On a lighter note, we are living in a golden age of wagon strollers. I definitely would have dropped $700 on a Veer if they had existed when my kids could have fit in one.
Having known someone on a FEMA US&R team for the past several years, I can hopefully make a few useful or interesting comments.
One is that Urban Search & Rescue has had to evolve a lot since Katrina. Its founding mission is structural collapse a la earthquakes, the OKC & 9/11. The vast majority of its personnel come from fire departments and specialize in heavy rescue such as boring through concrete. The mission back then was to be able to respond rapidly & effectively to a disaster. Katrina changed them in that they have since added on a robust swift-water element with their own rescue boats. They now do not only technical rescue looking for live people in a finite collapsed building, but now adding a significant wide-area search that relies heavily on walking door-to-door in places cut off from vehicular traffic.
Now US&R deploys much more than they used to, because hurricanes are predictable. Their trucks are painted with the name & year of their deployments - before Katrina it averaged a deployment every 3 years, after it has been 3 deployments per year. Many of these are preparatory; of the 3 my friend’s been on, the had no “work” to do other than readiness, as damage was less than feared. One hurricane never even made landfall. For Helene, FEMA staged 6 of its 27 teams in Florida and 2 more in Georgia before the storm reached land; now 19 teams are in southern Appalachia, while 4 more are staging in Florida for Milton.
FEMA’s US&R teams are not, strictly speaking, US government teams; US&R is a great example of federalism. Each of the 27 teams is actually a state team that has met FEMA criteria and thus receives extra support from the federal government for specialist capabilities. Almost every member has a full-time job elsewhere, but is “on call” every third month. When a state declares an emergency, their state team(s) assembles and goes to the scene - often that means leaving home/work with 2-4 hours’ notice to be gone for up to 2 weeks. If the state asks the Fed for help, FEMA can step in and “activate” its certified state teams from elsewhere according to various protocols. As FEMA teams arrive (usually driving, from as far as California or Massachusetts), they are plugged into the state’s emergency management framework. Thus the idea that “FEMA is/isn’t showing up and doing this/that” is an illusion; FEMA is facilitating a rapid temporary expansion of eg Texas’s emergency management agency with a small core of professional expert advisors and a bunch of firefighters+ from eg Colorado or Indiana. If FEMA US&R isn’t in a particular area, it may be that the SEMA has decided to put other, local resources there. Or maybe FEMA is there, but a truck that says “Ohio Taskforce 1” isn’t obviously a federal resource. It may also be the case that an area is missed due to there being so many other calls for attention.
FEMA has very little intrinsic capacity for a lot of big logistical stuff; much of it is contracted out. Aviation assets such as helicopters generally come from the National Guard or state police. Each disaster is its own thing, with its own response cobbled together from new parts - but parts that have been designed to fit into a known Incident Management framework that can be wielded to adapt to a variety of situations. Like they said in the show, it’s hard to know where a rando volunteer fits into that framework. The best thing to do, if you want be one of the helpers, is to volunteer with a local group and start beforehand, and maybe you can find your way into a big response through that (if not into a bunch of smaller responses).
My mother worked for FEMA for a couple of decades.
In addition to what you’re saying, I think it’s important to note that while they correctly identify FEMA has being under the Department of Homeland Security, this was not always the case. DHS is our newest federal department and was created in response to 9/11. Before that, FEMA was an independent agency with a much smaller budget and a clearer role. Post-9/11, FEMA got involved in counterterrorism and had an extra layer of bureaucracy and a lot more top secret clearances. My mother blamed the added layer of bureaucracy for a lot of what happened in the Katrina response and she always preferred FEMA’s independence.
Just another example of how centralization of power post-9/11 ruined everything.
There are also contributions from other federally-run programs into FEMA’s capacity. AmeriCorps, for instance (I worked for AmeriCorps HQ in DC for five years and was on the disaster response team), trains and deploys both administrative staff and AmeriCorps volunteers to coordinate work and directly contribute on the ground.
"The best thing to do, if you want be one of the helpers, is to volunteer with a local group and start beforehand, and maybe you can find your way into a big response through that (if not into a bunch of smaller responses)."
Do you know how to find a local group in my community that would participate in this kind of organized response in the event of a major disaster? I was part of CERT back in California but I've moved and there's no CERT program in my county (I asked at the county emergency management office). We do have ARES here (ham radio stuff) so that might be one option.
If your county or state Emergency Management Agency doesn’t have any suggestions, you could try the Red Cross (or Red Crescent if you’re Katie), Civil Air Patrol, or see if there’s a wilderness search & rescue group in your area. If you have a particular skill set, you might find an organization that is based around that.
I was a comic book kid, an X-Men reader. The picture is an AI illustration, so the woman isn't an established character in any franchise. She's yours to endow with whatever power and backstory you feel BlockedandReportedWoman should have.
I'll be interested to hear Andy and Matt's piece on preppers and climate doomers. In my experience the prepper world is more ideologically diverse than you might think, especially after 2020. There's a lot of content and communities that don't fit the paranoid right-winger stereotype. Of course it's a spectrum, many people have SOME form of disaster preparedness, and some people are quite well-prepared but avoid the "prepper" label because of the connotations.
As for climate doomers, I would describe them as people who DON'T prepare for climate change, or have any positive solutions, they just show up to say that we're all fucked in this kind of smug "I'm better than you because I've abandoned hope" way. They make me so, so irrationally angry. It's not even that I necessarily think they're wrong! They might be right. Maybe there is a 90% chance that we're fucked no matter what we do, and a 10% chance that our actions have some impact on how bad things get -- I'm still going to focus on the 10%. This is the rational, expected-value-maximizing move! You can call it self-delusion if you want, but if we're all doomed it's not like there is a prize for being right.
I agree. There’s only so much nihilism and black pill I can take. Somehow we have to figure out how we can move forward in a positive direction so we can escape the doom loop of the past four years. I keep hearing people say that something feels off since 2020, like we’re all just waiting for the next catastrophe. We can’t live like that. And this may be a controversial take, but I’m going to say it anyway: the climate doomers are starting to look like the religious nut gathering everyone around for the rapture that never comes. When nothing happens he just changes the date and they do it all over again and no one ever loses faith. I hate to say it, but these days I’m always looking for the subplot or the piece of missing information. Meanwhile, we have chemical fires in towns all across the country and no one bats an eye.
