Mich. National Guard Deployed to Aid Flint’s Water Crisis

Rick Snyder has activated the state’s National Guard to help with the ongoing crisis in Flint, Mich., resulting from elevated lead levels in the city’s water. Lead exposure can impair both mental and physical development in children, sometimes causing “profound and permanent adverse health effects”, according to the World Health Organization.

On the evening of December 14, 2015, the mayor of Flint, Michigan declared a state of emergency.

Flint’s water has been contaminated since the city switched its water supply source in 2014, but Snyder didn’t declare a state of emergency until last week, when blood tests found 43 children with elevated lead levels.

Following up on the crisis in Flint, Mich., which we’ve been following closely, the Detroit Free Press reports that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) activated the National Guard last night.

The lawsuit alleged those complicit in the crisis imposed “serious personal injury” by exposing residents to “the extreme toxicity of water pumped from the Flint River into their homes, schools, hospitals, workplaces and public places”.

There’s disturbing, there’s insane, there’s outrageous, and then comes the sort of terminology which can not be used on a family-friendly news and information website – even though we all know your kids have been using these words (and worse) for years now.

Fallout from the Flint water crisis is mostly responsible. It is important to remember that this crisis was created by a state-appointed emergency financial manager, and it is the state’s ultimate responsibility to act and make it right. Government officials did not start handing out bottled water until several days after the governor first declared a state of emergency.

“There’s no delay, this is the normal process”, Snyder said.

During the late spring or early summer, “I asked the DEQ to come to the City of Flint to do the testing themselves and they refused”, Overton said. Had there been democratic input, it’s likely state officials would have been reminded of a report the city commissioned in 2011 on the suitability of the Flint River as a long-term water source. Art Van Furniture delivery trucks will transport the collected water to Flint weekly as long as the need exists.

“It is unconscionable that some residents would try to take advantage of others coping with this water situation”, Tolbert said. Residents immediately complained about the taste, odor and discoloration.

By July 2015, the governor’s office still did nothing substantial to deliver safe drinking water to the citizens in the city.

Weaver said the city also needs federal assistance “to cope with this man-made water disaster”.

“We plan to go every day this week, and we’ll continue until everyone has safe drinking water”, state police Lt. Dave Kaiser told the Associated Press.