Rick Snyder activated the National Guard to help distribute bottled water and filters to the 100,000 residents of Flint, Mich., whose water has become unsafe to drink because of lead contamination.
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This request will identify federal agencies that have programs, authorities and/or technical expertise that could be utilized in the ongoing response and recovery efforts in Flint to be made available.
Governor Rick Snyder activated the state’s National Guard on Tuesday and requested support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which approved the request and appointed a disaster recovery coordinator to help the state, Snyder and a FEMA spokesman said on Twitter.
Rick Snyder was in Flint Monday to address charges that the state was aware of the danger created in April 2014 after the city’s water supply source was switched from Lake Huron to the more polluted and corrosive Flint River. Now, residents of nearby Flint, Mich., are dealing with contaminated water.
A series of public decisions, driven by misguided management practices and ideological principles that backfired, converged during the past 20 months to poison the city’s drinking water and cause one of the most severe public health threats in the U.S. The extent of the risk to Flint’s residents is not clear.
Independent scientists eventually discovered high levels of lead in the water, and the state health department confirmed the findings October 1.
The city switched its water source from the city of Detroit to the Flint River in 2014, in order to save money.
Genesee County sheriff’s Capt. Casey Tafoya said Tuesday that he hoped the teams would get to 500 to 600 houses per day. At the Monday news conference in Flint, Snyder pointed to the fact that after Dennis Muchmore, Snyder’s then chief of staff, raised concerns in a July email that Flint residents’ concerns about the safety of the drinking water were being “blown off” by the administration, officials at both the DEQ and the Department of Health and Human Services maintained there was not a problem.
Thousands of bottles of water await distribution in a county warehouse as volunteers accompanied by Michigan State Police and Gennessee County Sheriff’s Deputies work their way through Flint neighborhoods, bringing residents water filters and bottled water on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016. He said he told the president that there has been a “lack of sufficient response from the state”.
Members of the National Guard are expected to start arriving in Flint as early as Wednesday to assist with response efforts and plan to increase to over 30 personnel by Friday.
Cops warn of scammers as some people are selling water filters even though they are being distributed at no cost.
Eggert reported from Lansing, Michigan.
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The director of that agency resigned last month.
