By delaying federal aid for days while he partied at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump failed evacuees threatened by a failing spillway in Northern California’s Oroville Dam complex. Some 188,000 people from counties that mostly supported him were evacuated when authorities said the risk of a sudden and dramatic overspill became too high, but Orange Julius remained silent for days after California governor Jerry Brown requested he declare a federal emergency in the state.
This winter has been one of the wettest in recorded west coast history, and has slammed California’s aging infrastructure. While the welcome water has refilled reservoirs and left a massive snowpack, weather has also destroyed roads and left the State’s second largest reservoir in real danger of a catastrophic collapse, flooding the Feather River and destroying thousands of homes in the waters’ path. County officials made the difficult decision to evacuate around 188,000 residents on Sunday. Since then, conditions have improved, but not enough that it is safe to allow those evacuees to return home. More rain is expected on Wednesday.
Last Friday, Governor Brown asked Trump to declare a federal emergency. Evidently, POTUS was watching the situation closely on television, but it took him days to decide that California deserved any help. The minority-elected reality television star has stated his intentions to withhold funding from California as punishment for successful immigration policies that allow the world’s sixth-largest (and growing) economy to prosper.
In other words, it looks like Trump took his time acknowledging the crisis out of personal spite.
Interestingly, the California counties most impacted by this disaster are some of the reddest in the Bear Republic. Many of the evacuees are Trump supporters, and they will pay the price of his vengeful policies. California will figure it out either way, but lets hope the Oroville Dam spillway doesn’t fail.
