Martha Roby: Rebuilding together
Hurricane Michael, the third most powerful hurricane to ever make landfall on the United States mainland, ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia on October 10th. While only early estimates are available at this point in time, it has been reported that more than 650,000 homes and businesses across the Southeast lost power, and 60,000 of those are in Alabama. Thus far, the Coast Guard says it has rescued 30 people, mostly from badly damaged homes. Hundreds of families lost everything, and it has been confirmed that at least half a dozen people were killed. While Hurricane Michael appears to have done its worst in Panama City, Florida, and the nearby areas, Barbour, Dale, Henry, Geneva, and Houston Counties in our district were also impacted. It could potentially take days, or even weeks, before we know the full scale of the damage, but we do know that Hurricane Michael is the most powerful storm to ever hit Houston County according to recorded history. According to The Dothan Eagle, Dothan Fire Chief Larry Williams said crew members performed 22 rescues during the storm. We’ve not yet received official word on how many injuries there are, but we have been told there are several, some of which are severe. Crews across the Wiregrass remain in search and rescue mode to date. Our farmers face significant troubles as well. While the full scale of the damage to local agriculture is still being assessed, Hurricane Michael dealt a devastating blow to cotton farmers in the area. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to view some of the cotton crop firsthand, and it was clear that our cotton farmers were set up to have a very good yield this year. Wiregrass peanut farmers are waiting to see the full extent of devastation to their crop, too. As our cotton farmers, peanut farmers, and farmers of other commodities in our district learn more about the impact of this storm on their crops, my office is eager to assist in any way and will continue to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on assistance that may be available to impacted farms. Agriculture and its related industries are the engine of our economy in Alabama’s Second District, and this catastrophic storm has unfortunately resulted in an economic setback. Hurricane Michael was an unprecedented disaster for our district and the Southeast. While the threat of severe weather is no longer hovering over us, those who live in the Wiregrass – and not to mention the people across the Florida Panhandle and parts of Georgia – are facing terrible damage. My office has been engaged with FEMA, the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, the American Red Cross, and others throughout this difficult time. We stand ready to assist in whatever ways we can as we work through the aftermath of this storm. I encourage anyone who lives in Alabama’s Second District to contact my office for help, and we will do all that we can to provide assistance and point you in the right direction. We are committed to ensuring no one endures this time of rebuilding alone. Above all, please join me in praying for all those impacted by Hurricane Michael. Some families have lost their loved ones, their homes, and their livelihoods. I encourage everyone to help out with relief efforts in whatever way you can. We should all be deeply thankful for the first responders and all those working to repair the damage. This is a very, very trying and difficult time for so many people across the Southeast, and we will get through it together. ••• Martha Roby represents Alabama’s Second Congressional District. She lives in Montgomery, Alabama, with her husband Riley and their two children.
Obama: Climate change will harm national security
President Barack Obama is framing the challenges of climate change as a matter of national security that threatens to aggravate poverty and political instability around the globe and jeopardize the readiness of U.S. forces. “Make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country,” the president says in excerpts of a commencement address prepared for delivery Wednesday at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. “And so we need to act and we need to act now.” The president in recent months has pressed for action on climate change as a matter of health, as a matter of environmental protection and as a matter of international obligation. He’s even couched it as a family matter, linking it to the worry he felt when one his daughters had an asthma attack as a preschooler. His speech to the cadets, by contrast, is focused on what the Obama administration says are immediate risks to national security, including contributing to more natural disasters that result in humanitarian crises and potential new flows of refugees. Further, the president sees climate change aggravating poverty and social tensions that can fuel instability and foster terrorist activity and other violence. Obama said the cadets would be part of the first generation of officers to begin their service in a world where it is increasingly clear that “climate change will shape how every one of our services plan, operate, train, equip and protect their infrastructure.” His prepared remarks said climate change “is not just a problem for countries on the coast or for certain regions of the world. Climate change impacts every country on the planet.” As for the impact in the U.S., Obama pointed to streets in Miami and Charleston, S.C., that flood at high tide and to military bases across the country already feeling negative effects. “Around Norfolk, high tides and storms increasingly flood parts of our Navy base and an air base,” Obama said of military facilities in Virginia. “In Alaska, thawing permafrost is damaging military facilities. Out West, deeper droughts and longer wildfires could threaten training areas our troops depend on.” With the Republican-led Congress indifferent to Obama’s entreaties, the president has been doing what he can to combat climate change through executive orders to cut greenhouse gas emissions and through the powers of persuasion. But his climate change agenda has drawn strong political opposition and a number of legal challenges. Many of the GOP presidential candidates for 2016 have said that taking unilateral steps to address climate change could hurt the U.S. economy. Obama’s appearance at the Coast Guard Academy was to be his second and last commencement address of the season after speaking earlier this month at a community college in South Dakota. The president traditionally delivers a commencement address every year to one of the service academies. Later Wednesday, he was visiting Stamford, Conn., for a Democratic fundraiser at a private home, with about 30 supporters contributing up to $33,400 each. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Angi Stalnaker: Remembering April 27
