Flint Water Crisis: Move the Children and Babies!

By Simeon Booker III

Queen of Soul (and heart) Aretha Franklin had it right when she responded to the Flint water disaster by providing hotel rooms, food and water to Flint victims and survivors nearly two months ago. Not only is this the common-sense response, it is the compassionate, human response to a catastrophic disaster. It is also the correct response to a government-made toxic chemical and biological incident from the standpoint of the nation’s national emergency response system(s).

Two years after the incident, and months after the local, state, and federal emergency declarations, including FEMA- the babies, children, pregnant mothers, the sick and elderly, the most vulnerable, and the entire population of Flint are still living with the threat and risk of contaminated water from their faucets and the drip, drip, drip government response to their immediate danger much like in Hurricane Katrina. Flint is not just Gov. Rick Snyder’s Katrina. It is Hurricane Katrina again all around with failures in government at every level.

Former FEMA director during Hurricane Katrina, Michael Brown, in an interview on Flint’s water crisis said, “People in every single level of government- federal, state and local- all pointing fingers at each other…Every single layer of bureaucracy failed to stand up and wave that red flag and say, ‘We have a serious problem here, and something needs to be done.”

According to FEMA’s mission statement, the agency will, among other things, “respond to, recover from and mitigate all hazards.’ It doesn’t specify natural, man-made, government- made. Nor does it specify race, economic status or geography. It states all hazards. So there is a stated responsibility and precedent for FEMA disaster assistance for all types of disasters from 911 to Katrina with the failed government levees and failure to evacuate residents in time, to the historic South Carolina floods with the scores of failed government dams. Poor budgeting, maintenance and preparation by governments were major factors.

Months of repetitive news coverage and three toxic, partisan congressional hearings since the various emergency declarations (already two years late)- damage control, cover ups, lawyering up, budget talks, policy and precedent concerns, and political campaigning hasn’t brought the necessary, urgently needed disaster relief to Flint survivors. Who’s in charge? What’s the immediate, mid and long-range plan? Where’s the sense of emergency, immediacy, urgency?

Professor Irwin Redlener of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health is president and co-founder of Children’s Health Fuind and director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness. Professor Redlener underscores the need for temporary emergency housing assistance for the children of Flint saying in an op ed “In the meantime, the children of Flint remain in harm’s way. Protecting them shoud be the first priority, even if it means temporatily removing them and their families from the beleaguered city.”

FEMA employees have been aware of the Flint water crisis for some time through calls to FEMA’s Helpline from Flint residents and news reports. Under normal circumstances, after a disaster and before a federal disaster declaration, affected people calling the FEMA Helpline would be referred to the County Emergency Management Agency to report their emergency and/or for assistance. In the case of Flint, the Emergency Management Agency is dysfunctional, the calls were ignored and the emergency was not escalated to the next higher level of government.

FEMA officials though, knew or should have known of this widespread critical infrastructure and public health disaster and sounded the alarm, notified appropriate officials and taken a proactive approach long before this incident became an international scandal. Actually the alarm was sounded two years ago with the first call from a Flint resident to the city or county reporting the deadly water.

The president and FEMA have the authority and flexibility to act under the Stafford Act especially after the county and state failed to act to protect life, property and critical infrastructure. Furthermore, FEMA is responsible for coordinating / managing multi-agency disasters such as this one especially under these circumstances. And FEMA is responsible for coordinating all disaster relief efforts in the current Flint water emergency declaration.

Flint residents need immediate emergency Housing, Food and Medical assistance resources. FEMA is the only agency/entity capable of making this start happening now! And with the biological threat of potential Legionnaires Disease infection in addition to deadly lead poisoning, there is an even greater need for immediacy and urgency for this major disaster and threat to the homeland and national security.

Booker is a former contributor to NNPA and an emergency management consultant. You can reach him at simeon.booker111@gmail.com.