UPDATED, JAN. 26, 5:49 P.M.: President Barack Obama agreed today that Orange County is a disaster. Ethically, morally, politically–it's like Mischa Barton's blank stare here, said . . .
Check that: Obama today signed the paperwork that officially declared Orange County and
several other California counties federal disaster areas in the wake of last month's damaging storms. The order allows public- and private-property owners in Orange, Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino counties access to federal disaster-relief assistance.
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ORIGINAL POST, JAN. 21, 4:14 P.M.: The beautiful weather Orange
County is experiencing of late (and that is scheduled to continue
through next week) makes it easy to forget that we were hammered by
winter storms last month.
Well, it's easy to forget if you are not a homeowner who watched your American Dream slide down a San Clemente hillside.
Anyway, the all-Republican, all-the-time Orange County Board of
Supervisors, who are looking at $36 million in total property damage,
today turned to Socialist President Barack Obama for disaster assistance
The county proclaimed a local emergency on Dec. 20, and the governor declared a state of emergency in Orange County and five other counties the next day. A federal disaster declaration opens the, uh, floodgates for federal assistance to help with public- and private-property damage.
The request is contained in the letter Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Campbell and Fifth District Supervisor Patricia C. Bates sent to Obama and various federal officials. The letter identifies the cities and communities hardest hit by flooding, mudslides and debris flows in need of help from Big Gubment.
“Many Orange County residents are struggling to recover from this disaster, with recovery work expected to continue until at least March,” Campbell explains in a county announcement. “A number of people are still out of their homes due to storm damage, some rural roads have been closed for three weeks, and our flood-control systems need extensive repair before more storms arrive. It is critical that federal assistance be made available as soon as possible.”
After the federal funds come, the county can revert back to considering Obama a Socialist creep.
And we thank you.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.