Massachusetts knows Romney best, no wonder Obama is beating Romney by 28 points. This is a perfect example of how Romney handles an emergency and his unbelievable ignorance. His belated trip to Greenfield was just for a photo op and then he was on his way out of state again. He ignores the job of governing and just wants the title.
His call for the states to handle disasters is a joke. He couldn't handle these two and can you imagine leaving the Gulf Coast states to manage Katrina by themselves? Bush was truly OTL but Romney would be worse than Brownie - "I have a diiner reservation" (his words when called for help).
People in MA sure are glad he's gone. Do you really want this guy handling an international incident? Nope!
On Oct. 9, 2005, heavy rain storms caused the Green River to rise to historic levels and begin flooding into Greenfield, Mass. The flooding destroyed a trailer park and demolished swaths of low-income housing. Roads were impassable. The flood waters submerged the town's water treatment plant.
As the rain fell and the Green River rose, Greenfield's then-Mayor Christine Forgey says she did not hear from Romney. About 75 people, including many retirees, lost their homes in the trailer park, she says. Still many more were displaced. Forgey says a resident opened up the high school and used it as a crisis shelter. A radio station launched a food and clothing drive and the Red Cross provided services.
New Hampshire had faced the same flooding. It's damage was worse. Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, called up the National Guard and cut short a trip to Europe to return to his state so he could oversee the flood response.
Forgey, according to press accounts, tried to get Romney on the phone, but she only got as far as a the Lieutenant Governor's chief of staff. She and others started complaining to the press in the hopes of getting the governor's attention.
The town could handle distributing donated shirts and juice. But Greenfield, with its population of 18,000, couldn't repair this level of loss, which had been estimated to exceed $1 million. Forgey said she needed the state government to respond and for Romney to declare an emergency. But for days, Greenfield residents were on their own, with limited outside help. "We really didn't get the response we were looking for," she says. "I had to declare a state of emergency ... We really needed help desperately, desperately."
On the first day, Forgey says she did not hear from Romney. Nor the second day. Nor the third.
Romney wasn't in Massachusetts when the flood hit, and the emergency did not alter his plans. The Associated Press reported at the time that the governor had been scheduled to speak to an economic club in North Carolina.
Even after returning to Boston, Romney still hadn't talked to Forgey or visited the flood-affected areas. "The governor's office hasn't even acknowledged that it's rained," Democratic state Rep. Christopher Donelan complained to the Boston Globe.