>There's only so much nihilism and black pill I can take
While society does need to get its act together, the solution for your problem isn't for society to figure out; you just gotta get off social media. The US is still very much up and to the right. There's a lot of reason to be optimistic.
Unless you're not American in which case yeah, it might be time to start worrying soon.
You’re absolutely correct about this one. In fact, I tell myself this every day. Then I think, what if something massive is about to happen and I don’t know about it? Then I think, maybe it’s better that I don’t know. I’ll just be out here pulling weeds when the big one hits. Maybe that’s the way.
At least one of the main prepper groups on reddit is quite reasonable. A lot of them are dismissive of the Zombie Apocalypse scenario ("right, in that case, we're all going to die") and are quite sensible about preparing for hurricanes, earthquakes, power outages, etc. They all believe in guns but they're not usually obsessed with guns. They talk a lot about food-safe storage containers and keeping fresh bleach on hand to sterilize water.
I like those guys. They remind me of the boys I used to hang out with in Georgia as a kid. Those were the kind of boys who would spend weeks in the woods building forts and looking for cool animal bones and stuff buried in the dirt. They always wore camouflage and smelled like leaves. Now they’re all growed up, and we need them to lead us out of this hell hole.
Are you talking about r/preppers? I used to hang out there around 2018-2020. Got some good intel on COVID before anyone was taking it seriously here (I should have shorted some stock, sigh...)
I deleted my Reddit account and don't use the site much anymore on account of the IPO-related enshittification, so I don't know what it's like these days.
I do remember a couple weirdos. One who wanted to insulate their house with compressed toilet paper inside the walls so they would always have a stash. Another who had an elaborate scheme to power an enclosed bunker -- something like grow plants for biofuel, then use that to run a generator to power grow lights. When it was pointed out that you can only lose energy on net with this kind of cycle, they just kept adding steps. I was torn between pointing out that the only way to have a self contained long-term power source is a nuclear reactor or RTG, and wanting NOT to mention this for fear they would actually try it.
Also lots of people who wanted to power their house from a generator by backfeeding an outlet, and lots of people who wanted to buy ham radios but couldn't be bothered to get a license or learn how to use them. They all got a lecture from me. It was my duty as a Redditor.
As evidence that preppers are not all the same ideologically, I just got into an argument on a prepper Discord with a they/them who says "this year is going to mark 1 year of masking 24/7, including while I sleep"
Apparently in 2023 their housemates got tired of not being allowed to eat at restaurants, which made the home "unsafe" and necessitated perma-masking.
I normally wouldn't make fun of someone for their personal decisions about masking, but this person was so rude and aggressive about my own choice not to wear a mask in every public place forever, that I don't feel too bad about it.
They also claimed that TB rates are "skyrocketing" because of post-COVID syndrome and then, when presented with data contradicting this, switched to "well the rates could be going DOWN if we all wore masks forever".
It's funny how the "follow the science and trust authority" people seamlessly switched to "the government is covering up how bad it is!" as soon as those authorities said we could relax a little.
My brother's roommate is like this, we all have to take COVID / FLU tests (she pays) when he visits us. The alternative is that everyone masks, or he doesn’t come.
Some of columns A and B I think. She also thinks that schools informing parents when their kids start asking to be called the opposite sex will lead to kids dying so there’s that.
Yeah, I feel kinda bad about getting into it because this person clearly IS unwell, just probably not in the way they think they are. But they were such an asshole about the fact that I (and 99.9% of humanity) are unwilling to mask in all public places forever. No, it's not the same as wearing underwear!
Here's an argument pro tip, if you are trying to convince someone to make an unpleasant sacrifice for altruistic reasons, don't mock and belittle their objections.
My only gripe with the climate doomers is they're almost all super left wing, progressive. And it just feels contradictory.
I mean, if we're all certainly doomed in the near not far future shouldn't I be left unharassed to accumulate as much wealth and privilege for my offspring as possible? I mean, isn't generational wealth literally worthless since there will be no generations to speak of?
So bring on the yachts, the champagne & caviar say I!
One of my good college friends is a leftie prepper type. Lives up in northern New England and tries to be self sufficient as they can. Not a hippie or commie or anything. A little bit conspiratorial but nothing too out there.
I do the retirement planning for our family, and when my wife asks for a rundown, I always point out that we are reasonably prepared for disability or a house destroying disaster or a job shock or something but are not prepared at all for a cessation of public services.
Low level prepping is have some cash, a water filter or other purification system, and several days of food that you can prepare without utilities. Higher levels involves ammunition and salt. I should probably take at least the lower levels seriously.
Yeah I for sure know a couple left wing preppers (often with a climate focus but buy 400 acres of woods and build a cabin out there), and even a few black "race war coming" preppers. Still mostly libertarians and religious crazies, but there is a sizable portion of other types.
My wife is a pepper wannabe. If money was no object, we'd have a safe room, bomb shelter, 2 year supply, the works.
I think it's almost purely anxiety driven for her. lol
However, it allowed me to easily make the case for a full 4x4 off road vehicle under the pretense that it would be invaluable in the case of a zombie apocalypse or dystopian future when infrastructure becomes unmaintained.
I paused after Katie's recommendations, and I am in tears, too. Katie, thank you for sharing all of this information and discussion and the dispelling of rumor and conspiracy. I fell for it. I fell back into it. I shared it, I sent it to people, I posted it in the fucking open thread, oh Jesus Christ! Katie is right, there are very VERY dark ones being spread right now, the darkest of them seemingly being spread by people like Naomi Wolf (I had the sense not to fall for that) but I absolutely fell for the Spruce Mine/ Land Grab theory as well as the idea that the powers that be are trying to stoke a civil war, predictive programmed by the film. I'm too upset to say anymore --- but thank you Katie for being so honest and open and frank here, and thank you Andy and Matt for sharing your Katrina experiences. I also swallowed alot about that at the time that I am still struggling to let go of.
Honestly, after the past few years I don’t think anyone trusts the “official” narrative from the government anymore. And why would they? How many times over the past few years have we been told that various ideas were far right conspiracy theories, only to be later proven right. This is the problem. No one knows what’s real anymore.
I loved the hell out of this episode and it was a real reminder of how no matter how terminally online so many of us are, the normies are still out there being human beings, helping, rebuilding community, and I think it makes many of us strive even harder to disconnect and join them. I don't currently have to fear hurricanes in Ireland but my heart goes out to those of you who hit by them, I can't even imagine.
