Thank you to everyone who is taking the time to explain the downstream impacts of fuel shortages in citizen led recovery efforts – to any public official or agency contact who will listen.  Using every possible communicative tool in your network is working.
Good News – FEMA “Task Force Irma” is listening and pushing the message upward toward critical “leadership”. We received the following email last night:

FYI… following your reports. We are supplying millions of gallons of fuel. I have used your posts to provide leadership insights into life in much of the state. Prayers are with you.

Best Regards,

Steve Shea

STEVEN W. SHEA
Defense Logistics Agency
Liaison Officer to FEMA Region IV DCO
Task Force Irma
4075 Esplande Way
Tallahassee, Florida 32399

My reply:
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As I shared yesterday:

[…] With most hurricane power outages you can find something, usually a tree, that has actually severed the top power line on a neighborhood grid. If the tree is massive, with or without taking down the pole, the tree has to be removed first. If the power company has to remove a tree before they can restore power to an ordinary residential neighborhood, they drop the priority to “some later time”, and move on to quicker repairs… Ergo most of those without power, end Day #3 (September 13), will not see power until their rotation on the tree removal list comes up; sometime around the end of the month (two weeks away), or later.

A case in point.  Check this one out:

You can click on that image to make it massive.
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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

President Donald Trump, First-Lady Melania Trump, Vice-President Mike Pence and Second-Lady Karen Pence are all heading to Florida to visit first-responders, rescue and recovery workers and see the challenges first hand – Tomorrow:

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders has shared an expectation that President Trump and First Lady Melania are going to be in the Naples and Fort Myers area; that’s Lee County in Southwest Florida.
I’m hopeful the President brings Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert with him to review rescue, recovery and rebuilding efforts.  As a Floridian I find myself having high confidence in Bossert’s articulate approach focusing on root issues, getting government out of the way, and not getting dragged in the weeds and paralysis of bureaucratic analysis. [If there’s one cat who can figure out the logistics of the fuel issues, Bossert seems like the guy to deliver.]
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This is a great picture:

Heck, that’s a blessed picture.  Bigly.

If anyone with with an analysis background has the time to run some stats, I’d love to see what your results would be to overcoming this fuel problem and the duration of it.
teekay has some initial thoughts:
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Wow, talk about life in a bubble disconnected from reality.  Overall these kinds of expositions are excellent for those who are enjoying watching the Democrat party define itself as Hillary Clinton, Tom Perez, Keith Ellison, Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters.
There’s nothing about this interview that’s even remotely alright.  She lost. It’s eleven months later.  However, Ms. Creepy must still have an audience that wants to sit in a circle and talk about where imaginary right-wing frog memes stole their safe place.  Wow.

Excellent news…

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Did you ever read that little story about the kid walking down the beach throwing starfish in the water, when the old man says he can’t save all of them, so why bother?  Well, that a parable for Day #2 in Irma’s impact zones.  That parable also explains why this follow-up is reaching y’all well after midnight on Sept. 13th.
[Hurricane relief work is a little like keeping a farmers schedule. As I understand it, the work schedule of a farmer extends the necessary shift until the job is done, which has entirely nothing to do with a clock…]
I said yesterday I thought that 50% of the residents of South Florida might be home.  I was wrong.  That estimation was overstated. Maybe a third of the regular residents were home on Day #1 – a few more showed up today (Day #2)…. and based on south-bound traffic observed, a whole bunch more are in in route tonight.
They ain’t going to like what awaits.
First things first.  Yes, we found fuel – it took driving past 47 empty gas stations to find one open with fuel.   More than 100 cars (easily) were around the block for this station at 8am.  We dispatched a volunteer to wait in line, and went about doing what we could w/out fuel, SCOUT.  Three hours later 40 ten gal cans caught up with us.  Oh, and another station opened around noon.
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