1000 Times Better

Vermont

The career of Hurricane Irene was full of surprises, and it's not over.  A storm that unexpectedly weakened  as it began moving up the U.S. coast unexpectedly retained its power and its huge extent depite making three separate landfalls.Some of the worst flooding seems to be happening near the storm's end, in Vermont.  There are reports of windows blown out by wind in Montreal.

And it still goes on.  More than 4 million are without power.  More than 20 have died, and that toll is likely to go up.  It will take at least days for New York City's transportation to be up and running, and at least that to restore power to some areas.  Roads are damaged, bridges washed out. Flooding is still continuing, and getting rid of the water in some places will take weeks.  The damage will take time to assess, but it could have been worse.  The injuries, the loss of life, could have been so much worse--and not only because the storm wasn't as intense as first believed.

The outcome is better and will be better because government worked.  President Obama on Sunday called it "an exemplary effort of how good government at every level should be responsive to people's needs."

Leading the effort was the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA--the agency that became a dirty word during hurricane Katrina and its notorious aftermath.  But this time, said one local official, the FEMA response was "a thousand times better."

Even GOPer Governor Christie of New Jersey lauded the effort. FEMA officials, he said on NBC, are "working incredibly hard in providing things to us that we need."

That the storm did not reach the more dire dimensions that had been forecast prompted some second-guessing about the ordering of massive evacuations. But Christie said there would have been a "significant loss of life" if as many as 1 million people had not left the Jersey shore ahead of the high wind, heavy rain and tidal surges.

The officials who responded may get political credit.  The LA Times suggested "The federal government has come far since Hurricane Katrina, and the response to Irene could restore a measure of public trust and goodwill for President Obama."  But it's just as likely that he won't get any more credit than he has for supporting the rebels in Libya, or getting another major terrorist leader in Pakistan.  At least not in the media, and certainly not from the biggest GOPer mouths, who will start loudly complaining before Monday sunrise.

But the most important point isn't political, at least not in party politics.  It is simply this: that the value of people helping people is affirmed, and the idea that society is just a collection of everyone for themselves proves stupid once more.  People who want to making helping people their lives work do so in nonprofit organizations like the Red Cross, and they do it in government agencies like FEMA, or as first responders.  This was and remains an emergency affecting millions of people.  But every single day is an emergency for someone.  "You'd do the same for me" is as important an idea as any the human mind and heart has devised to live by.