A tale of two hurricanes and presidents

Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans and coastal Mississippi as a Category 3 hurricane 19 years ago. As a hurricane, a Category 3 storm is average, not the killer Category 4 or 5 storms that we less frequently see.

(Article by Brian C. Joondeph republished from AmericanThinker.com)

Most of the damage and loss of life at that time was due to New Orleans being built below sea level, with levees designed to keep seawater out. However, the levees didn’t hold due to faulty engineering, leading to massive flooding.

The damage was immense, with over 1,800 fatalities and $100 billion in property damage. There was plenty of blame to go around. The Cato Institute identified these failures – confusion, failure to learn, communication breakdown, supply failures, indecision, and fraud and abuse.

The presiding president, George W, Bush, was pilloried over his response. U.S. News & World Report called it “The undoing of George W. Bush,” claiming that he “didn’t pay attention to the biggest news story of the moment because he was on vacation and allowed himself to get isolated from the country.”

Vanity Fair described it as “The flood that sank George W. Bush.”

As Dan Bongino likes to say, elections are made up of snapshots and soundbites.

For Bush, the soundbite was his compliment to then-FEMA Director Michael Brown, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” The famous snapshot of Bush looking out the window of Air Force One at the hurricane’s aftermath was emblematic, too, and can be viewed at the MSNBC site.

Fast forward to last week.

Another hurricane and another president, Helene, and Joe Biden respectively.

What a difference a president makes, at least to the media and their coverage of another epic disaster, especially on the eve of a presidential election.

Hurricane Helene hit Florida on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 storm, moving north and dumping torrential rain onto Georgia and North Carolina, devastating Asheville, and western North Carolina.

The Guardian described the situation, at the time of this writing, “At least 166 people have died from Hurricane Helene, many are still missing and more than 1 million people remained without power as rescue and recovery efforts continued from the devastating storm.”

On Sept. 30, four days after the hurricane landed, former President Donald Trump visited Georgia. No flyover, but boots on the ground. Where were President Biden and Vice President Harris?

Biden was on the sand at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, saying only, “I was commanding it.” What was he commanding? The hurricane? Or was he finally beating Medicare?

Remember above how U.S. News & World Report criticized Bush for being “on vacation.”

Any similar criticism of Biden? Fat chance.

Read more at: AmericanThinker.com