One of the biggest yet least-talked-about news items of the last week has been the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Since 2014, when the city started getting its water from the Flint River, residents have made their concerns known about contaminated water throughout the city, with lots of complaints about health problems. It came out month ago that there was lead poisoning in the water, and earlier this month, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency.
There has been much outrage about how little top state officials did to seriously address the problem. The state environmental regulator resigned, and now there are calls for Snyder himself to resign (now being echoed by Bernie Sanders).
Well, this afternoon, President Obama officially declared a federal state of emergency in Michigan.
The announcement reads that the president “ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions in the area affected by the contaminated water.”
DHS and FEMA will be handling disaster relief efforts, and FEMA will be able to provide whatever resources they deem necessary to deal with the emergency. They will, of course, be providing water and water filters to all residents.
Snyder asked Obama late this week to declare the state of emergency, requesting resources beyond what the state could provide.
[image via screengrab]
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