Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This makes me angry. Our mayor and judge ordered 3000 (about 2/3 of our total force) of our firefighters to stay home as Harvey pounded our city with flood waters because they were not scheduled to work. Meanwhile, Mayor Sylvester Turner asked private citizens to volunteer with boats and other equipment while the first responders were off He claimed it was because all of our rescue equipment was manned by the available firefighters and we didn't have enough equipment, so the firefighters were not needed. I think he just didn't want to pay overtime for these first responders. Now Turner wants to raise our property taxes almost 9% for a year to pay for ruined vehicles that were used in the Harvey rescue efforts.
Makes sense as far as pay is concerned. They make X amount of dollars to do what they do with the equipment they are trained on. They don't have available equipment so their value goes down. The same reason the CEO doesn't work the loading dock when they are short handed. They can volunteer.
I'll have to double check, but I believe he had firefighters stay home during the worst part (along with everyone else), but once it was time for the rescue operations to begin, he sent emergency personnel out and asked for volunteers.
Im not 100% about this, but I'm pretty sure.
I'm a staunch conservative living in the Houston area, and from the information I read and heard on the radio, I felt the mayor did a good job. He was not a failure like Nagin.
Almost as bad as Nagin leaving the buses parked to end up under water in the Chocolate City.
I'm sorry but that's a stupid and wrong analogy and not even close to prisoner Nagin in it's dereliction.
I read through the story and I just don't see the outrage that it and the OP are trying to raise.
Could the extra firefighters have stopped the 2 feet of water from entering anyone's home? Were they supposed to go in and lift everyone's belongings out of the water?
Were they supposed to jump on non-existent equipment and rush out into the storm to respond to flooding that nobody expected to be that bad?
From that story what am I missing except upset people looking to place blame somewhere?
I'm sorry but that's a stupid and wrong analogy and not even close to prisoner Nagin in it's dereliction.
I read through the story and I just don't see the outrage that it and the OP are trying to raise.
Could the extra firefighters have stopped the 2 feet of water from entering anyone's home? Were they supposed to go in and lift everyone's belongings out of the water?
Were they supposed to jump on non-existent equipment and rush out into the storm to respond to flooding that nobody expected to be that bad?
From that story what am I missing except upset people looking to place blame somewhere?
You didn't read the whole article:
Having more there would have relieved more firefighters, many had worked for days without a rotation.
They were unprepared, read the last 3 paragraphs.
At some point in any hurricane all first responders are told to hunker down.
This shouldn't even be an issue.
When it's deemed safe then they are allowed to go out.
They did the same in Rockport TX and Naples FL.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
He claimed it was because all of our rescue equipment was manned by the available firefighters and we didn't have enough equipment, so the firefighters were not needed. I think he just didn't want to pay overtime for these first responders. Now Turner wants to raise our property taxes almost 9% for a year to pay for ruined vehicles that were used in the Harvey rescue efforts. 
