FCC Lets Starlink Provide Service To Cellphones In Area Hit By Hurricane (arstechnica.com) 152
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission gave Starlink and T-Mobile emergency authority to provide satellite-to-phone coverage in areas hit by Hurricane Helene. "SpaceX and T-Mobile have been given emergency special temporary authority by the FCC to enable Starlink satellites with direct-to-cell capability to provide coverage for cell phones in the affected areas of Hurricane Helene," SpaceX said yesterday. "The satellites have already been enabled and started broadcasting emergency alerts to cell phones on all networks in North Carolina. In addition, we may test basic texting (SMS) capabilities for most cell phones on the T-Mobile network in North Carolina."
SpaceX warned of limits since the service isn't ready for a commercial rollout. "SpaceX's direct-to-cell constellation has not been fully deployed, so all services will be delivered on a best-effort basis," the company said. Starlink is being used to provide wireless emergency alerts to cell phones from all carriers in North Carolina, according to Ben Longmier, senior director of satellite engineering for SpaceX. "We are also closely monitoring Hurricane Milton and standing by ready to take action in Florida," he wrote.
The FCC said (PDF) the approval "enabl[es] SpaceX to operate Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) in the 1910-1915 MHz and 1990-1995 MHz frequency bands leased from T-Mobile in areas affected by the Hurricane Helene." An FCC spokesperson told Ars that the approval is for all areas affected by Hurricane Helene, although it's only active in North Carolina so far. The FCC also said (PDF) that it is granting "special temporary authorities to licensees and issuing rule waivers to help communications providers maintain and restore service, support emergency operations, and assist public safety, including search and rescue efforts." Separately, the FCC last week waived (PDF) certain Lifeline program eligibility rules to help people in disaster areas (PDF) apply for discounted phone and broadband service.
SpaceX warned of limits since the service isn't ready for a commercial rollout. "SpaceX's direct-to-cell constellation has not been fully deployed, so all services will be delivered on a best-effort basis," the company said. Starlink is being used to provide wireless emergency alerts to cell phones from all carriers in North Carolina, according to Ben Longmier, senior director of satellite engineering for SpaceX. "We are also closely monitoring Hurricane Milton and standing by ready to take action in Florida," he wrote.
The FCC said (PDF) the approval "enabl[es] SpaceX to operate Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) in the 1910-1915 MHz and 1990-1995 MHz frequency bands leased from T-Mobile in areas affected by the Hurricane Helene." An FCC spokesperson told Ars that the approval is for all areas affected by Hurricane Helene, although it's only active in North Carolina so far. The FCC also said (PDF) that it is granting "special temporary authorities to licensees and issuing rule waivers to help communications providers maintain and restore service, support emergency operations, and assist public safety, including search and rescue efforts." Separately, the FCC last week waived (PDF) certain Lifeline program eligibility rules to help people in disaster areas (PDF) apply for discounted phone and broadband service.
Wrong solution (Score:3, Insightful)
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They require my organization to have backup power as well for our telecommunications infrastructure.
Towers have, if memory servers, 8 hours minimum battery backup, and a generator.
Of course- if you can't get to the site, you can't keep the generator filled.
We'd love your professional opinion on how to make the system infinitely resilient, though.
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I don't have advice on how to make the system infinitely resilient, nor do I expect perfection
This is good. We can work with this.
The towers were powered down almost as soon as the grid went down.
No. This is simply not true.
If it is- which I don't believe for a second- then the operators of those towers are looking at millions in fines.
Local authorities brought fuel and generators to the towers and were unable to restore service.
Sounds to me like maybe they were damaged, huh? ;)
At the very least the towers should be able to go into some kind of partial service mode that emergency management can use to share critical information.
Again, they do.
If you have a WiFi network without a connection to the internet, you can at least communicate within the network.
Ah, you mean without backhaul.
That should also be possible with cellular networks.
That's a much lower layer problem, unfortunately.
You can't just make a tower do that. The relevant standards (LTE) require centralized communications.
Not a bad idea, but the fault of it not being that way isn't any service provider- it'
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I don't have advice on how to make the system infinitely resilient, nor do I expect perfection
This is good. We can work with this.
The towers were powered down almost as soon as the grid went down.
