Firefighting-trained volunteers from around the state converged on Bastrop and Smithville Tuesday to lend a hand to the beleaguered local firefighters battling the Bastrop County Complex Fire — only to be sent away as federal officials arrived at the scene and took command, apparently because local officials never made a formal request for volunteers.When FEMA finally got to where I live(hint we had some twisty wind back in May), they actually started bitching because everyone told them "I've got this in hand, go check on someone else." You see we weren't being good victims with "Where my halp?" signs on our roofs. We had people showing up to help evacuate the local hospital while the storm was still chewing up the other half of the town. We had already checked on our neighbor and every church that still had a roof was opening up as a shelter. Relief was being coordinated by the local talk radio station and insurance agents were literally writing checks on the spot for people to start getting their lives back together.
The federal bureaucrats couldn't let this picture stand since people might start to question just how much we really needed them. So soon came the mandate that the city only had a couple of months to clear wreckage that Curtis LeMay could only have wished he could do to Germany or face strings attached penalties on removal. So the city had to halt new construction permits to keep the streets clear for removal trucks.
I fear that what is now happening in Texas is mandarin bureaucrat demanding that everyone kiss his ring before anything is allowed done combined with the fact that the general mindset of Texas isn't friendly to big government in general and the current administration in particular. And as the president said "punish our enemies."
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