“I've heard some conspiracizing about this being different from Katrina because it affects rural areas rather than cities, but I think the main difference--as someone who was on Katrina coverage duty during and after the storm--is that with Katrina, there was advanced worry in the days before that the New Orleans levees would break, so organizations had time to stand up coverage. This time the storm surprised us, and now it's hard to get people in to the worst affected areas.”
Is it just me or is there less lead-up to hurricanes making landfall nowadays? Like Milton just came out of nowhere in the last 24 hours, it wasn’t even on the NHC’s map of stuff that might develop. (Yes, I am a nerd who checks it.)
How much of this is due to climate change is beyond my pay grade, but as a matter of observation, the oceans have warmed a lot just in the past 2 years compared to even the recent past. The numbers may not look like much, but each additional 0.01°C is like a fucktillion joules of energy on a global scale. https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/?dm_id=world2
Actually I just remembered (sorry for double commenting): before y’all revealed that Beau had been harassing artists, I was having a sort of gut level “ick” reaction to the description of his behavior online. It sort of reminded me of previous pod subject Sam Brinton who was a figure of controversy before he ever committed crimes. I remember thinking, I just don’t believe that someone who has no issue participating in fetish content in a way that can be linked to their real name and job has an appropriate sense of boundaries. This gut instinct is now 2/2 and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Ideally free time should be our own to do with as we please, and hypothetically I think people should be able to participate in fetish communities and sexually explicit content if they’re not doing anything illegal…but also it does seem to signal troubling behavior? Especially if they use their real name and their job is something completely unrelated.
For me Brinton is second only to Jeffrey Marsh in the creep factor. He did restore my confidence in the DOE’s ability to safely store nuclear waste though ;)
What an embarrassment to this Administration. And yet it was swept under the rug quite neatly. Seriously, what do you expect with someone who presents like that? The bright, shiny red lipstick smeared under his mustache was the one that made me heave.
Maybe I just have an unfair aversion to cross dressing or something. But Brinton *looked* so disgusting when doing it. It was like he was trying to see what he could get away with as far as offense.
And yes, I expect relatively high civil servants, especially ones attending conferences, to try and look professional and inoffensive. *Especially* to foreigners.
I agree- no scarlet dress and sloppy lipstick while in an official capacity…except maybe at IAEA meetings at the UN, where it would seem in keeping with the current majesty of that institution.
The fact that practically the entire Dem elite seems to think we should see someone like Brinton and have no negative thoughts whatsoever- or if we do that we should bide our tongues and scold ourselves- feels a bit like psychological totalitarianism.
Assuming the Beau allegations are true, they're super creepy. However, I can't stop laughing at the fact that this dude's tactic was to claim that he was giving artists for a kid's show his nudes "for inspiration." What an insane method of sexually harassing your employees.
I wonder if he honestly has come to believe his own bullshit on this. It’s not uncommon for narcissistic assholes. “who wouldn’t be inspired by my cock??”
Dear Katie: Thank you for sharing not only what is happening in Asheville but also your vulnerability and love for your community, friends and family. My hope is that you all remain safe and I know the trauma of this horrific storm will be felt for years as they continue to recover and rebuild. I understand your frustration with NPR but I just wanted to let you know the team at BPR are working around the clock with the few resources and limited team they have. All my best! Kimberly
It's 5:09 on Sunday and I just watched 4 Blackhawk helicopters circle over the mountain across from my house, I'm thinking search and rescue, along with what looked like an emergency transport helicopter. Didn't look like supply helicopters, although we have seen a lot of those over the last week, too. I waved, cried and said a prayer for them that they find people who are stranded. We are just below the town of Marshall, two towns north of Asheville. Because we are on a hill and not near any creeks, streams or lakes, we got very lucky. Wind was hella strong but did not knock down any of our big trees.
Definitely weird to be so cut off from information. Power went out early Friday morning. Went on recon late Friday afternoon to see if I could get to downtown Weaverville. No traffic lights but did make it down to see chaos. We did not prepare enough - not enough water put aside and we didn't gas up our cars, although they all had 1/2 a tank. Went driving Saturday morning to go north to Johnson City, TN only to get turned around 10 miles in. Tried going east but it was the same thing - no traffic lights, all stores closed, people trying to get gas where there was none. Really surreal.
Found the local NPR station, BPR, and it was a freakin' lifeline! I know Katie said they were playing regularly scheduled programming but that didn't last long. There are 5 affiliates in the area - the closest to us is the classical music station. When we started listening there wasn't much information to give out but that changed rapidly, and one of the best things they did was broadcast live the twice daily briefings Buncombe county was giving. They pivoted very rapidly to all hurricane news. This is how we knew how bad it was, how widespread the damage was, and where they were setting up to distribute food, water, baby supplies, etc., and how to get to somewhere with cell service.
Those of us relatively unscathed are extremely grateful but I am sure I am not alone in my sadness and survivors guilt. I have had some friends and friends of friends take me up on the offer of coming up to shower, do laundry, fill up jugs of water, etc. Total strangers are saying hi to each other. No one I have heard is racializing this disaster or particularly politicizing it , at least no so far. Most everyone I have seen and heard from on the ground and online is very grateful for the government support. Only negatives I have heard were about the $750 but that was quickly dispelled on Asheville reddit and there is some scuttlebut that while the AVL mayor, NC govenor and President Biden were flying around to survey the damage, all other rescue and aid flights were grounded but I haveno substantiation of that.
I am exhausted and was relatively unscathed by this, so can only imagine how folks who lost loved ones, homes, etc., are feeling. Hearing the stories of those in other areas - the farmers we buy our eggs from, folks in Fairview, Bat Cave, Burnsville - about the devastation, people watching their grandmas swept away and taken under by flood waters, roads like I40 literally lifted up and swept away, 100 ft poplars being lifted up and thrown down into rushing creeks like toothpicks along with boulders the size of cars (this was down in Fairview, just south of Asheville), complete towns wiped off the map, topography changed forever; it's hard to digest the magnitude of this. I feel so lucky and so sad for those who were not. I hope I can get connected to volunteer orgs to help others in need.
6500 found and saved so far by our search and rescue teams, 40 missions flown yesterday alone.
The part about well-meaning volunteers being turned away for very practical reasons because they can hurt more than they help makes me wish there was some kind of central resource on what is the best way to “help” in any particular kind of disaster. I’ve always figured that when in doubt, just send money to the people at the front lines who have a track record of knowing what they’re doing. Money always seems better than goods except when the community in need can’t access goods, you have those goods, and there is a logistically practical way to get them to where they need to go. When it comes to small local charity vs behemoth (e.g. American Red Cross), however, I admit I really don’t know.
