FEMA to confiscate food from local farms in emergencies?

Image via Wikipediahttp://www.naturalnews.com/032357_FEMA_food_confiscation.html
(NaturalNews) - Since our nation's founding the federal government has, in times of emergency, claimed extra-constitutional powers and authority. Under the guise of acting in the public's best interests, Washington has taken away privacy rights, free speech, and habeas corpus, among others. There's no reason to think it wouldn't happen again.

With that in mind, would it surprise you to find out that if disaster strikes in your part of the country, the federal government is prepared to take over local food supplies, in part by confiscating farms?

It shouldn't, says "Farmer Brad," a Texas-based farmer who said in an interview about food security with Mike Adams for Natural News TV that during Hurricane Katrina, an inventory of local farms and what they produced was conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"FEMA was doing an inventory of all the farms around ... metroplexes," he said, which included nearby Houston and other large cities. "They started calling up farms and wanted to know where farms were, and they were being prepared to maybe take food if they need to, from farms, you know, for a crisis like that."

Brad, of HomeSweetFarm.com, said that while the agency didn't come right out and say they would confiscate crops and cattle, "they were making food assessments, you know, what is in the local food shed in a metroplex."

He said the agency's assessment took into account a number of potential emergencies and disasters, including spikes in fuel prices or even sudden disruptions - anything that might hinder or prevent the delivery of food to stores. Such scenarios would also lead to dramatic increases in food prices as well, Brad said.

"The distribution system for food is so fragile, you know, and there's only enough food in these grocery stores to last, literally, for just a couple of days," he said, noting that store shelves during Katrina were stripped bare "within hours."

Worse, Brad said, because of mass evacuations from the big cities, traffic choked local roads, making even short-distance travel impossible. He said he and his family couldn't even get into town to go to the store.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032357_FEMA_food_confiscation.html#ixzz1MUfPBWIX

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FEMA mistakenly doles out millions, asks for it back | abc7chicago.com

Image via Wikipediahttp://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8032799

March 25, 2011 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency gave a west suburban woman thousands of dollars after last July's flood, but now the agency wants it back.

FEMA gave Lisa DiVito, of Elmwood Park, $3,400 after her home received thousands of dollars in flood damage last July. Now, FEMA said that payout was a mistake and the agency wants the money it gave Divito -- and thousands of others in similar situations-- back. The government admits its mistakes add up to more than half a billion dollars.
"It was bad, it was the worst I've ever seen," DiVito said of the July 2010 flooding in her Elmwood Park home. Flood water destroyed her basement and overwhelmed her pumping system with sewage. "Because the pressure built up the access panel shot off the wall and it was coming out full force like a fire hydrant."
After the July 2010 floods, FEMA organized relief for local victims and offered grants -- more than $300 million -- to help suburban homeowners rebuild.
"Disaster assistance wasn't designed to cover all your losses. Some losses that have occurred, all the money can't replace family heirlooms but it does help you begin that recovery process," Gene Romano, FEMA spokesperson, said in August 2010.
Divito applied for the program, sent FEMA information about the portion of damage her insurance company covered, and then received a FEMA check for $3,400 for more repairs. But six months later, DiVito got a letter demanding the money back -- and threatening to put her in collections if she didn't pay up.

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Levees watched, locals warned in Memphis - Weather - msnbc.com

Image via Wikipediahttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42953666/ns/weather/?GT1=43001

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Now expecting the Mississippi River to crest in Memphis late Monday, hours sooner than previously predicted, officials were going door-to-door in unprotected neighborhoods as well as monitoring levees protecting most of the city.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

To the south, authorities in Louisiana stepped up their preparations by opening floodgates at a spillway northwest of New Orleans to take pressure off levees in populated areas. Inmates were also scheduled to be moved from a prison near Baton Rouge.
In Memphis, the homes in most danger of flooding are in areas not protected by levees or floodwalls, including near Nonconnah Creek and the Wolf and Loosahatchie rivers, said Col. Vernie Reichling, the Army Corps of Engineers commander for the Memphis district.
About 150 Corps workers were walking along levees and monitoring the performance of pump stations along what Reichling called the "wicked" Mississippi. "There should be no concern for any levees to fail," he said in a downtown park on a bluff overlooking the river.

For Cedric Blue, the flooding in his south Memphis neighborhood near the overflowing Nonconnah Creek is a source of frustration and anger.
Blue, 39, has watched as the water engulfed three homes on his street, including that of an older woman who had to be rescued in a boat because she had refused to leave. Blue fears the rising water will ruin his house and his belongings while washing away a lifetime of memories that were created there.
Sunday afternoon, a garbage can floated in the high water near his house. Some feet away, the water had reached more than halfway up a yellow "No Outlet" street sign.
He became emotional talking about how he has about 7 feet of water in his backyard and less than a foot inside the house, which his mother owns. They were in the middle of a remodeling project when the flood hit.
Blue said he wants the city, county or the federal government to give him a hotel voucher so he does not have to go to a shelter.
"I just want a new life and relocation," Blue said. "I would like the elected officials to come down here to see this with their own eyes and see what we're going through."
Mayor AC Wharton said that despite the tightened timeframe, he's confident that precautions such as door-to-door warnings have prepared the city.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

"We don't have as much time, but fortunately we're ready for it," Wharton told CBS television Monday.
Wharton said disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, which flooded parts of New Orleans and other areas in 2005, have shown that you can't simply get the word out by issuing warnings on TV.

