this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025
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Summary

Disaster survivors in Arkansas were “blocked from receiving federal recovery aid” after Donald Trump denied Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ request for a major disaster declaration.

The Trump administration stated the damage was “not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the state.”

Trump signed executive orders to shift disaster recovery responsibility to states, while aiming to eliminate FEMA.

Sanders appealed, writing, “the state and its citizens are in dire need of assistance.” Without federal aid, “volunteer organizations in Arkansas are stepping up” as the state faces “significant challenges” in recovery efforts.

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[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

Since he wants the states to handle it, the states should stop paying taxes

Have the wonderful day you voted for arkansans!

[–] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Trump: "Arkansas? Is that even a real place?"

J.D.: "Yeah, it's where Walmart is headquartered."

Trump: "did Walmart get hit?"

J.D.: "No."

Trump: "So we don't care?"

J.D.: "Yep."

[–] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

He pronounces it "R-Kansas," and thinks they are the sane state, but couldn't find either one on a map.

"Nobody actually lives there, right? Why would you?"

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 134 points 2 days ago (1 children)

AFAIK, all the tornado states voted heavily for orangeboi. So:

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 43 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Unfortunately natural disasters don’t selectively target Trump voters.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 29 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yes and no. The states most hit by climate change are the hurricane landing places in the south and the tornado alley. Which matches the GOP voter map quite good.

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 54 points 2 days ago (3 children)

There are also climate disasters in blue states; LA just had historic urban fires fueled by climate change. We can’t fall into the trap of thinking that weather and climate change is some kind of demonstration of the will of God, because your backyard is next. They weren’t kidding when they put the “global” in “global warming.”

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The presidential election is not gerrymandered.

The Senate election is not gerrymandered. The gubernatorial election (Huckabee Sanders) is not gerrymandered.

Not a valid excuse here.

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 22 hours ago

Living in a place where a tornado hit doesn’t actually reveal how you, personally, voted.

Have we backslid so far that people forgot that collective punishment is supposed to be bad?

You also don’t have to gerrymander when you’re aggressively weeding out who can vote, both by fucking with voter rolls through purges and by overpolicing (felons can’t vote in Arkansas without meeting specific conditions).

All of which is besides the main point: celebrating natural disasters hitting people is deranged.

[–] Treetrimmer@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Nobody thinks it's a will of God except maga, they were saying the Cali fires were punishment for their "communist experiment" as those tens-of-millioms of dollar properties burned

[–] fishy@lemmy.today 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Anytime a person from a red state complains about California being communist, remind them their roads are paved with money from CA because their state collects welfare from the fed who collects it from Blue states

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 day ago

So maybe we can not do the same, since climate disasters don’t pick and choose who to hit.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world -4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Of course the global warming hits all. I know about the fires that hit the west (although a lot of the damage was caused by sheer stupidity - don't have dry-as-cinder plants surrounding your stick-and-cardboard houses!). But I consider it a joke of nature that the states that most vehemently denies global warming are the ones that are hit hardest.

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I’m sorry but whoever told you that dry plants around houses caused it was either misinformed or a liar. Hurricane force winds carried cinders for miles to start new fires, and every fire truck in the state lining up to fight it wouldn’t have stopped it.

This is kind of a sore subject for me since I spent a week breathing in the smoke from these fires.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I didn't say it caused it, but it certainly added to the issue.

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Every building could have been surrounded by concrete (and some were!) without significantly impacting the spread, which was primarily wind driven. Seriously, listen to what the firefighters and other experts have said about this.

Once the houses caught on fire they became the fuel, not dry grass. Combined with the water pressure dropping from 10,000 houses going up in flames practically simultaneously, it was impossible to control. The planes they normally fly in to drop retardant couldn’t even fly in the wind, because the water they dropped would just fucking float in the air before getting scattered. Nobody can stop that until the winds die down.

Which is getting somewhat off topic, but my overall point is that these climate disasters can happen anywhere. Blue states and red states are both going to suffer, and it’s deranged to pump your fist when people in a red state get hit just because they might have voted Trump. It’s not less deranged than it is when MAGAs celebrate the fires in California.

[–] nulluser@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You two are clearly talking about very specific fires that occurred under very specific conditions. I'm not going to debate what happened or why. That's for the experts to weigh in on.

I however would like to point out that there are "best practices" for communities and structures in the wildland-urban interface. Relevant to this discussion is the following...

Guidelines for landscaping:

  • Keep vegetation from around windows (heat will break glass).
  • Keep plants farther than 5 feet (1.5 m) from walls; this is a bare dirt no-grow zone, optional to use mowed green lawn grass and non-combustible mulch with sparse deciduous plants.
  • Keep trees from growing within 30 feet (9.1 m) of the structure.
  • Keep vegetation thinned within 100 feet (30 m) of the structure.

Guidelines for outdoor maintenance:

  • Prune tree limbs back 10 feet (3.0 m) from roofs.
  • Separate tree branches from power lines.
  • Clear fallen debris from roof, gutters, window wells, and under decks.
  • Prune tree branches 6 feet (1.8 m) up from the ground.
  • Burn ground of leaf litter and needles.
  • Remove and dispose of dead trees and shrubs.