I know that with big fires, people sort of use it as a way to offload stuff they don't need, and most of the "goods" that are donated in that way just wind up getting thrown away.
This is true - I know people who had to go get clothes after they lost everything in Katrina. One event was a huge parking lot just full of boxes and bags of old clothes. And while they appreciated getting clothes, it was also deeply humiliating to go scavenging for old clothes that might fit after losing everything. They already spent all day mucking out washed out houses and trying to save their own things. And the charity they got was more old stuff to dig through
I agree. Better to donate money so an organization can bulk buy some standard new clothing (say, packs of plain t shirts and underwear) that can be given out. No need to dig through a truck load of heavy winter coats missing buttons for people in the deep south and old prom dresses or whatever
There were people using their private planes to drop in supplies to the western carolinas via nearby airports. I think it was all "what sounds good to pack into a tiny plane?" which is probably the best we can hope for.
I love him! My favorite of the characters he does on social media is Rick the gym bro who is always lifting heaps. His Australian accent is impeccable. I’m so glad his show is being received so well!
I loved his Caleb Gallo series!! Good for him. The English Teacher trailer got a few laughs out of me so I might check it out. The part about "kids are using the r word again" is real.
I LOVE "English Teacher" and I have been a fan of Alvarez for awhile (his roster of characters are incredible). So glad that the pathetic attempt to get him "canceled" right before the show aired went nowhere.
Ah, a classic of the genre, thankyou! I particularly appreciate the complete lack of specific details, as well as the asterisks in the reference to Baby Reindeer. Perfection!!! :-)
Couple thoughts as someone who knows a bit about this stuff.
1) Another reason "volunteers" can get turned away is a decent chunk of early "volunteers" are actually looters. People with criminal intent will get to a government roadblock there to protect people from danger, say they want to help, actually be wanting to loot, and then when they are turned back as a danger to themselves (and other's property), plus as a potential rescue risk if they get stuck, they will then have an exciting story about how "the government wouldn't let me help".
2) The actions which leads to "FEMA is stealing aid money", or "XYZ government agency is stealing aid money" would have not started happening yet there, but often arises from the following situation:
The government is in a community say replacing garages for people whose garage got destroyed and don't have insurance for it. So people are getting $30k (most garages), 50k or even $100k for their garage and its contents (because there are often vehicles inside).
But importantly this aid is often for uninsured losses. If your garage and the shit in it is getting replaced by your insurer, there is zero need for the government to ALSO give you money to replace that same shit. Likewise if your church put together a bunch of money and provided you temporary housing.
What happens is this: "Jimbob hears that the government is giving out $100k for people with a wrecked garage and cash for temporary housing". Jimbob thinks to himself "I am going to get me some of that sweet gobmint cash to replace my losses". Jim goes and applies for aid and finds out that since his losses were totally insured AND he was given an additional $10k by his church to cover his temporary living expenses on top of that, the government doesn't actually deem him as needing a disaster payout. Now Jim is hopping mad, "Chuck down the street got $100k for his garage! WTF, gobmint stole my money! Gobmint is punishing me for getting charity from my church".
But the point of many of the programs isn't to "treat everyone fairly". The point is to replace people's losses. And while there is moral hazard there, and the rewarding of people for stupid behavior (building/buying in floodplains, not carrying enough insurance), the government isn't "taking” anyone's money.
Frequently the root of such rumors is someone who is fine, hears about someone else's aid, gets greedy dollar signs in their eyes, and then feels like the government is "taking their aid from them" or "punishing them for donations they received".
But dude you don't need $10k for temporary housing expenses if your church already provided you with temporary housing (or whatever). And that type of misunderstood story spreads like wildfire in the right circles and crops up in new places before the money even starts getting handed out. You will have people claiming their cousin was denied for programs that haven't even started processing applications yet because they are just spreading rumors they heard.
When I heard Katie cry, I was alone in my garage cleaning stuff up to make room for this new multi-child carrier thing called “the Wonder Wagon.”
And I thought: “I don’t hate the Free Press Commenters enough.”
On a lighter note, we are living in a golden age of wagon strollers. I definitely would have dropped $700 on a Veer if they had existed when my kids could have fit in one.
Had to talk my wife down from getting the one with headlights that looks like a be bus
I can't hear Katie cry without tearing up too.
She got me 3/3 times.
Having known someone on a FEMA US&R team for the past several years, I can hopefully make a few useful or interesting comments.
One is that Urban Search & Rescue has had to evolve a lot since Katrina. Its founding mission is structural collapse a la earthquakes, the OKC & 9/11. The vast majority of its personnel come from fire departments and specialize in heavy rescue such as boring through concrete. The mission back then was to be able to respond rapidly & effectively to a disaster. Katrina changed them in that they have since added on a robust swift-water element with their own rescue boats. They now do not only technical rescue looking for live people in a finite collapsed building, but now adding a significant wide-area search that relies heavily on walking door-to-door in places cut off from vehicular traffic.
Now US&R deploys much more than they used to, because hurricanes are predictable. Their trucks are painted with the name & year of their deployments - before Katrina it averaged a deployment every 3 years, after it has been 3 deployments per year. Many of these are preparatory; of the 3 my friend’s been on, the had no “work” to do other than readiness, as damage was less than feared. One hurricane never even made landfall. For Helene, FEMA staged 6 of its 27 teams in Florida and 2 more in Georgia before the storm reached land; now 19 teams are in southern Appalachia, while 4 more are staging in Florida for Milton.
FEMA’s US&R teams are not, strictly speaking, US government teams; US&R is a great example of federalism. Each of the 27 teams is actually a state team that has met FEMA criteria and thus receives extra support from the federal government for specialist capabilities. Almost every member has a full-time job elsewhere, but is “on call” every third month. When a state declares an emergency, their state team(s) assembles and goes to the scene - often that means leaving home/work with 2-4 hours’ notice to be gone for up to 2 weeks. If the state asks the Fed for help, FEMA can step in and “activate” its certified state teams from elsewhere according to various protocols. As FEMA teams arrive (usually driving, from as far as California or Massachusetts), they are plugged into the state’s emergency management framework. Thus the idea that “FEMA is/isn’t showing up and doing this/that” is an illusion; FEMA is facilitating a rapid temporary expansion of eg Texas’s emergency management agency with a small core of professional expert advisors and a bunch of firefighters+ from eg Colorado or Indiana. If FEMA US&R isn’t in a particular area, it may be that the SEMA has decided to put other, local resources there. Or maybe FEMA is there, but a truck that says “Ohio Taskforce 1” isn’t obviously a federal resource. It may also be the case that an area is missed due to there being so many other calls for attention.
