Noem: "These emergencies need to be conducted exactly how President Trump handled this one ... this response was by far the best we've seen out of FEMA." pic.twitter.com/eIosLizjyt
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 13, 2025
Because not everyone who works with FEMA, works for FEMA.
Multiple urban search and rescue teams from across the country that responded to the deadly floods in central Texas told CNN they were not deployed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency until at least Monday evening — days after any victim had been found alive.Five teams, all left waiting while Noem reviewed authorizations; or tried to figure out how to cover the $1 billion deficit she’d run up snatching students and grandmothers.
Three of the teams, which are typically tasked with helping local first responders to urgently find survivors, were dispatched on Tuesday, more than four days after the Guadalupe River surge that has left more than 120 dead and scores missing. No victims have been found alive since last Friday, July 4.
Five of the teams that deployed to Texas were Indiana Task Force 1; Arizona Task Force 1; Colorado Task Force 1; Nevada Task Force 1; and Missouri Task Force 1. The teams are part of the National Urban Search & Rescue Response System, a collection of 28 task forces across the country that FEMA calls upon that are equipped and able to respond within six hours.These teams are experts in rescue and recovery. But they couldn’t get there in time. DHS says the Coast Guard rescued many people. That’s true; but they plucked most of them from high ground at Camp Mystic. That’s good, but not the same thing as rescue and recovery; which was left to locals and non-experts until all that could be hoped for was recovery. Of corpses.
Noem brags about how much better FEMA is working now. She’s a stone cold liar.
Earlier this year, after a flash flood swept through parts of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, weeks into President Donald Trump’s second term — and months before Noem instituted her expenditure sign-off rule — urban search and rescue teams were deployed by FEMA “within 12 hours of the initial weather impacts” to help with evacuations, the agency said in a press release at the time.But Texas? It appeared Trump had backpedaled on his promise to eliminate FEMA. But rescue teams that were ready to go, weren’t authorized for 72 hours. And finally, a week later:
In 2023, FEMA deployed a New York Urban Search and Rescue team to Vermont within a day of major flooding caused by the cresting of the Winooski River inundating downtown Montpelier.
On Friday, one week after the disaster struck, FEMA activated Virginia Task Force 1, from Fairfax County, Va., according to its spokesperson. They asked for a single resource from the group: dogs for recovering bodies.And now they praise themselves over the bodies of the dead and still missing. Ghouls; fucking ghouls.
She can be both. She is both. Though I think she's more of a liar than she is stupid. I think most times it's a matter of moral depravity than innate stupidity, though sometimes it's too much TV as a kid, which leads to both.
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