No. This is simply not true. If it is- which I don't believe for a second- then the operators of those towers are looking at millions in fines.
Local authorities brought fuel and generators to the towers and were unable to restore service.
Sounds to me like maybe they were damaged, huh? ;)
As of October 4, one week after the storm, the FCC says that in North Carolina 321 cell sites were out of service. 3 sites were out due to damage. 149 sites were out due to power. In Buncombe County 67 sites were still out of service and only one was damaged.
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/at... [fcc.gov]
At the very least the towers should be able to go into some kind of partial service mode that emergency management can use to share critical information.
Again, they do.
I was watching news reports from Lake Lure where the only communications was by radio. They were looking for survivors but didn't know where to search.
If you have a WiFi network without a connection to the internet, you can at least communicate within the network.
Ah, you mean without backhaul.
That should also be possible with cellular networks.
That's a much lower layer problem, unfortunately. You can't just make a tower do that. The relevant standards (LTE) require centralized communications. Not a bad idea, but the fault of it not being that way isn't any service provider- it's the international consortiums that draw up the specs.
I agree that no single provider is responsible for making that ha
Re:A little background (Score:5, Informative)
NC would have almost 20K more Starlinks if the FCC hadn't revoked their grant for supplying rural broadband.
The grant for supplying rural broadband was revoked because they did not demonstrate the 100 down/20 Mbps up baud rate required by the contract. They delivered 53 Mbps down/9.7 Mbps up. SpaceX requested that the rules be waived because Starlink was so utterly cool they didn't need to follow the rules, and anyway they promised to do better someday, but the FCC denied their request.
Trump [x.com] coordinated with Musk to get Starlink dishes into the affected areas.
Despite the statement in the tweet, Trump had nothing to do with it.
Re:A little background (Score:4)
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Why should they have done this? They had some bid requirements and wanted to see who could meet those requirements. Only alter the deal AFTER no one shows up with a solution. If Comcast comes in and says "we can't meet your requirements but we demand to be the winner of the contract!" they'd be laughed at by everyone. Musk thinks that he's a special case and rules should be bent just for him.
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Why should they have done this? They had some bid requirements and wanted to see who could meet those requirements. Only alter the deal AFTER no one shows up with a solution. If Comcast comes in and says "we can't meet your requirements but we demand to be the winner of the contract!" they'd be laughed at by everyone. Musk thinks that he's a special case and rules should be bent just for him.
You're absolutely correct. I suppose I was just looking at it from an end user perspective that something beats nothing. I was ignoring the fact that the people in those areas are still welcome to order starlink on their own without the government being involved.
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Nope. You don't want to set a precedent for companies to receive grant money based on an optimisation of what spec is most cost effective for them to deliver rather than actually meeting the requirements set out. That would make government grant based projects *even worse* than they already are.
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Given that rural broadband in my area doesn't demonstrate that, and yet the company gets grants anyway
Without knowing what the specifications were in the contract for the grant that you say your internet provider received, it's impossible to say whether this is relevant. When was this grant issued, for how much, and what were the specifications written in the contract?
does not support your claim.
The statement was that StarLink was unable to deliver the service that met the requirements in the contract, and the contract was rescinded because they service didn't meet specs. Complaints about your own internet service neither support nor
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They're not required to provide those speeds to all last-mile customers- that would be literally impossible.
Where StarLink fucked up, is they couldn't provide those speeds to any customers.
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I've got 2 sisters in Northeast Oklahoma, and an extended family up in Northwest Arkansas.
They're about as rural as rural gets.
1 sister has fiber provided by AT&T, and my dad's got some DSL that's right about at grant limits (think it's 140mbps).
One sister is in "town", so we won't include her.
The other is 6 miles outside of town. That's the one with the fiber.
Dad's brood over in Arka
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Hah, Trump is only involved by tweeting how he'd do a better job and would negotiate on day one with the hurricanes to be smaller and remain south of the border. Trump is merely a private citizen, not even especially rich and with lots of money tied up due to legal judgements, and so has not really done anything for the public at all in the last 4 years. Musk at least has some companies that can do something, and the money to throw around if he needs to. Though sometimes Musk comes on too strong (trying to
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But the FCC then let the contracts go to major Democrat donors who effectively delivered 0/0.