Every Alabamian has their own story of April 27, 2011, the day of the largest natural disaster in the state’s history when more than 230 Alabamians lost their lives. On that day towns like Hackleburg, Pratt City, and Phil Campbell moved became communities forced to unite after facing unimaginable destruction. Fifty years from now, people will still recount how more than 60 monster tornadoes tore across the land, destroyed homes and schools, and permanently changed the topography of our future. I remember the events of that and subsequent days from the perspective of a staffer for Gov. Robert Bentley. I saw the tragic events as they unfolded and the recovery as a first-hand witness to leadership in the wake of tragedy. Speaking directly to the people By midafternoon that day, countless tornadoes had wreaked havoc on thousands of square miles of the state. The EMA director kept Governor Bentley constantly updated. I saw pictures and video of the devastation from my computer screen in the chief of staff’s suite. The National Guard and every governmental agency and available person were trying to help tornado victims. I was with several other staff members in the governor’s office when he told us he wanted to speak directly to the people of Alabama. A short time later, we crowded into studio at the bottom of Dexter Avenue as the newly inaugurated governor began his address. During the live broadcast, Bentley spoke in a calm authoritative tone. He gave information for those who needed help, numbers to call and other pertinent information. But most of all, he projected the reassuring knowledge that he cared, was in charge, and that help was on the way. Just before that broadcast, Tuscaloosa had been hit by a monster twister. We didn’t know the extent of the damage or how many lives had been lost, but we knew it was bad, really bad. The tornado had just hit head on the governor’s home city, home to three of his sons and six of his grandchildren, and home to his church and to his friends . Yet Governor Bentley delivered his address in a calm and reassuring way. It must have taken great strength to deliver that address, a strength of leadership I don’t know that I’ll ever possess to put the personal aside and do what was best for the state. In that moment, though, and for months afterward, that’s is exactly what he did. 100 days You don’t go into government inherently knowing everything you need to know. There are always things to learn from names and office locations to procedures and policies. This administration was no different and because April 27, 2011, was only the 100th day of the Bentley administration, we were all still very new to the executive branch. We had just made it through inauguration and into our first legislative session. Now we faced the largest natural disaster in Alabama’s history. Nothing prepared us for that, but that may have been an advantage because not knowing how things had been done in the past allowed us to follow the governor’s lead and do what he thought best. That allowed the recovery to go much smoother than anyone anticipated. A little common sense goes a long way. Where do we go? What do we do? When Bentley asked me to be his campaign manager for the 2010 gubernatorial election it was the greatest honor of my life. One opportunity it afforded me was the chance to meet the University of Alabama students who were campaign volunteers and interns. The Bentley Gubernatorial Election Headquarters was at the corner of 15th Street and McFarland just a few blocks from campus so we were always a favorite hangout for politically interested college students. Shortly after the tornado hit Tuscaloosa, many of us who had transitioned to government from the campaign tried to contact the students we had gotten to know. Telephone lines were down, cell phone towers were destroyed, and calling into Tuscaloosa was extremely difficult. For hours, I heard nothing from anyone I tried to reach. At about 8 p.m. my phone rang and the voice on the other end said, “Miss Angi, where do we go? What do we do?” It was a young man from Chicago who had worked feverishly on the campaign. We affectionately referred to him as “Research Joe.” I could tell he was scared and worried. He was with a group of friends but their apartments were mostly destroyed or heavily damaged. They were OK, though, and he asked what to do next. I told him to make it to the campus rec center where there would be people to help. I often wonder what that sweet kid from Chicago thought when he emerged from his tornado-safe place to see what happened around him. I often wonder whether he questioned his decision to come to Tuscaloosa. He graduated with honors and is now in a Northern law school. I’m fairly confident that he will be president one day. As the night progressed, I heard from almost every one of those campaign volunteers who had remained in Tuscaloosa. They were all shaken and scared but alive and uninjured. A tremendous relief, it gave us all a little hope. “Make sure they are fed” As the storms subsided in the evening, the focus turned to recovery. About six of us were with Governor Bentley in his office when he ended a phone call with Art Falkner and Jeff Byard from the EMA Headquarters in Clanton. By that point, the EMA bunker had filled with people well-trained in disaster response. They were going to be in that Chilton County bunker a very long time. Bentley sat silent for a few minutes, then he stood to take out his wallet. He handed me money, and asked me to go buy food and take it to Clanton. I will never forget his words: “We have to make sure they are fed.” I did as instructed
