Heck Of A Job, Mikey

To be fair, I should point out that this post is meant to be only partly critical of our 8th district U.S. House Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick. What I am trying to communicate is the fact that Repug incompetence has exacerbated the problems facing residents of Yardley, Lower Makefield, and other areas of Bucks County affected by the recent flooding.

In today’s Bucks County Courier Times, reporter Brian Scheid communicates the amazing revelation from Mikey that flooding has occurred in the area since September 2004 with “startling regularity.”

Wow. Really?

I tend to take the words of Carol Collier, executive director of the Delaware River Basin Commission, more seriously in these matters (I once worked for the same employer as Ms. Collier, and I can think of no person more highly skilled or better qualified for her position). This is what she said.

Despite that, she said, the measures that the county's riverfront communities can take to quell flood damage might not work, “due to the ongoing insufficient funding of federal mitigation programs and cost-share formulas that are difficult for many local municipalities to meet.”

Care to comment on that, Mikey? Wonder why either Brownie or Michael (“City of Louisiana”) Chertoff didn’t ante up more dough for this?

(Alas, as the story points out, this does involve FEMA.)

Also...

New Hope Mayor Laurence Keller testified that “No significant funds are available for elevation. [The] paltry funds that are available are restricted by federal and state program preferences to acquisition of flood-damaged properties."

Enter Jim Cawley, chairman of the Bucks County Commissioners.

“There is not a one-size-fits-all approach that will fit all communities along the Delaware,” said Cawley, “Things that may work in New Hope may not work in Tinicum or somewhere else along the riverfront.”

Why is it that, whenever I hear politicians recite some verbiage that is stupidly obvious (such as Cawley and Mikey did), I get the sense that they really don’t understand what the hell is going on regarding a particular issue and wouldn’t even bother to involve themselves unless the media were present?

Also, regarding the “elevation” possibility Mayor Keller discussed...

Had 50 of the damaged homes in Yardley been elevated after the September 2004 flood, about $8.4 million in damages would have been prevented in the two subsequent floods, (Yardley councilman Daniel) Mohn said. He used an average elevation cost of $125,000 per home or $6.2 million total.

To be fair again, I should note that Mikey wasn’t elected until November of that year, but apparently, there was no discussion of this issue or “handoff” regarding what to do about it between Fitzpatrick and Jim Greenwood, his predecessor. However (once again), as Above Average Jane has noted, Fitzpatrick served on the Delaware River Basin Commission, so none of this should have been new to him when he began his term in office.

Update: When it comes to Mikey and the flooding, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," does it?