You may have considered superstorm Sandy effectively a no-show after the weather system fell short of its destructive hype, but it still did $27 million worth of damage in Maryland — including “significantly damag[ing]” something like 48 homes.
But apparently the damage wasn’t spectacular enough for the Obama administration to warrant disbursal of federal aid to the affected Eastern Shore residents. It’s strange to think that a Marylander rebuilding after Sandy might have been better off if more of her neighbors suffered — but that’s the long and short of it.
According to the Sun, the decision to refuse aid was “based in part on the state’s capacity to help its own citizen.” Apparently the White House thinks Maryland has the means, but Gov. Martin O’Malley and other state officials do not.
But there’s still time to reverse the decision. Sen. Barb Mikulski says she will press FEMA director Craig Fugate on the issue, insisting he “revisit, reassess, and reconsider.”
If ever there were an example of Maryland’s one party politics failing its citizenry, this couldn’t be better. FEMA, like all federal largesse, is pure politics, doled out where the best political return on that investment can be achieved. Consistently Democratic voters that we are, we afford the Washington Ds to ignore us, and the Rs to simply say, “why bother?”