Ocean County Observer
Letter to the Editor 11/20/2006
Follow Up Letter to
all six Mayors of Long Beach Island on the Evacuation Plan
issue.
Dear Mayor;
On September 17, 2005 you were sent a letter from our
President, John Kostopoulos, on behalf of the more than one hundred members
of the LBI democratic Club suggesting, in light of the great difficulties we
all witnessed in the government response to Hurricane Katrina, that it was a
good time to review the Plans and resources available to deal with a
hurricane hitting the Island.
On a matter of this importance we were disappointed
not to receive a written reply from you. We did get some information from
our towns’ emergency responders, which we appreciated. However after
carefully reviewing the information available to us we are very much
concerned that Island occupants are at great risk, and not well prepared for
a serious storm and flooding. The major reasons for our concern are
presented below.
First, it is important to recognize that, as a very
long barrier Island with one exit road that narrows to two lanes (at the
Hospital), we are in a somewhat unique and very vulnerable situation. No
generic FEMA or State Plan would be applicable to us. We were told that four
days would be needed to clear the Island in the summer season. That means
that an evacuation would have to be ordered and begun when a hurricane was
still far away –around 1000 miles or near Florida- but predicted to hit us.
Improvements in predicting hurricane paths have been made over the years,
but four days ahead of the impact time the error involved is still high, and
there is a high probability that it would miss us. With that much
uncertainty it would be very difficult to make an evacuation decision that
early, and it is much more likely that a decision would be made one to two
days ahead of the impact time when the prediction errors are a lot less.
Unfortunately, that means that in our situation a full evacuation would
likely not be possible.
This problem is made worse because there are
apparently no Contingency Plans in place, i.e. what one is supposed to do if
he/she cannot get off the Island. Only Barnegat Light is developing such a
Contingency Plan – to be ready in June we were told. So it seems that once
you get in your car and get stuck on the Boulevard you are on your own. This
is a disaster just waiting to happen. We recommend that every Town promptly
develop such a contingency Plan, or better yet a single, consistent Island-
wide Plan, since you never know which Town you’ll get stuck in.
Second, we are told that there is an Evacuation Plan
in place but that the public is not permitted to see it, because of a
Directive to withhold information that could aid a terrorist. We looked into
this. Any “Directive” to keep the Evacuation Plan from the public doesn’t
come from FEMA. They in fact are concerned with such a restriction because
they feel that the more the public knows about their own evacuation plans
the better. The New Jersey Office of Counter Terrorism referred us to
Executive Order 21 from former Governor McGreevy which does authorize
withholding information from the public that would interfere with the
State’s ability to defend against a terrorist attack or would materially
increase the risk of such an attack. But they also said that this
requirement was not intended to restrict public access to plans for natural
events such as hurricanes. So, we contend that applying this restriction to
a Plan that is to be used for hurricanes is not appropriate, and is in fact
the exact opposite of what good emergency planning should be. The basis
and history of the decision to keep this Plan from the public should be made
known. Absent any compelling reason we may be unaware of, the existing Plan
should be condensed –omitting any truly sensitive information- and made
public. In the interim period while that is being done, an all- day seminar
involving all the Island Towns and Stafford should be conducted.
Some issues to address in a condensed Plan and a
Seminar include;
1. Is the Evacuation Plan referred to the same as the
Plan for nuclear emergencies that was developed with funding from the Oyster
Creek Generating Station? If so, does it cover the Island Townships South of
the Bridge and outside the Oyster Creek planning area?
2. What state, county, local government offices are
involved in a hurricane evacuation? What are their responsibilities? What
are their decision- making authorities? Can one party override another?
What emergency response assets and resources does each have?
3. Who has the authority to order an evacuation? If
each mayor and certain county and state officials do, what happens if there
is disagreement? For example, if only one mayor decides to evacuate, are
the resources of all the towns and agencies, especially Stafford and Ship
Bottom since they control access to the Bridge, made available?
4. Are cable, regular phone and cell phone links
secure in a severe storm? Can police lines handle the influx of calls in an
emergency? What will happen if these links break down? Who decides what to
broadcast over the radio?
5. Is there any “staging” in the Evacuation Plan, i.e.
who leaves first, second etc. This might greatly speedup an orderly
evacuation. Florida had such a plan, which includes the authority to shut
down a motel etc, and electronic signs to inform people who leaves when.
6. How will the elderly, sick, others without cars get
off the Island? Will school buses be made available? Who orders that? Who
drives them? What other vehicles are available?
7. Will gas stations on the route remain open? Will
they stock up on gas before hand? Who has the authority to decide this?
8. Has any evacuation modeling been done of the Island
and the various storm events it might experience? It doesn’t appear that any
transportation modeling of vehicle queues and expected delays has been done.
