Sandy…

Will global warming bring storm barriers to New York Harbor? 

• Governor Cuomo makes unprecedented suggestion of a possible levee being built for the city
• 
  
• Despite a chorus of support for the climate change link, some experts deny there is sufficient evidence to blame global warming for the storm
• 
  

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

PUBLISHED: 16:48 EST, 30 October 2012 | UPDATED: 19:20 EST, 30 October 2012

Hurricane Sandy may have seemed uniquely damaging to those caught in its path, but some have suggested that global warming could bring even more devastating storms to the U.S. in coming years. 

New York governor Andrew Cuomo and mayor Michael Bloomberg both pointed to climate change as the culprit for Sandy's ravages as they addressed the scale of the destruction on Tuesday morning. 

And Cuomo even raised the possibility of a levee being built in New York Harbor, an unprecedented move to protect the 400-year-old city.

Enlarge 

Both Andrew Cuomo (left) and Michael Bloomberg agree that climate change is a cause of the superstorm

Many observers have pointed out that it is almost impossible to pinpoint climate change as the cause of specific weather events. 

Moreover, the U.S. has long been subject to hurricanes and other damaging storms which have been just as violent as Sandy. 

But the terrors wrought by Sandy, combined with last year's destructive Hurricane Irene, have led New York's top officials to raise the spectre of global warming. 

At a press conference in Manhattan on Tuesday, Cuomo said he had told President Obama that 'we have a 100-year flood every two years now'. 

He added: 'There has been a series of extreme weather incidents. That is not a political statement. That is a factual statement. 

'Anyone who says there's not a dramatic change in weather patterns, I think is denying reality.' 

Bloomberg echoed the sentiment, saying: 'What is clear is that the storms we've experienced in the last year or so around this country and around the world are much more severe than before.

Vua: Daily Mail

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FEMA, W.H. send storm victims to Internet

When President Barack Obama urged Americans under siege from Hurricane Sandy to stay inside and keep watch on ready.gov for the latest, he left out something pretty important — where to turn if the electricity goes out.

Despite the heightened expectation of widespread power and cable television failures, everyone from the president to local newscasters seem to expect the public to rely entirely on the Internet and their TVs for vital news and instructions.

(PHOTOS: Hurricane Sandy)

None of the major cable or local news channels put emergency phone numbers or key radio station frequencies on their screens. The only phone-related instructions on the homepage of ready.gov is how to get monthly disaster-prep text messages. The Federal Emergency Management Agency told the public via Twitter to use texts and social media outlets to stay informed.

TV and radio are still the primary methods of getting information about Hurricane Sandy to the public, but social media are increasingly important to those efforts, FEMA chief Craig Fugate said Monday.

(Also on POLITICO: Tracking Hurricane Sandy: Facebook, Twitter abuzz with chatter)

“With these types of storms, you get a lot of this is going to be carried out through the traditional TV and radio media,” Fugate told reporters on a conference call. “But we’re using a lot more social media, we’re using everything from Facebook to Twitter. I think there’s a higher degree of awareness that people have of the storm is coming and what the impacts are going to be.”

Via: Politico

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Death Toll from Sandy's Destruction Rises, Millions Face Life Without Power, Mass Transit for Days

For the latest developments on Sandy click here and here! 

CLICK HERE to check your flight!

At least 39 dead, millions without power in Sandy's aftermath

Published October 30, 2012 | Associated Press

NEW YORK –  Millions of people from Maine to the Carolinas awoke Tuesday without electricity, and an eerily quiet New York City was all but closed off by car, train and air as superstorm Sandy steamed inland, still delivering punishing wind and rain. The U.S. death toll climbed to 39, many of the victims killed by falling trees.

The full extent of the damage in New Jersey, where the storm roared ashore Monday night with hurricane-force winds of 80 mph, was unclear. Police and fire officials, some with their own departments flooded, fanned out to rescue hundreds.

"We are in the midst of urban search and rescue. Our teams are moving as fast as they can," Gov. Chris Christie said. "The devastation on the Jersey Shore is some of the worst we've ever seen. The cost of the storm is incalculable at this point."

More than 8.2 million people across the East were without power. Airlines canceled more than 15,000 flights around the world, and it could be days before the mess is untangled and passengers can get where they're going.

The storm also disrupted the presidential campaign with just a week to go before Election Day.

Via: Fox News

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Sandy’s Coup de Gras for Obama

Remember how Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath was blamed on President Bush? Remember his words to then-FEMA director, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”?

No doubt FEMA is all geared up for the damage Hurricane Sandy will do throughout the Northeast and wide swatches to the West. And no doubt it will be the States and local communities and utilities that will do the heavy lifting as FEMA tries to give the appearance of doing anything useful.

All of which is bad news—actually more bad news—for President Obama who, insanely campaigning, flew to Orlando, Florida on Sunday and then immediately flew back to Washington, DC, without leaving the airport. Just how much did that little round-trip cost the taxpayers? How stupid and indifferent does one have to be to leave Washington as a major hurricane is bearing down on the Northeast’s coasts?

Via: Canada Free Press

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