FEMA has very little intrinsic capacity for a lot of big logistical stuff; much of it is contracted out. Aviation assets such as helicopters generally come from the National Guard or state police. Each disaster is its own thing, with its own response cobbled together from new parts - but parts that have been designed to fit into a known Incident Management framework that can be wielded to adapt to a variety of situations. Like they said in the show, it’s hard to know where a rando volunteer fits into that framework. The best thing to do, if you want be one of the helpers, is to volunteer with a local group and start beforehand, and maybe you can find your way into a big response through that (if not into a bunch of smaller responses).
This was super interesting, thanks. It needs to be republished all over the place.
My mother worked for FEMA for a couple of decades.
In addition to what you’re saying, I think it’s important to note that while they correctly identify FEMA has being under the Department of Homeland Security, this was not always the case. DHS is our newest federal department and was created in response to 9/11. Before that, FEMA was an independent agency with a much smaller budget and a clearer role. Post-9/11, FEMA got involved in counterterrorism and had an extra layer of bureaucracy and a lot more top secret clearances. My mother blamed the added layer of bureaucracy for a lot of what happened in the Katrina response and she always preferred FEMA’s independence.
Just another example of how centralization of power post-9/11 ruined everything.
Very insightful and informative
There are also contributions from other federally-run programs into FEMA’s capacity. AmeriCorps, for instance (I worked for AmeriCorps HQ in DC for five years and was on the disaster response team), trains and deploys both administrative staff and AmeriCorps volunteers to coordinate work and directly contribute on the ground.
"The best thing to do, if you want be one of the helpers, is to volunteer with a local group and start beforehand, and maybe you can find your way into a big response through that (if not into a bunch of smaller responses)."
Do you know how to find a local group in my community that would participate in this kind of organized response in the event of a major disaster? I was part of CERT back in California but I've moved and there's no CERT program in my county (I asked at the county emergency management office). We do have ARES here (ham radio stuff) so that might be one option.
If your county or state Emergency Management Agency doesn’t have any suggestions, you could try the Red Cross (or Red Crescent if you’re Katie), Civil Air Patrol, or see if there’s a wilderness search & rescue group in your area. If you have a particular skill set, you might find an organization that is based around that.
When the tough girl cries, everybody cries.
There must have been a broken mister or something in my garage. My eyes got a bit damp.
She really kills me. Wise asses being emotional cut me to the core.
For a misanthrope, Katie has remarkable chemistry and rapport with all her guest hosts. This was one of the best episodes, imho.
(Also, I wasn’t a comic book kid, so is the woman in the yellow jumpsuit She-Wolverine or something? All I know are the retractable claws.)
I was a comic book kid, an X-Men reader. The picture is an AI illustration, so the woman isn't an established character in any franchise. She's yours to endow with whatever power and backstory you feel BlockedandReportedWoman should have.
Her name is Polly Cule and she wields the claws of perverse nuance.
I like her. May I suggest a superpowered canine sidekick who demoralizes the woke with his Bark of Laughter?
Maybe some kind of lab-created canine-elk hybrid? A dog who’s a bit like a…moose?
Not a comic book boy either but you're probably talking about rogue, of the famed booty.
I'll be interested to hear Andy and Matt's piece on preppers and climate doomers. In my experience the prepper world is more ideologically diverse than you might think, especially after 2020. There's a lot of content and communities that don't fit the paranoid right-winger stereotype. Of course it's a spectrum, many people have SOME form of disaster preparedness, and some people are quite well-prepared but avoid the "prepper" label because of the connotations.
As for climate doomers, I would describe them as people who DON'T prepare for climate change, or have any positive solutions, they just show up to say that we're all fucked in this kind of smug "I'm better than you because I've abandoned hope" way. They make me so, so irrationally angry. It's not even that I necessarily think they're wrong! They might be right. Maybe there is a 90% chance that we're fucked no matter what we do, and a 10% chance that our actions have some impact on how bad things get -- I'm still going to focus on the 10%. This is the rational, expected-value-maximizing move! You can call it self-delusion if you want, but if we're all doomed it's not like there is a prize for being right.
I agree. There’s only so much nihilism and black pill I can take. Somehow we have to figure out how we can move forward in a positive direction so we can escape the doom loop of the past four years. I keep hearing people say that something feels off since 2020, like we’re all just waiting for the next catastrophe. We can’t live like that. And this may be a controversial take, but I’m going to say it anyway: the climate doomers are starting to look like the religious nut gathering everyone around for the rapture that never comes. When nothing happens he just changes the date and they do it all over again and no one ever loses faith. I hate to say it, but these days I’m always looking for the subplot or the piece of missing information. Meanwhile, we have chemical fires in towns all across the country and no one bats an eye.
The climate doomers are definitely religious nuts. But the intersectional left is basically a religion anyway
Ain’t that the truth. If I was still 20 years old, I might be one of them. At 47, it’s not possible.
>There's only so much nihilism and black pill I can take
While society does need to get its act together, the solution for your problem isn't for society to figure out; you just gotta get off social media. The US is still very much up and to the right. There's a lot of reason to be optimistic.
Unless you're not American in which case yeah, it might be time to start worrying soon.
You’re absolutely correct about this one. In fact, I tell myself this every day. Then I think, what if something massive is about to happen and I don’t know about it? Then I think, maybe it’s better that I don’t know. I’ll just be out here pulling weeds when the big one hits. Maybe that’s the way.
At least one of the main prepper groups on reddit is quite reasonable. A lot of them are dismissive of the Zombie Apocalypse scenario ("right, in that case, we're all going to die") and are quite sensible about preparing for hurricanes, earthquakes, power outages, etc. They all believe in guns but they're not usually obsessed with guns. They talk a lot about food-safe storage containers and keeping fresh bleach on hand to sterilize water.
I like those guys. They remind me of the boys I used to hang out with in Georgia as a kid. Those were the kind of boys who would spend weeks in the woods building forts and looking for cool animal bones and stuff buried in the dirt. They always wore camouflage and smelled like leaves. Now they’re all growed up, and we need them to lead us out of this hell hole.