9. How often are “table top” exercises, where
emergency scenarios are played out, held? Are the results of the exercise
documented? Are those reports available for review? We recommend that
several members of the public participate in the next table top exercises as
observers.
To summarize, we are asking that the work done to date
be brought forward so that the general public, whose lives may depend upon
it, can review it and provide input. As we mentioned in our first letter we
have members familiar with issues of this nature and could help in a
constructive review of the Plan if it were made available.
Given the importance of this subject, I would also
suggest that a written response to this letter would be appropriate.
Sincerely,
Dr. Robert Stern, Vice President
Democratic Club of Long Beach Island
The
Social Security Issue, by Dr Robert Stern, VP of the Democratic Club of LBI
Recently,
you have heard a lot about Social Security. Unfortunately, most of it has
been exaggerated, misleading or simply untrue. This handout prepared by the
Long Beach Island Democratic Club attempts to present the facts about Social
Security, put the problems with it in perspective, and come up with some
common sense solutions. Social Security checks don’t have political party
labels on them and our hope is that Democrats, Republicans, and Independents
can rally around those solutions and press our elected representatives to
enact them. This has more to do with results than politics. The numbers
below come from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
The
Social Security Program has served the country well. More than 47 million
Americans receive benefits from it. About 69% of the benefits go to
retirees and their spouses, the rest to disabled workers, children and
survivors. Without Social Security today over 40% of our elderly people
would live in poverty; even with it, today, about 10 % still do.
Social
Security is a” pay as you” go system. In other words, current workers pay
the benefits to current retirees. When workers pay in more revenues annually
than benefits to retirees, a surplus is built up in the Social Security
Trust Fund. That is happening today, and is shown in Figure 1 below. As the
“baby boomers” retire they will get the benefit of that paying in, but
eventually –around 2050- the Trust Fund will run out and benefits will be
constrained by the annual revenues coming in then.
So, what
does this mean to a person retiring after 2050? It’s true that that person
could no longer receive the “scheduled” benefit that is calculated by
Social Security formulas based on real wage growth. But as seen in Figure 2
that benefit is pretty optimistic. It would in fact make the Social Security
payments to future retirees more than twice as good in terms of purchasing
power than they are today. That’s still a laudable goal but even if nothing
were done and future benefits were constrained by current revenue formulas,
the Social Security payments to individuals (see Figure 2) still get better
by about 25% than today's. So the talk about Social Security not “being
there” for younger workers is simply not true.
So, what
is the challenge for us today? Well , given that company retirement plans
aren’t as reliable as they once were, and that health care costs keep
rising , we’d like to see our children able to count on Social Security for
more of their retirement security than we could. Private accounts won’t do
the trick. As seen in Figures 1 and 2 the benefits paid under the Private
Account proposals, including both the Social Security Fund and private
account payouts, are always less than what would occur under the current
system even if nothing were done , not to mention being well below the
“scheduled” benefits. This is because the increased benefit from your
investment is more than offset by the decreased social security benefit from
withdrawing money from the System and paying interest on your withdrawn
money, and by calculating Social Security benefit based on price rather than
wage growth. Also, the part of the invested money that is inherited hurts
the retirement objective of Social Security.
The real
solution is to bring long term scheduled benefits and revenues together as
shown in Figure 3. If this is begun early enough, around 2015, then only a
10% cut from scheduled benefits is needed as opposed to the 30% reduction
needed in 2050 shown in Figure 1. About a 15% increase in revenue-or 0.7% of
the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - is also needed to close the gap between
benefit and revenue. That gap doesn’t need to be fully closed by new
measures because a good part of the Trust Fund surplus can be preserved for
future use as shown by the curved arrows in Figure 3.
Some
options for increasing revenue are shown in Table 1. Even without raising
the payroll tax, the 0.7% of GDP need can be reached.
The
Social Security Program, rather than being in a crisis, is in good shape for
another 45 years, not only providing but increasing individual benefits in
real terms. If made early, modest fixes to the System can be made to sustain
and even improve it well beyond 2050. We should all be working to identify
the impact and equity of those fixes, rather than engaging in an ideological
struggle over public versus private systems.
JOB REPORT: 2007-2011
Here are ten benefits which come online
following the President's signature on the health care bill:
-
Adult
children may remain as dependents on their parents’ policy until
their 27th birthday
-
Children under age 19 may not be excluded for pre-existing
conditions
-
No more
lifetime or annual caps on coverage
-
Free
preventative care for all
-
Adults
with pre-existing conditions may buy into a national high-risk pool
until the exchanges come online. While these will not be cheap,
they’re still better than total exclusion and get some benefit from
a wider pool of insured.
