This is the predictable result of Donald Trump and his flunkeys in Congress putting unqualified lickspittles in charge of life-and-death departments. We already knew that it took the shockingly unqualified DHS Secretary Kristi Noem three days to authorize the deployment of search and rescue teams to the central Texas flood area. Now we have learned that she let call center contracts expire for five days while thousands of flood victims were calling for emergency assistance.
The New York Times has the scoop:
Two days after catastrophic floods roared through Central Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.
The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters.