Guidelines for flammables:

  • Keep clear of flammables 30 feet (9.1 m) around primary and auxiliary structures including firewood piles.
  • Keep clear 10 feet (3.0 m) around propane tanks or fuel oil tanks.

These obviously aren't going to protect every house from every fire. But that doesn't mean people should ignore them.

I'm also not implying that anyone affected by the specific fires being discussed above didn't exercise appropriate caution for where they lived. Certainly some did. Others possibly didn't.

But the reason these guidelines exist is because there have been people who's homes were affected by other wildfires, and experts have concluded that the the above conditions have, at times, contributed to the problem, and that people should do their part to mitigate the problems on their property, and help bring awareness to their neighbors.

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I want to preface that I’m not trying to be argumentative about it, I just have a lot of thoughts about it after spending a month hoping rain would wash the goddamned ash away soon. The measures you’re talking about absolutely help, in normal circumstances. The fires we had were extremely abnormal. We have fire season here, we’re used to the threat of fires and anyone who lives in an interface zone and isn’t a fool will add fire hardening measures to their home. But these weren’t just homes on and in the hills that caught on fire.

Look at Altadena, so many of the homes there were nowhere near a wildland-urban interface zone. When places a mile away from the hills are are getting torched, that’s not what went wrong. The hills were dried to a crisp after 8 months of nearly no rain; climate change caused the lack of rain, and climate change caused the Santa Ana winds to blow at hurricane force. What could anyone have done to stop a spark from happening anywhere? Once a spark happened, that was it. That’s why we had something like 6 fires burning at once in LA county during that, it might have been more.

Part of the problem is that homes outside what is considered the interface zone, whose owners had no reason to believe it was urgent to take those measures, were getting showered with cinders from a mile or more away while subjected to high winds. They were basically living in the middle of town, not on the hillside.

I want to emphasize that fire hardening is absolutely something everyone should do, but that was considered kind of paranoid re: wildfires until now.

[–] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Those storms blew right through magat central in north eastern arkansas. I find this to be uplifting news.

[–] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

I guess God is punishing them because...Gays?

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 83 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] WrenFeathers@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That reminds me, I’ve been meaning to up my therapy to four times a week.

[–] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I mean, at that point honestly consider heroin.

Probably ends up cheaper

[–] Treetrimmer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago

Grow your own poppies

[–] j0ester@lemmy.world 41 points 2 days ago

FAFO Red state.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago

Sarah Huckabee Sanders

o_O

[–] GoodOleAmerika@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They don't like socialism. So they are fine.

[–] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

They'll pull on them there bootstraps, as soon as they can find them in the wreckage.

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 52 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Is America great again yet?

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago (2 children)

We've been using the wrong spelling all this time. It's: Make America Grate Again

So yes, we have an unpleasant rasping sound as our economy and civil rights grind to a halt.

[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

But at least we have unlimited parmesan.

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Well, imitation parmesan anyway

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago

*contains high fructose corn syrup

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I think it’s just “Make America Again” now.

[–] don@lemm.ee 9 points 2 days ago

Are ya tired of winning yet, son?

Yeah, buddy. It's finally great again. We're going to enjoy it together.

You... an' me. Ever'body gonna be nice to you. Ain't gonna be no more trouble. Nobody gonna hurt nobody nor steal from 'em." darkassassin07 said, "I thought you was mad at me, Tooth." "No," said Tooth. "No, darkassin07. I ain't mad. I never been mad, an' I ain't now. That's a thing I want ya to know."

The voices came close now. Tooth raised the gun and listened to the voices.

darkassassin07 begged, "Le's do it now. Le's get that place now."

"Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta."

[–] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Maybe don't use a giant, expensive-looking house to evoke sympathy from us serfs. Just a suggestion.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You're not wrong, but that is clearly a "looks expensive on the outside but cheaply constructed" McMansion.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It does look like a McMansion. It was probably still really expensive, though. That's the whole point: to screw the buyer. I still won't have sympathy for it, though.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Eh, I'm willing to bet in AR that's maybe a $500K house. Expensive, yes, but not unconscionably so.

[–] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Even so, that's in an area in which the minimum wage is $11. It might not be unconscionable, but it's enough to suspect they voted for this.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Oh, 100% definitely faces being eaten right now. And I feel like minimum wage is a whole separate thing, because that's not sufficient anywhere.

[–] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Sounds like we agree on most things. Here's to the reformation, or if that doesn't work, the revolution. Cheers.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

We definitely do! It's amazing how two people can have a conversation on the internet without it being a competition.

Open that fourth box.

[–] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ah, yes. I forgot we were on the internet for a moment. Where are my manners:

As retribution for not sharing my worldview in its entirety, I'd like to take this opportunity to insult your god, gods, or lack thereof, as well as any ethnic, national, socioeconomic, and racial identities to which you may hold. I regret that we don't know enough about each other to be more specific, so please infer whatever stereotypical pejoratives you feel are most appropriate and offensive to you and your family's particular demographic situations

In all seriousness. Thanks for the amicable discussion. It's a nice respite in an increasingly polarized world.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oooo, yeah. That's the good stuff. Haven't gotten capslocked in a long time. Really takes me back to the good ol' toxicity. Thank you.

[–] Blumpkinhead@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Anyone else annoyed by the way the article refers to FEMA as "Fema"?

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