Your statement is that the StarLink contract was cancelled in 2023, and the money was used for new contracts that haven't delivered anything yet by 2024? Not terribly surprising, since the required Federal bidding process takes a minimum of nine months.
Your statement that the contracts went to Democrat[ic party] donors lacks a citation.
Trump, not Biden, diverted FEMA money to border (Score:4, Informative)
Trump admin pulling millions from FEMA disaster relief to send to southern border [nbcnews.com]
-- https://abcnews.go.com/Politic... [go.com]
--https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-tap-fema-account-step-migrant-deportations-house/story?id=65228929
Re: A little background (Score:2)
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SpaceX is donating dishes and service, they're helping people, that's hardly free. And they also don't need advertising, their satellite network is unrivaled, and they're going to deliver internet service to people who need it around the world. That is, if the government gets out of the way; the FCC chair has raised concerns that StarLink doesn't have any real competition [pcmag.com].
Re: A little background (Score:2)
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The actual craziness wasn’t on Elon’s side.
One, the FAA was prohibiting helicopter deliveries of StarLink satellite communication dishes to those in need unless they had officially electronically requested them. But how can those without electronic access make such requests in the first place? This catch-22 could only be resolved by Elon contacting Pete Buttigieg, who untangled the mess.
Two, keep in mind the back-story that helps explain the lack of trust. StarLink won a contract years ago to
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The FAA publishes its TFRs, which were T, and always in areas that already had too much air traffic, and were coordinated with local authorities.
The fact that someone who didn't know how to navigate the system got confused isn't government incompetence, it's incompetence of the fucking dolt that was trying to navigate a system he didn't understand.
I don't know what kind of outfit Musk runs, but we have an ECR for exactly this purpose (we have b
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The federal government doesn't want to help, nor do they wany anyone else to help. They want to run these people off their land, just like they did with the Lahaina wildfires. Wealthy powerful interests want the land on the cheap, and this is how they'll get it.
I think the land is already pretty cheap. Hence some of the poorest people among the working class living there.
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Ghu, what a moron.
A lot of those are living 'over th' crick, up the hollar'. And those with who did have electric - I knew someone who lived like that with *zero** electricity - have lost it due to falling trees. But you've never seen trees, since you never come out of the basement.
Or maybe the houses SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BUILT in landslide zones and flood plains?
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That's B.S. They are helping and they want to help. The prohibition for the helicopters is because if all the do-gooders show up it will hinder emergency response and serivces. So keeping the air space free for helicopters is a good thing, keep drones out, keep the damaged roads from being clogged by those bringing in food in the minivans, etc.
But your style of conspiracy nonsense is all the rage these days.
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And the FCC contract that was reapportioned to other bidders? It’s connected zero locations so far.
That's irrelevant. What is important here is that the other bidders have already made contributions to Democratic candidates. The party got their kickback.
Cite?
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And the FCC contract that was reapportioned to other bidders? It’s connected zero locations so far.
That's irrelevant. What is important here is that the other bidders have already made contributions to Democratic candidates. The party got their kickback.
Cite?
https://www.opensecrets.org/in... [opensecrets.org]
https://www.opensecrets.org/in... [opensecrets.org]
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You dumbfuck. Did you even read those?
Did you read who got the canceled contracts?
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They've donated strongly Democrat since 1998, even when Democrats weren't in power, and aren't even relevant to this discussion, so we'll limit ourselves to article 1.
Link 1 shows a pretty fucking even division of money going to Democrats and Republicans, with the exception of years that Trump ran (2016, 2020), where it was closer to 60/40 in favor of Democrats.
Any corruption clearly goes both ways.
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Any corruption clearly goes both ways.
Often, but Starlink/Musk is opposed by a Democratic admin, so the Democrats get these kickbacks.
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StarLink was in breach of its contract.
The FCC had the option to amend it so that they were no longer in breach, and they chose not to.
The Republicans on the board were vocal about wanting to do so.
The worst you can accuse those who were against Musk of doing was not bending the rules for him, while those who were "with?" Musk wished to do so.
