What took so long

On March 13th, coastal Connecticut was hit with sever windstorms that downed tens of thousands of trees, damaged thousands of homes and cars and left large parts of the region without power for up to a week. Two weeks later, rainstorms dumped up to eight inches of rain on the region in 24 hours with resulting floods. Again there was widespread damage to homes and businesses. Today the news has been announced that President Obama has declared the three Connecticut coastal counties as a "disaster area". A fair response is, "What took so long?"

When disaster struck in New Orleans, the Bush administration was skewered endlessly for its disorganized response. Is it better that Obama had no response here. Within a few blocks from my house I can still see fifty trees that were felled during the windstorm. Things were so bad here that schools had to be closed for a week due to blocked roads and downed power lines. My own house flooded in the second storm. Fortunately, the trees that went down in the first storm missed the house for the most part. We only had windows broken when hit with flying debris. Why does it take six weeks for the Pesident to call this a disaster?

I realize that Obama took five months to consider what to do in Afghanistan before deciding to mostly go along with the generals. At least in that case there was an opposing point of view. Here there is only the enormous damage wrought by the wind and the floods. Are we to understand that there was a big group opposing disaster relief? Did this become a political event like the Afghanistan funding so that Obama wanted to look like he was moving at deliberate speed? I doubt that. The only realistic conclusion is that Obama is just too busy giving speeches or playing golf to do his job or to actually care about folks who need help. Mr. President, shame on you!