Are you talking about r/preppers? I used to hang out there around 2018-2020. Got some good intel on COVID before anyone was taking it seriously here (I should have shorted some stock, sigh...)
I deleted my Reddit account and don't use the site much anymore on account of the IPO-related enshittification, so I don't know what it's like these days.
I didn't short anything, but I sold everything and it was great! Don't try and time the market, but if it works itis great.
Yeah, that's the one. I'm not saying there aren't some weirdos over there. But the normies usually dominate.
I do remember a couple weirdos. One who wanted to insulate their house with compressed toilet paper inside the walls so they would always have a stash. Another who had an elaborate scheme to power an enclosed bunker -- something like grow plants for biofuel, then use that to run a generator to power grow lights. When it was pointed out that you can only lose energy on net with this kind of cycle, they just kept adding steps. I was torn between pointing out that the only way to have a self contained long-term power source is a nuclear reactor or RTG, and wanting NOT to mention this for fear they would actually try it.
Also lots of people who wanted to power their house from a generator by backfeeding an outlet, and lots of people who wanted to buy ham radios but couldn't be bothered to get a license or learn how to use them. They all got a lecture from me. It was my duty as a Redditor.
You were doing God's work.
As evidence that preppers are not all the same ideologically, I just got into an argument on a prepper Discord with a they/them who says "this year is going to mark 1 year of masking 24/7, including while I sleep"
Wow... Embarking on a perma-masking lifestyle in 2023 is something.
Apparently in 2023 their housemates got tired of not being allowed to eat at restaurants, which made the home "unsafe" and necessitated perma-masking.
I normally wouldn't make fun of someone for their personal decisions about masking, but this person was so rude and aggressive about my own choice not to wear a mask in every public place forever, that I don't feel too bad about it.
They also claimed that TB rates are "skyrocketing" because of post-COVID syndrome and then, when presented with data contradicting this, switched to "well the rates could be going DOWN if we all wore masks forever".
It's funny how the "follow the science and trust authority" people seamlessly switched to "the government is covering up how bad it is!" as soon as those authorities said we could relax a little.
My brother's roommate is like this, we all have to take COVID / FLU tests (she pays) when he visits us. The alternative is that everyone masks, or he doesn’t come.
I didn't even know there are home tests for flu! How accurate are they?
Does your brother's roommate have a medical reason for this level of caution or is it more in the psychological realm?
Some of columns A and B I think. She also thinks that schools informing parents when their kids start asking to be called the opposite sex will lead to kids dying so there’s that.
Some kind of madness
Yeah, I feel kinda bad about getting into it because this person clearly IS unwell, just probably not in the way they think they are. But they were such an asshole about the fact that I (and 99.9% of humanity) are unwilling to mask in all public places forever. No, it's not the same as wearing underwear!
Here's an argument pro tip, if you are trying to convince someone to make an unpleasant sacrifice for altruistic reasons, don't mock and belittle their objections.
My only gripe with the climate doomers is they're almost all super left wing, progressive. And it just feels contradictory.
I mean, if we're all certainly doomed in the near not far future shouldn't I be left unharassed to accumulate as much wealth and privilege for my offspring as possible? I mean, isn't generational wealth literally worthless since there will be no generations to speak of?
So bring on the yachts, the champagne & caviar say I!
One of my good college friends is a leftie prepper type. Lives up in northern New England and tries to be self sufficient as they can. Not a hippie or commie or anything. A little bit conspiratorial but nothing too out there.
If you're not a little bit conspiratorial these days you're not paying attention! 😄
I do the retirement planning for our family, and when my wife asks for a rundown, I always point out that we are reasonably prepared for disability or a house destroying disaster or a job shock or something but are not prepared at all for a cessation of public services.
Low level prepping is have some cash, a water filter or other purification system, and several days of food that you can prepare without utilities. Higher levels involves ammunition and salt. I should probably take at least the lower levels seriously.
You need a salt rifle.
I have freeze dried food, stored water, iodine tablets, life straws, a shotgun and ammo.
We are working on upping our preparedness now; we really should be able to be self sufficient for a couple weeks at a minimum.
Yeah I for sure know a couple left wing preppers (often with a climate focus but buy 400 acres of woods and build a cabin out there), and even a few black "race war coming" preppers. Still mostly libertarians and religious crazies, but there is a sizable portion of other types.
Great comment. I, too, try to focus on that hopeful 10% despite being naturally a pessimist.
My wife is a pepper wannabe. If money was no object, we'd have a safe room, bomb shelter, 2 year supply, the works.
I think it's almost purely anxiety driven for her. lol
However, it allowed me to easily make the case for a full 4x4 off road vehicle under the pretense that it would be invaluable in the case of a zombie apocalypse or dystopian future when infrastructure becomes unmaintained.
So I'm ok with it.
I paused after Katie's recommendations, and I am in tears, too. Katie, thank you for sharing all of this information and discussion and the dispelling of rumor and conspiracy. I fell for it. I fell back into it. I shared it, I sent it to people, I posted it in the fucking open thread, oh Jesus Christ! Katie is right, there are very VERY dark ones being spread right now, the darkest of them seemingly being spread by people like Naomi Wolf (I had the sense not to fall for that) but I absolutely fell for the Spruce Mine/ Land Grab theory as well as the idea that the powers that be are trying to stoke a civil war, predictive programmed by the film. I'm too upset to say anymore --- but thank you Katie for being so honest and open and frank here, and thank you Andy and Matt for sharing your Katrina experiences. I also swallowed alot about that at the time that I am still struggling to let go of.
Honestly, after the past few years I don’t think anyone trusts the “official” narrative from the government anymore. And why would they? How many times over the past few years have we been told that various ideas were far right conspiracy theories, only to be later proven right. This is the problem. No one knows what’s real anymore.
I'm really glad you were convinced by their discussion
Katie Herzog: this natural disaster zone is filled with nooks & trannies
TRA Internet: Even TERF Herzog admits that trans people are the most affected by the climate crisis!!1!!!1!!
I loved the hell out of this episode and it was a real reminder of how no matter how terminally online so many of us are, the normies are still out there being human beings, helping, rebuilding community, and I think it makes many of us strive even harder to disconnect and join them. I don't currently have to fear hurricanes in Ireland but my heart goes out to those of you who hit by them, I can't even imagine.