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The links show that the money that flowed into the politics clearly had nothing to do with any kind of favors given by the party of power, given the equal distribution.
Has someone paid for a favor if they gave your opponent just as much money?
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Your premise isn't supported by the evidence, sorry.
I'd try to construct a new conspiracy theory that better fits what is recorded for everyone to see.
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Reality doesn't work like that.
Musk can both be an enemy of the administration, and also be in breach of contract for failing to meet its stipulations.
It is a fact that he was in breach. It is a fact that his enemies wanted only to enforce the rules, and his "friends?" only wanted to bend the rules for him.
This argument isn't doing you a lot of favors.
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The distribution was very close to equal, and even when it varied, it varied by only 10%.
But you aren't looking at the companies that got the contracts after Starlink was canceled. You're just looking at random large companies.
Also you conflate general donations to get general access. As opposed to specific quid pro quo.
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You're ignoring clear evidence and trying to concoct an alternate, conspiratorial reasoning for things.
I'm merely citing historical precedent. Senator Joe Biden acquires great influence over Amtrak funding. He gets his son put on the Amtrak board. Think Amtrak donated to any of Joe's campaigns?
Reality doesn't work like that.
LOL.
Musk can both be an enemy of the administration, and also be in breach of contract for failing to meet its stipulations.
The gov't had to come to an opinion on whether the breach could be resolved or not. Politics plays into such opinions. If Elon had been the nice cooperative Democrat lf past years the breach would have been determined to be minor and/or resolved as more satellites are launched.
It is a fact that his enemies wanted only to enforce the rules, and his "friends?" only wanted to bend the rules for him.
Have you looked at US tax code? Becaus
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I'm merely citing historical precedent. Senator Joe Biden acquires great influence over Amtrak funding. He gets his son put on the Amtrak board. Think Amtrak donated to any of Joe's campaigns?
Joe Biden as a Senator was in a position to be able to do that. Joe Biden as a President is not.
The gov't had to come to an opinion on whether the breach could be resolved or not. Politics plays into such opinions. If Elon had been the nice cooperative Democrat lf past years the breach would have been determined to be minor and/or resolved as more satellites are launched.
Objection- speculation.
If you can provide proof that the FCC under Democratic majority bends more rules than the Republican FCC under Republican rules, I'll accept your argument, but for the time being- you're talking out of your ass, which is a waste of everyone's time.
Have you looked at US tax code? Because that pretty much describes what is in there. The remnants of rewards to friends and punishment for enemies.
The tax code? No. No it is not.
Now, all of the various stimulus given to various industries? Maybe, if we pick and choose industries and assign
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But you aren't looking at the companies that got the contracts after Starlink was canceled. You're just looking at random large companies.
Incorrect.
Please, do show me how I'm wrong though.
Also you conflate general donations to get general access. As opposed to specific quid pro quo.
Huh?
I conflate general donations to get general access with donations for quid-pro-quo? Is that what you were trying to say there?
I didn't conflate anything, I asserted that there is no evidence for either in this case.
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Joe Biden as a Senator was in a position to be able to do that. Joe Biden as a President is not.
Minions do that for him. Note getting Hunter a job is just one type of kickback. There are also mundane contributions to the candidate or the party. There are buying thousands of copies of a candidate's book. There is inviting the wife into a lucrative investment opportunity.
Now, all of the various stimulus given to various industries? Maybe, if we pick and choose industries and assign political affiliation with them.
Which is sometimes done through the tax code. Deductions, credits, for friends. Special taxes for enemies. Friendly admin, oil companies get credits for exploring is a particular region, say Gulf of Mexico. Unfriendly admin, higher rate
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Beyond this routine stuff, there is the shadier quid pro quo. A politician in office supports some initiative a major union wants, the union buys 10,000 copies of the politician's book to hand out to the members. $30 book, 10% author royalty, that's an extra $30K in the royalty check from the publisher.
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There are routine donations to candidates to get access. We often see donations to both sides so that they get access to both sides.
Lobbyists are often third-party firms that represent several interests, or sometimes industries as a whole.
You can allege that the lobbyist and the congress critter get in the office and compare lists to see who has donated enough, but you will not be able to prove it, so it's nothing but a baseless allegation.