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Obama Skips Tornado Destruction, Heads West to Raise Money | The Blog on Obama: White House Dossier

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/04/20/obama-skips-tornado-destruction-heads-west-raise-money

by Keith Koffler on April 20, 2011, 11:44 am

President Obama is opting not to visit the tornado-ravaged areas of the South, choosing instead to embark today on a three day tour out West where he will try to boost his political standing by talking up his approach to the deficit and raise millions for himself and fellow Democrats.
The tornadoes, part of a storm that rampaged though six states Saturday, resulted in one of the worst disasters of any kind in the United States since the Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Scores were left injured or homeless while 45 people were killed – about four times as many as died in the Gulf oil rig explosion and the subsequent oil spill last year. In North Carolina alone, there were nearly two-dozen storm-related deaths Saturday, with 130 homes destroyed and an estimated 700 more damaged.

Obama presents the Commander-in-Chief Trophy to the Air Force Academy football team in the Rose Garden Monday. He made no mention of the tornadoes.
photo by Keith Koffler

Not only is Obama staying away from the region, he has said almost nothing publicly about the tragedy beyond an interview with a North Carolina TV station and a very brief mention at a White House prayer breakfast. The president has failed to make the kind of national, attention-getting public statement presidents offer during crises to comfort victims by expressing the condolences of the nation and to seek charitable aid.
Sunday, he went golfing. On Monday, he did sign a disaster declaration for North Carolina, which will free up federal assistance to the state.
Vice President Biden has also failed to show up. He’s cooling his heels today at home in Wilmington, Delaware. The disaster did not even merit a visit from Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar who – without any apparent irony – was in Boston Tuesday announcing a new wind energy project.
Meanwhile, the South is bracing for more, as forecasters say severe storms and tornadoes could hit the region again today.
Obama’s failure to publicly attend to the fallout from the tornadoes comes on the one-year anniversary of the rig explosion that caused the Gulf oil spill. Obama was roundly criticized then for failing to respond sufficiently to the crisis.
The president’s silence and absence during the current crisis is particularly odd given his political stakes in North Carolina, which barely went for Obama over McCain in 2008. Obama is so desperate to hold the state that he’s chosen to hold the 2012 Democratic convention there, in Charlotte.

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Obama Skips Tornado Destruction, Heads West to Raise Money | The Blog on Obama: White House Dossier

Be sure to see the full article at the link below.

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/04/20/obama-skips-tornado-destruction-heads-west-raise-money
President Obama is opting not to visit the tornado-ravaged areas of the South, choosing instead to embark today on a three day tour out West where he will try to boost his political standing by talking up his approach to the deficit and raise millions for himself and fellow Democrats.
The tornadoes, part of a storm that rampaged though six states Saturday, resulted in one of the worst disasters of any kind in the United States since the Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Scores were left injured or homeless while 45 people were killed – about four times as many as died in the Gulf oil rig explosion and the subsequent oil spill last year. In North Carolina alone, there were nearly two-dozen storm-related deaths Saturday, with 130 homes destroyed and an estimated 700 more damaged.

Obama presents the Commander-in-Chief Trophy to the Air Force Academy football team in the Rose Garden Monday. He made no mention of the tornadoes.
photo by Keith Koffler

Not only is Obama staying away from the region, he has said almost nothing publicly about the tragedy beyond an interview with a North Carolina TV station and a very brief mention at a White House prayer breakfast. The president has failed to make the kind of national, attention-getting public statement presidents offer during crises to comfort victims by expressing the condolences of the nation and to seek charitable aid.
Sunday, he went golfing. On Monday, he did sign a disaster declaration for North Carolina, which will free up federal assistance to the state.
Vice President Biden has also failed to show up. He’s cooling his heels today at home in Wilmington, Delaware. The disaster did not even merit a visit from Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar who – without any apparent irony – was in Boston Tuesday announcing a new wind energy project.
Meanwhile, the South is bracing for more, as forecasters say severe storms and tornadoes could hit the region again today.

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As the Sun Awakens, NASA Keeps a Wary Eye on Space Weather

clipped from science.nasa.gov "The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity. At the same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms. The intersection of these two issues is what we're getting together to discuss." The National Academy of Sciences framed the problem two years ago in a landmark report entitled "Severe Space Weather Events—Societal and Economic Impacts." It noted how people of the 21st-century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. Smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. A century-class solar storm, the Academy warned, could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina. Click on the image to play a 39 MB movie about space weather and NASA's heliophysics fleet. [more] http://www.nswp.gov/swef/swef_2010.html.

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A Totally Safe And Completely Organic Way To Clean Up The Oil In The Gulf Of Mexico

clipped from howtohelpsavetheenvironment.com The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is rapidly becoming the worst environmental disaster in American history.  We are watching as an entire region is economically and environmentally destroyed in slow motion.  In fact, many are calling this Gulf of Mexico oil spill a "slow motion Katrina", but the truth is that if something is not done quickly this disaster will end up being far worse than Hurricane Katrina.  Once the oil slick gets into the wetlands along the Gulf Coast it is going to create a nightmare of unimaginable proportions. Well, yes there is, and it is also incredibly inexpensive. It is called hay. Yes, we are being totally serious. The video contains footage of CW Roberts employees demonstrating the use of hay to remove oil from water.  This same method can be used to clean up the oil in the Gulf of Mexico.  You have got to check this out.... So will those in charge of cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico embrace this idea? No, probably not.

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