Along the lines of Katie’s observation that news was centered around Florida for the first few days, Megan McArdle offered this characteristically temperate and sensible theory: (https://x.com/asymmetricinfo/status/1840399417238585362?s=46&t=DG0ToeimhGTKT79Th4M8uw)
“I've heard some conspiracizing about this being different from Katrina because it affects rural areas rather than cities, but I think the main difference--as someone who was on Katrina coverage duty during and after the storm--is that with Katrina, there was advanced worry in the days before that the New Orleans levees would break, so organizations had time to stand up coverage. This time the storm surprised us, and now it's hard to get people in to the worst affected areas.”
Is it just me or is there less lead-up to hurricanes making landfall nowadays? Like Milton just came out of nowhere in the last 24 hours, it wasn’t even on the NHC’s map of stuff that might develop. (Yes, I am a nerd who checks it.)
More hurricanes are intensifying rapidly in recent years: https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/hurricane-rapid-intensification
Also Helene dumped an unusually large amount of water over a large area. Even if people were ready for a hurricane on the coast of Florida, they were less likely to be ready for catastrophic flooding some 400 miles inland. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/helene-and-other-storms-dumped-40-trillion-gallons-of-rain-on-the-south
How much of this is due to climate change is beyond my pay grade, but as a matter of observation, the oceans have warmed a lot just in the past 2 years compared to even the recent past. The numbers may not look like much, but each additional 0.01°C is like a fucktillion joules of energy on a global scale. https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/?dm_id=world2
And now Milton has gone from tropical storm to Category 5 in about a day...
Many of us were not prepared for this storm, and there are so many people in remote places with one way in, one way out.
I also think many of the places that are now underwater are the places people used to evacuate TO. They are pretty far inland.
Actually I just remembered (sorry for double commenting): before y’all revealed that Beau had been harassing artists, I was having a sort of gut level “ick” reaction to the description of his behavior online. It sort of reminded me of previous pod subject Sam Brinton who was a figure of controversy before he ever committed crimes. I remember thinking, I just don’t believe that someone who has no issue participating in fetish content in a way that can be linked to their real name and job has an appropriate sense of boundaries. This gut instinct is now 2/2 and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Ideally free time should be our own to do with as we please, and hypothetically I think people should be able to participate in fetish communities and sexually explicit content if they’re not doing anything illegal…but also it does seem to signal troubling behavior? Especially if they use their real name and their job is something completely unrelated.
Just keep that shit to yourself. That’s my golden rule of sex stuff.
Brinton also cross dressed in a gross way, probably for attention, at official events. Even international ones I believe
For me Brinton is second only to Jeffrey Marsh in the creep factor. He did restore my confidence in the DOE’s ability to safely store nuclear waste though ;)
What an embarrassment to this Administration. And yet it was swept under the rug quite neatly. Seriously, what do you expect with someone who presents like that? The bright, shiny red lipstick smeared under his mustache was the one that made me heave.
Maybe I just have an unfair aversion to cross dressing or something. But Brinton *looked* so disgusting when doing it. It was like he was trying to see what he could get away with as far as offense.
And yes, I expect relatively high civil servants, especially ones attending conferences, to try and look professional and inoffensive. *Especially* to foreigners.
I agree- no scarlet dress and sloppy lipstick while in an official capacity…except maybe at IAEA meetings at the UN, where it would seem in keeping with the current majesty of that institution.
And, while we're at it, can we just go ahead and admit that Rachel Levine looks ridiculous?
The fact that practically the entire Dem elite seems to think we should see someone like Brinton and have no negative thoughts whatsoever- or if we do that we should bide our tongues and scold ourselves- feels a bit like psychological totalitarianism.
I've seen Brinton in campaign ads.
Assuming the Beau allegations are true, they're super creepy. However, I can't stop laughing at the fact that this dude's tactic was to claim that he was giving artists for a kid's show his nudes "for inspiration." What an insane method of sexually harassing your employees.
I wonder if he honestly has come to believe his own bullshit on this. It’s not uncommon for narcissistic assholes. “who wouldn’t be inspired by my cock??”
Dear Katie: Thank you for sharing not only what is happening in Asheville but also your vulnerability and love for your community, friends and family. My hope is that you all remain safe and I know the trauma of this horrific storm will be felt for years as they continue to recover and rebuild. I understand your frustration with NPR but I just wanted to let you know the team at BPR are working around the clock with the few resources and limited team they have. All my best! Kimberly
It's 5:09 on Sunday and I just watched 4 Blackhawk helicopters circle over the mountain across from my house, I'm thinking search and rescue, along with what looked like an emergency transport helicopter. Didn't look like supply helicopters, although we have seen a lot of those over the last week, too. I waved, cried and said a prayer for them that they find people who are stranded. We are just below the town of Marshall, two towns north of Asheville. Because we are on a hill and not near any creeks, streams or lakes, we got very lucky. Wind was hella strong but did not knock down any of our big trees.
Definitely weird to be so cut off from information. Power went out early Friday morning. Went on recon late Friday afternoon to see if I could get to downtown Weaverville. No traffic lights but did make it down to see chaos. We did not prepare enough - not enough water put aside and we didn't gas up our cars, although they all had 1/2 a tank. Went driving Saturday morning to go north to Johnson City, TN only to get turned around 10 miles in. Tried going east but it was the same thing - no traffic lights, all stores closed, people trying to get gas where there was none. Really surreal.
Found the local NPR station, BPR, and it was a freakin' lifeline! I know Katie said they were playing regularly scheduled programming but that didn't last long. There are 5 affiliates in the area - the closest to us is the classical music station. When we started listening there wasn't much information to give out but that changed rapidly, and one of the best things they did was broadcast live the twice daily briefings Buncombe county was giving. They pivoted very rapidly to all hurricane news. This is how we knew how bad it was, how widespread the damage was, and where they were setting up to distribute food, water, baby supplies, etc., and how to get to somewhere with cell service.
Those of us relatively unscathed are extremely grateful but I am sure I am not alone in my sadness and survivors guilt. I have had some friends and friends of friends take me up on the offer of coming up to shower, do laundry, fill up jugs of water, etc. Total strangers are saying hi to each other. No one I have heard is racializing this disaster or particularly politicizing it , at least no so far. Most everyone I have seen and heard from on the ground and online is very grateful for the government support. Only negatives I have heard were about the $750 but that was quickly dispelled on Asheville reddit and there is some scuttlebut that while the AVL mayor, NC govenor and President Biden were flying around to survey the damage, all other rescue and aid flights were grounded but I haveno substantiation of that.
