US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to scrap a number of flood protection laws introduced by his sound-minded predecessor Barack Obama, just days before the devastating and deadly Hurricane Harvey hit the south east of Texas. It’s now been upgraded to Tropical Storm Harvey and it’s spread to the southern region of Louisiana. The floods have claimed the lives of nine people, including a family of six. Their blood could be on Mr. Trump’s hands.
Why did Trump remove the flood protection laws?
Trump, as always, had selfish reasons behind his decision to roll back the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard among other anti-flood legislation introduced by Obama.
He thought that it would help him get his infrastructure projects approved more quickly. But at what cost? The lives of (at least) nine people, apparently.
Obama introduced these measures back in 2015. The laws made infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges more difficult to get underway in areas that were likely to face flooding problems. This was because Obama was making the people in charge of the projects consider the effects of climate change in their decisions. Of course, Trump does not believe in climate change, even though it’s happening before his very eyes, as in not just in Antarctica, but literally within the United States of America that he claims to want to make “great again.” Start by keeping them alive, Donald. Start by keeping them alive.