-
Small
businesses will be entitled to a tax credit for 2009 and 2010, which
could be as much as 50% of what they pay for employees’ health
insurance.
-
The
“donut hole” closes for Medicare patients, making prescription
medications more affordable for seniors.
-
Requirement that all insurers must post their balance sheets on the
Internet and fully disclose administrative costs, executive
compensation packages, and benefit payments.
-
Authorizes early funding of community health centers in all 50
states (Bernie Sanders’ amendment). Community health centers provide
primary, dental and vision services to people in the community,
based on a sliding scale for payment according to ability to pay.
-
AND no
more rescissions. Effective immediately, you can't lose your
insurance because you get sick.
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US and Russia Sign New Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty
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Student
loan reform
Student loan reform is a
major victory for all those parents and their children who are planning
higher education. The legislation
1.Ends subsidies for
special – interest private lending companies
2.Doubles funding for
Pell Grants to help more students afford a college education
3.Will cap a graduate’s
annual student-loan repayments at 10 percent of his or her income
4. Helps an additional 5
million Americans earn degrees and certificates over the next decade, by
revitalizing programming at our nation’s community colleges
----------------------------------
Wall Street Reform Bill Passes Amidst
Widespread Media Diversion
http://www.examiner.com/x-46119-DC-Business-Commentary-Examiner~y2010m7d23-Wall-Street-Reform-Bill-Passes-Amidst-Widespread-Media-Diversion
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Economic recovery
The NY Times on July 27 highlighted a
new study, conducted by Alan Binder (former vice chair of the Federal
Reserve) and Mark Zandi (chief economist for Moody's Analytics and a
former McCain adviser). It concludes, among other things, that economic
recovery measures by President Obama and Congress saved 8.5 million jobs
and boosted our national GDP by 6.5 percent.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/m/55c10b75/6c5a08f6/8c434998/11880368/33033207/VEsH/
The full study is a bit long but can be found at;
http://www.economy.com/mark-zandi/documents/End-of-Great-Recession.pdf
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stimulus: where did it go?
Most of the economic stimulus program went to tax relief
, including a tax cut for low and middle income Americans that averaged
$400 for an individual and $800 for a family.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Auto industry 'growing strong' after bailout
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/30/obama.auto.recovery/?hpt=T2
============================================================
US Troop Withdrawal From Iraq Remains on Schedule
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/Biden-US-Troop-Withdrawal-From-Iraq-Remains-on-Schedule-98703259.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Lily Ledbetter Act for equal pay
For Women, What a Difference a Year Almost Made
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Obama signs emergency bill to halt teacher layoffs
Only two republicans for for it in Congress!
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20100810/US.Jobs.Bill/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
President Obama signs U.S. Manufacturing Enhancement Act
of 2010 into law
http://www.mlive.com/michigan-job-search/index.ssf/2010/08/president_obama_signs_us_manufacturing_e.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senate approves $600 million in border security funds
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/08/12/pol.senate.border.funding/?hpt=Sbin
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. Economy Grew at 2.6% Pace in Third Quarter
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-22/u-s-economy-grew-2-6-in-third-quarter-final-revision-shows.html
---
President Obama signs repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell'
---
The Obama Recovery: 1.5 million jobs in 12 month.
* 
---
President Obama signs 'America Invents'
patent reform act into law
---
US strike kills American al-Qaida cleric in Yemen
--
US kills
Osama bin Laden
http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20110502/US.Bin.Laden/
--
To be continued...
Response
from President Obama to
our letters...
Thank you for
writing me. Each day, I
hear from
concerned Americans who
are struggling in this
economy.
Their stories encourage
me to work harder to
ensure all
Americans can find good
jobs so they can support
their
families and their
communities.
Below are just a
few of the actions we
are taking to
help hard-working
American families get
through these
tough economic times:
CREATING JOBS AND
GROWING OUR ECONOMY
My Administration
has taken critical steps
to get us
back on our feet. Our
economy is growing
again, and last
year's flood of job
losses has slowed
considerably. These
are good signs for our
future, yet they are
little comfort to
those who are out of
work or struggling to
keep their home.
We are working
tirelessly to push our
recovery forward and
promote economic growth,
accountability, and
transparency. To follow
developments and track
local
projects, visit
www.WhiteHouse.gov/issues/economy
and
www.Recovery.gov.
IMPLEMENTING TOUGH WALL
STREET REFORM
For too long, Wall
Street firms were not
held
accountable, financial
dealings were not
transparent,
consumers and
shareholders were not
given enough
information and
authority to make
decisions, and
Government did not have
the appropriate tools to
close
down failing financial
firms without bailing
them out. That
is why I went to Wall
Street before this
crisis hit and called
for common-sense reforms
to protect Americans and
our
economy, and that is why
I am proud to have
signed into
law the most
comprehensive package of
financial reforms
in decades, including
the strongest consumer
protections in
our Nation's history.