Now certainly everyone is feels compelled into the game of paying, so that they're not "the guy who didn't", but nobody directly pays for access.
Beyond this routine stuff, there is the shadier quid pro quo.
That's a federal crime, and it's prosecuted vigorous
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Maybe the high ranking Senator's son was qualified, the recommendations from other Senators he received were glowing.
Maybe the union members wanted to read another book by a politician.
Maybe the governor's wife was just lucky when she was invited into that cattle investment which had such great ROI.
And given the slow walking and lack of interest in the Hunter laptop, the cover story of it being disinformation, I'd question the notion of
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I suppose the Jewish Space Lasers are occupied elsewhere.
Re: Mexico (Score:2)
They'll track every 911 usage like this and turn it into a positive PR story. (Nothing wrong with that I guess.)
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Hurricanes taken from asylums, fueled by asylum drugs, allowed into the country by the Harris dictator, all filtering in through the two mile gap in the wall that hadn't been completed!
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Mod parent (FP) As funny and mod censor moderators as non-moderators.
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And the FCC contract that was reapportioned to other bidders? It’s connected zero locations so far.
And the new recipients of federal funds are well behaved government contractors. They do all the paperwork and make the proper kickbacks to the democratic party and its candidates.
Re:The sweetest payback? Competent compassion. (Score:5, Informative)
StarLink won a contract 2022
2020, actually.
to deliver thousands of the devices to the hurricane Helene region as part of an FCC program to bring internet to underserved areas, plus many thousands more to regions throughout the country.
A contract that was revoked when it turned out StarLink couldn't deliver the required speed. The company running the contract requested a waiver of the requirements, but the FCC didn't agree.
The FCC also commented that the service required people to buy a $600 satellite dish to receive internet, so despite the government paying for the rural internet, the people being served still had to pay.
Subsequently, in December 2023, three Democrats on the FCC top committee voted to rescind the contract.
Nice trick, since the contract was rescinded in 2022.
Re: The sweetest payback? Competent compassion. (Score:2)
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Probably the confusion here is the initial decision in 22 vs the appeal decision in 23
There seems to be no confusion about the fact that the StarLink system was not able to deliver the specifications promised.
End of story [Re:The sweetest payback? Compete.... (Score:2)
All of your comments are irrelevant to government contracts. They bid on a government project, and the system they bid wasn't able to meet the specifications they agreed to in the contract.
End of story.
If you want a moral at the end of the story, the moral is Elon Musk has a history of promising things that he can't deliver, or delivers years late. This is great for grabbing headlines, but when you agree to a government contract, it's better to put in specifications you can meet now, not hope that later t
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One, that’s obviously just a fig leaf for the unprecedented revocation of a then four year old contract.
Confused about how contracts work, I see.
Two, it was specifically Democrat appointees in the FEC top committee that overrode the contract - not the rank-and-file engineers.
Overrode is incorrect. The contract was void.
The vote was whether or not to adjust it to fit the failures of the service provider (StarLink)
Three, that measurement was a minimum that doesn’t reflect the huge ongoing deployment of additional satellites.
Confused about how contracts work, I see.
Four, even that minimum is practical for almost all home use - including streaming. It’s basically only a major issue for the rare person that “needs” to quickly download a huge torrent.
Confused about how contracts work, I see.
Dude, you're a fucking moron, and you're way the fuck out of your depth.
Sit the fuck down and let the adults talk.
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Dems, Dems, Dems. Oh no, democratic appointees are on a commision, and ALL democrats have sinister ulterior motives, so this explains everything!
Satire of course. But so many MAGA people believe this, because it's being preached to them. What's sinister is that if they believe this is true, then they honestly want Republicans with ulterior motives in charge of everything, because they cannot imagine anyone working for the government who just wants to do their job fairly and follow the rules.
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StarLink won a contract 2022 to deliver thousands of the devices to the hurricane Helene region as part of an FCC program to bring internet to underserved areas, plus many thousands more to regions throughout the country.
Subsequently, in December 2023, three Democrats on the FCC top committee voted to rescind the contract. Why? They claimed StarLink couldn’t be trusted to sufficiently ramp up production and deliver.
