By Antonio D. French
Filed Thursday, July 20, 2006 at 3:30 PM
KSDK is reporting that Mayor Francis Slay has asked Gov. Matt Blunt to send National Guard troops to the city. No, not to assume control of the city schools (yet), but to aid in the recovery from last night's storms.
Speaking on NewsChannel 5 at Noon, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay says he has asked Missouri Governor Matt Blunt to call in the National Guard and declare a "State of Emergency." Mayor Slay said he expects National Guard troops to begin arriving Thursday evening.
Ameren says the storm was the worst in its history. Click here to get the latest information about outages from the company's website.
14 Comments:
Aren't all of our National Guard serving in Iraq?
7/20/2006 3:44 PM
I'm told that we're only talking about 50-60 troops to aid the fire department in going door-to-door looking for elderly in need.
7/20/2006 4:25 PM
We had a group of about 8-10 NG men & women walking through the 27th Ward last night. I encountered them in the Walnut Park neighborhood and they seemed to be well received by those they were checking on. I wouldn't want them here as a matter of routine, but the assistance was greatly appreciated.
~Curtis Royston III
Committeeeman 27th Ward
7/21/2006 10:23 AM
Perhaps if Ameren would bury their power lines, this would not have been an issue.
7/21/2006 10:48 AM
Calling in the NG is a great symbolic act for a mayor.
What is Slay doing to get the power back on?
Oh, that's right. Using his blog to tell us that the situation is hard (duh!) and that we'll work together (aw, great, I won't get heat stroke alone!).
7/21/2006 12:06 PM
I am absolutely confident that UE is going all out on restoral. After all, they've got a huge rate rate hike to protect.
Unfortunately, the current storm appears to have been a substaintial setback in the overall outage count. At 8:50 this morning it was down to 398K - now at 12:14, its up to 496K
7/21/2006 12:26 PM
If anyone wants to help by walking neighborhoods and checking to see ifpeople need help, the United Way is organizing the effort from its facility at at 910 N. 11th St. I know that Jeff Smith's campaign workers and Jeff started working with them Thursday morning.
7/21/2006 1:49 PM
Ahh you Slay haters kill me!
"What is Slay doing to get the power back on?"
WTF?
Yes. It was Slay's fault we had a storm! God has called down his wrath for his meddling on the school board issue! Plagues of locusts are next! No one will be spared!
Get a grip! Slay was out in the community after the storm hit... he convinced the Governor to declare a state of emergency so we could get the NG involved... I guess you think he should be out with a chainsaw and soldering iron as well?
7/21/2006 2:43 PM
While I'm singling Slay out, what he is doing is what every official does during crisis, from Bush during Katrina to Dlaey during the '95 Chicago heat wave: make sweeping public statements without using political clout to get things done. There's no reason why disaster response should be as slow as it is in the wealthiest nation in the world -- except that political leaders don't really lead. They take stances and call states of emergency, but they don't look at systematic failures in responses that leave power out for days and lead to fatalities. Slay could be putting some muscle on AmerenUE and getting corporate leaders that owe him favors to put some resources into play for the city. Same with Blunt.
7/21/2006 3:24 PM
Slay, as the Mayor, certainly should have pressured Ameren UE to do a better job before now. When there have been smaller outages than this, Ameren has taken forever to get the power back on. Thursday, every large vehicle the City owns should have been out clearing the streets. Instead, trash trucks were emptying trash dumpsters, not yard dumpsters.
When yard dumpsters are emptyed, at least people have somewhere to put the fallen branches that they've picked up. State law forbids the mixing of yard and trash waste. The city has not been coordinated.
BTW, Freeman Bosley was slammed for the floods when he entered office. People were angry along the River Des Peres for having to leave their residences. The Mayor of New Orleans and the President got blamed for Katrina's preparation, why not Slay?
7/23/2006 9:59 AM
We may be the richest country in the world but we are also one of the most under taxed. Disaster plans are expensive, and it is not just a one time cost, it is ongoing. You have to build it, stock supplies and equipment, train responders and perform drills, etc. So where is that money going to come from? A tax increase? Shift from another program? Which one?
Historically, it is a hard sell to voters to fund programs to respond to disasters that come around every 50 to 100 years and on top of that, we have short memories. Thus politicians shy away from it, hoping the "big one" hits on someone else’s watch.
It is easy to sit back during or immediately after with the woulda shoulda, but if there is no plan in place then it is near impossible to redirect resources effectively. Not to say that our leaders are doing "a heck of a job" but until we the voters are serious about disaster planning and its funding then we will continue to get disorganized responses.
7/23/2006 11:28 AM
Oops. Meant least taxed.
7/24/2006 8:57 AM
To anon three above me, I am glad that the city worked extra hard to empty dumpsters. I know that the meat I had to throw out smelled terrible and the blackout would have been made much worse with the smell of rotting food festering outside my house.
7/24/2006 3:50 PM
And according to KMOX today, the State has temporarily lifted the ban on yard waste in landfills for this emergency. Good thing those dumpsters were emptied!
7/24/2006 7:01 PM
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