I am exhausted and was relatively unscathed by this, so can only imagine how folks who lost loved ones, homes, etc., are feeling. Hearing the stories of those in other areas - the farmers we buy our eggs from, folks in Fairview, Bat Cave, Burnsville - about the devastation, people watching their grandmas swept away and taken under by flood waters, roads like I40 literally lifted up and swept away, 100 ft poplars being lifted up and thrown down into rushing creeks like toothpicks along with boulders the size of cars (this was down in Fairview, just south of Asheville), complete towns wiped off the map, topography changed forever; it's hard to digest the magnitude of this. I feel so lucky and so sad for those who were not. I hope I can get connected to volunteer orgs to help others in need.
6500 found and saved so far by our search and rescue teams, 40 missions flown yesterday alone.
The part about well-meaning volunteers being turned away for very practical reasons because they can hurt more than they help makes me wish there was some kind of central resource on what is the best way to “help” in any particular kind of disaster. I’ve always figured that when in doubt, just send money to the people at the front lines who have a track record of knowing what they’re doing. Money always seems better than goods except when the community in need can’t access goods, you have those goods, and there is a logistically practical way to get them to where they need to go. When it comes to small local charity vs behemoth (e.g. American Red Cross), however, I admit I really don’t know.
I know that with big fires, people sort of use it as a way to offload stuff they don't need, and most of the "goods" that are donated in that way just wind up getting thrown away.
They don't want your old clothes, people.
This is true - I know people who had to go get clothes after they lost everything in Katrina. One event was a huge parking lot just full of boxes and bags of old clothes. And while they appreciated getting clothes, it was also deeply humiliating to go scavenging for old clothes that might fit after losing everything. They already spent all day mucking out washed out houses and trying to save their own things. And the charity they got was more old stuff to dig through
It sounded like they did need clothes
Dirty, worn out, out-of-season clothes? Not really. I think they got a few old shirts ultimately. Most of the clothes were thrown away
If there's capacity to drive a carload of donated clothes, there's capacity for WalMart to deliver a pallet of new clothes.
I agree. Better to donate money so an organization can bulk buy some standard new clothing (say, packs of plain t shirts and underwear) that can be given out. No need to dig through a truck load of heavy winter coats missing buttons for people in the deep south and old prom dresses or whatever
I thought you meant that people chucked their stuff into the fire!
There were people using their private planes to drop in supplies to the western carolinas via nearby airports. I think it was all "what sounds good to pack into a tiny plane?" which is probably the best we can hope for.
Happy to hear a shout for English Teacher. I hope there are other Brian Jordan Alvarez fans on Barpod?
I too suffer from asymptomatic Tourettes
I love him! My favorite of the characters he does on social media is Rick the gym bro who is always lifting heaps. His Australian accent is impeccable. I’m so glad his show is being received so well!
I often sing 'swimming' to myself and smile. The Aussie accent is spot on! And Marni is perfection :-)
So glad I am not alone in loving Marni! People generally think I'm weird for finding it funny
Marni is brilliant- I am completely with you!
I loved his Caleb Gallo series!! Good for him. The English Teacher trailer got a few laughs out of me so I might check it out. The part about "kids are using the r word again" is real.
I enjoyed it more than I thought. It's really tightly written. I loved Caleb Gallo too!
I love the show! It's my first encounter with Alvarez, and I hope it isn't the last!
His instagram is full of wonderful, mad characters with connected storyline. I highly recommend.
Thanks! He has a wonderfully quirky sense of the world!
I LOVE "English Teacher" and I have been a fan of Alvarez for awhile (his roster of characters are incredible). So glad that the pathetic attempt to get him "canceled" right before the show aired went nowhere.
No way- who and why was there an attempted cancellation?
It was really nothing here is a story on it which of course provides no details https://www.cracked.com/article_43169_former-co-star-of-fxs-english-teacher-creator-accuses-him-of-baby-reindeer-type-behavior.html
Ah, a classic of the genre, thankyou! I particularly appreciate the complete lack of specific details, as well as the asterisks in the reference to Baby Reindeer. Perfection!!! :-)
Couple thoughts as someone who knows a bit about this stuff.
1) Another reason "volunteers" can get turned away is a decent chunk of early "volunteers" are actually looters. People with criminal intent will get to a government roadblock there to protect people from danger, say they want to help, actually be wanting to loot, and then when they are turned back as a danger to themselves (and other's property), plus as a potential rescue risk if they get stuck, they will then have an exciting story about how "the government wouldn't let me help".
2) The actions which leads to "FEMA is stealing aid money", or "XYZ government agency is stealing aid money" would have not started happening yet there, but often arises from the following situation:
The government is in a community say replacing garages for people whose garage got destroyed and don't have insurance for it. So people are getting $30k (most garages), 50k or even $100k for their garage and its contents (because there are often vehicles inside).
But importantly this aid is often for uninsured losses. If your garage and the shit in it is getting replaced by your insurer, there is zero need for the government to ALSO give you money to replace that same shit. Likewise if your church put together a bunch of money and provided you temporary housing.
What happens is this: "Jimbob hears that the government is giving out $100k for people with a wrecked garage and cash for temporary housing". Jimbob thinks to himself "I am going to get me some of that sweet gobmint cash to replace my losses". Jim goes and applies for aid and finds out that since his losses were totally insured AND he was given an additional $10k by his church to cover his temporary living expenses on top of that, the government doesn't actually deem him as needing a disaster payout. Now Jim is hopping mad, "Chuck down the street got $100k for his garage! WTF, gobmint stole my money! Gobmint is punishing me for getting charity from my church".
But the point of many of the programs isn't to "treat everyone fairly". The point is to replace people's losses. And while there is moral hazard there, and the rewarding of people for stupid behavior (building/buying in floodplains, not carrying enough insurance), the government isn't "taking” anyone's money.
Frequently the root of such rumors is someone who is fine, hears about someone else's aid, gets greedy dollar signs in their eyes, and then feels like the government is "taking their aid from them" or "punishing them for donations they received".
But dude you don't need $10k for temporary housing expenses if your church already provided you with temporary housing (or whatever). And that type of misunderstood story spreads like wildfire in the right circles and crops up in new places before the money even starts getting handed out. You will have people claiming their cousin was denied for programs that haven't even started processing applications yet because they are just spreading rumors they heard.
Can confirm that "Chuck down the street" or rather "Janet down the road" causes the same issues in the UK when allocates public funds.