Yet StarLink is right now producing 7000 units a day, hooking up folks worldwide, and has already delivered and enabled many hundreds of much needed units to the hurricane Helene region at no charge.
And the FCC contract that was reapportioned to other bidders? It’s connected zero locations so far.
Congress wants to make sure all their money goes to do-nothings. If someone starts doing something it makes everyone else in the chain look bad, so they pulled from StarLink and handed the possibility someone that would do the "right thing" and accomplish nothing, while sucking up massive piles of tax dollars. Gubmint working as expected.
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No. The State of North Carolina is arresting people. We are carrying out the largest relief operation in the United States since Katrina. In the eastern part of the state people are loading tractor trailers with supplies. Our line workers deployed the day of the storm. Teams from law enforcement and emergency services are returning now, while replacement teams are deploying. Thousands of private citizens go through training every year to prepare for these recovery efforts. Some have already gone west, b
Re: FEMA is also arresting people delivering suppl (Score:3)
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This post is genuinely a great example of the depths of incompetence worship that some people have sank to in the wake of pandemic propaganda. People have learned to not believe their lying eyes. The most important commandment of The Party has been fully integrated into their personalities.
Consider the message being sent in the post above, but contrast it with reality on the ground, where help is tragicomically late, and volunteers are still forced to not go into the area to help. And the message above is t
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So how dare you go where you're not told, even through you're obviously needed. HOW DARE YOU? Only government gets to order some people as those who should be helped and others as those that shouldn't.
Well yes... virtually every disaster recovery effort requires central management. Not doing so is not just inefficient but can be outright dangerous. This isn't just government either, private organisations operate the same way.
Re:FEMA is also arresting people delivering suppli (Score:5, Informative)
Aid is tragicomically late because this was a very serious event and emergency response is difficult.
If somebody has the *ability* to help, it implies they have proper training which means they know not to make themselves a victim. I am not in the affected area and have no first-hand knowledge. But well-meaning people without skills or ability who insist on doing things their own way rather than follow directions of leadership are a liability not an asset. It sounds like there are some people who have special appreciation of their own self-proclaimed abilities but who lack actual skill who are upset that they aren't being treated as heroes.
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delivered aid and flew out with no problems
I thought he was arrested.
As someone who has had to coordinate with ECRs and disaster relief as a business that provided "essential services", yes, the volunteer is usually incompetent.
Does that mean all are? Of course not- but how are we supposed to know? The math is fucking simple.
The manpower it takes to get 1 dumbfuck out can cost multiple other people their lives. It's simply not worth the risk.
Dumbfucks who get in the way end up being another person that has to be pulled out in the vast majority
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“I originally left my son, copilot, on the side of the mountain. [The helicopter] was kind of unstable, so I didn’t want to put more weight on the helicopter to lift it back off. So, I left my son with the other victim. And I was just going to take one person down at the time."
A few hours later the qualified people came and made a rescue. He achieved nothi
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I mean look at this:
The Post found an all-volunteer operation being run out of a Harley-Davidson dealership with ruthless efficiency and military precision.
Really? Is that the super-qualified opinion of Jack Morphet and Chris Nesi? That's some factual reporting right there.
To me that just further outlines the problem- fucking dumbshits with opinions, and even worse sometimes- resources, and lacking the fucking qualifications or brain power to use them appropriately.
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The actual problem that you're pointedly ignoring is that "fucking dumbshits with opinions, and even worse sometimes- resources, and lacking the fucking qualifications or brain power to use them appropriately" did something that government failed to do.
No, they didn't. That's the part you're inventing.
And the monstrous boot lickers in this thread insist that government should be stopping such people from delivering actual help because they dare to help while being less than perfect. All while government of NC has proven so far to be more in the way than helping. Again contrast not against nothing but against Florida government and it becomes utterly obvious
Eye roll.
You're so fucking divorced from reality, I wonder how it's possible that you can even hold a job.
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This is why I find communicating with people that are like you helpful. It reminds me that there exists a fairly high IQ, highly delusional and highly status seeking group of people that will reflexively attempt to exact maximum punishment for anyone who dares to reject the most fundamental commandment of The Party. To not believe your lying eyes, and instead embrace The Truth of The Party.