Wall Street reform
brings greater security
to
hardworking people on
Main Street--from
families looking
to buy their first home
or send their kids to
college; to small
businesses, community
banks, and credit unions
who play
by the rules; to
shareholders and
investors who want to
see
their companies grow and
thrive. By cracking
down on
abusive and deceptive
practices, these reforms
ensure that
Americans are not
unwittingly caught by
overdraft fees or
unfair rate hikes, that
students who take out
loans have
clear information, and
that lenders do not
cheat the system.
It also gives Americans
free access to their
credit score if
they are denied a loan
or insurance--or given a
higher
interest rate--because
of that score.
Because of these
reforms, the American
people will
never again be asked to
foot the bill for the
excessive risk-
taking of some on Wall
Street. There will be
no more
taxpayer-funded
bailouts. By laying a
foundation for a
stronger, safer
financial system that is
innovative and
competitive, our Nation
will reach a more secure
and
prosperous future. To
learn more about how
financial
reform affects you,
please visit:
www.FinancialStability.gov.
ENDING CREDIT CARD
COMPANY ABUSES
My Administration
is also working to help
Americans who have had
their credit lines
reduced or
interest rates increased
without clear
justification. Last
year, I partnered with
Congress to pass the
Credit Card
Accountability,
Responsibility, and
Disclosure (CARD)
Act. This landmark law
took effect in February,
and
promotes greater
fairness, transparency,
and accountability
in credit card
practices. It requires
companies to inform
credit card holders of
payment timetables and
accrued
interest, and it ends
retroactive rate hikes
and sudden
changes to terms and
conditions. To read
more about
CARD and how it affects
you, visit
www.WhiteHouse.gov/the_press_office/Fact-Sheet-
Reforms-to-Protect-American-Credit-Card-Holders
and
www.WhiteHouse.gov/issues/economy.
These reforms will
have a tangible impact
on the
ability of American
families and businesses
to achieve their
goals. For information
on credit and consumer
protections,
please visit
www.hud.gov/foreclosure
or call 1-888-
MYMONEY.
ASSISTING HOMEOWNERS
Many Americans are
also struggling to stay
in their
homes. Access to the
American dream is being
tested by a
mortgage crisis that
threatens the stability
of families,
neighborhoods, and our
entire economy. While
many
Americans have received
help, far too many are
still unable
to refinance their
mortgages or obtain loan
modifications.
This crisis has not only
hurt home values
nationwide, it has
also had a dramatic
effect on the credit
Americans need to
purchase cars, pay
college tuition, and
grow small
businesses.
For assistance with
a home foreclosure or to
find a
local housing counselor,
I encourage you to call
your
mortgage servicer
directly, speak with a
housing specialist
at 1-888-995-HOPE, or
contact the Department
of Housing
and Urban Development at
1-800-569-4287. You can
also
visit
www.hud.gov/foreclosure
or
MakingHomeAffordable.gov.
HELPING STRUGGLING
FAMILIES
As our economy
recovers, we must
continue to help
those who are losing
their jobs and
struggling to pay their
bills. Every day, I
meet with my economic
advisors to
make sure we are doing
all we can to create
good jobs and
help Americans support
their families and
pursue the
American dream.
My Administration
is helping Americans
return to
work by emphasizing job
training in industries
that cannot
be outsourced. Recently
laid-off workers
receiving
unemployment benefits
have new opportunities
to pursue
higher education and job
training programs,
including
easier access to Pell
Grants. To encourage
job creation in
the United States, I am
replacing tax laws that
send jobs
overseas with new
incentives to create
them here at home.
Available assistance can
be found online at
www.dol.gov/recovery/implement.htm
or
www.Opportunity.gov.
Together, we can
help more Americans find
and
keep good jobs and enjoy
a healthy standard of
living. To
locate an employment
center near you, select
your state at:
http://www.dol.gov/dol/location.htm.
For information on
benefits and
opportunities for those
out of work, I
encourage you to visit:
http://www.dol.gov/dol/audience/aud-unemployed.htm.
To
find career resources,
you may call
1-877-872-5627 or
visit: www.careeronestop.org.
While it will take
time to turn our economy
around,
I am confident we will
emerge from this crisis
stronger than
before. For more
information on jobs,
health benefits,
housing assistance, and
other public resources
call 1-800-
FEDINFO or visit: www.usa.gov.
Thank you again for
writing.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
---
Response
from Vice President
Biden to
our letters...