In USSR, such people used to be the revolutionaries that NKVD purged after the revolution. In modern US, they're Oregon
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This is why I find communicating with people that are like you helpful. It reminds me that there exists a fairly high IQ, highly delusional and highly status seeking group of people that will reflexively attempt to exact maximum punishment for anyone who dares to reject the most fundamental commandment of The Party. To not believe your lying eyes, and instead embrace The Truth of The Party.
Absurd. The Party?
The Truth of The Party?
Come on. No matter your IQ, you have to be intelligent enough to pull your head out of the fog it's in and conclude that maybe, just maybe, the things you cite without evidence aren't right. You can't possibly think that anyone who doesn't take your non-evidenced claims at face value is going to fucking Communist Party Meetings down the block.
I toe no line. I registered as an independent, because party politics bore me.
Agreeing with a preponderance of the stance
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The funniest part about this whole thing is that last sentence.
I'm one of the few people who's actually so low in neuroticism that I am capable of changing my mind fairly easily if you have a convincing argument. Because unlike overwhelming majority of humanity, I have so little pain from neurotic reactions, and they last for such a short period of time that they do not form a significant part of guidance structure for my personality. You cannot psychologically torture me into compliance without extreme eff
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one of the few people who's actually so low in neuroticism that I am capable of changing my mind fairly easily if you have a convincing argument.
No, you're not. You've styled yourself as such, but it's a delusion.
You've made that quite clear, because your belief system is based on misinformation and lack of evidence- conspiracy theories.
You need help- and the biggest red flag for you should be that you think you're "one of the few who doesn't"
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Remind me, what's the current rate of conversion from conspiracy theory to proven reality?
For laboratory origins of covid that was about two years for example. But you folks deployed psychological torture wide scale, and destroyed quite a few lives to keep that narrative going.
Which is notably a good example of me changing my mind. If you go back, I did post quite a bit on the subject, and you'll be able to see me change my mind as more evidence emerged.
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There were no flight restrictions when that pilot made the first rescue. The restrictions only appeared after the confrontation on the ground. The pilot did nothing wrong. In fact, the pilot rescued one individual which the government had been unable to rescue.
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I assume the truth-in-advertising laws mandate that you preface all your posts with that, Leroy.
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You don't have to file a flight plan if you're flying VFR. Flying VFR doesn't put other flights at risk. If that were true, we'd have midair collisions happening all the time.
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The FAA has evolving flight restrictions over the affected area. They have staff operating out of the NC Emergency Operations Center, managing access to the area. Drones and private aircraft can deliver aid, but they need to coordinate with authorities on the ground.
https://www.faa.gov/airtraffic... [faa.gov]
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This is completely normal and happens all over the place all year.
If a pilot doesn't know how to look up local TFRs, it's time for them to lose their license.
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I don't know if anyone has been arrested. I do know that a state of emergency was declared, which gives law enforcement the authority to control where people go and where they can gather. Local officials have clearly stated that anyone who is not from their respective jurisdictions will not be allowed to enter without authorization.
The Federal Government doesn't grant FEMA officials any law enforcement powers. Some may have those powers as part of their primary job roles. For example, an FBI agent could
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Yup, keep the airspace clear. I've seen a few stories before this hurricane of emergencies helicopters being unable to land because of drones showing up to the accidents and taking pictures.
If people want to help then just call up the Red Cross and ask where you can deliver the food and supplies.
A lot of what is driving this is Trump preaching over and over that the feds have not responded or are not being effective, which is not the case.
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FEMA can only spend as Congress allocates.
Period. To do otherwise is literally an impeachable offense.
Congress allocated money for the migrant crisis, and they allocate money for disaster relief.
All Federal agencies work in this way.
They could spend every penny of their disaster relief money, and not a single penny of their migrant crisis relief money, and if they decided to take even a single penny from the latter for the purpose of the former, it's quite literally a
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And that is precisely why he was arrested!
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That's a lie. And given all the MILITARY helicopters and aircraft in use, he endangered others.
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What helicopters and aircraft
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Federal LEO is not on site in the fucking mountains.
His beef is with the State of North Carolina, if it isn't outright bullshit.
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No, he's got a loud obnoxious boyfriend living there too who pushed him out.