Small Towns are Being Destroyed by the Unnecessary Lockdowns

The United States Conference of Mayors has a growing database of fiscal impacts in 170 cities. Santa Monica, California, for example, is eliminating 337 staff positions, and Oakland Park, Florida, has announced that all city employees, including first responders, must take one day off every two weeks without pay.

That list is far from complete. It doesn’t include Midland, Michigan, where 28% of city workers were furloughed or faced reduced work hours last month. Midland is now the epicenter of a massive flood that forced 10,000 people to evacuate after heavy rainfall and two collapsed dams sent the Tittabawassee River to record levels.

Noah Ponte, an out-of-work hotel manager in Detroit who grew up in Midland, drove into town last Tuesday night to help with volunteer efforts. He and other volunteers created Google forms to match people offering housing, food and clothing assistance with evacuees who need it. “We really can’t catch a break right now,” Ponte said.

The storm is consistent with climate models that predict increasing rainfall for the Midwest. It’s an example of the cascading catastrophes experts have warned about, as weather and climate-related disasters pile on top of the coronavirus.

Communities face a “three-front war: it’s the pandemic, other natural disasters, and the revenue,” said Colin Wellenkamp, executive director of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, which represents 96 communities along the river. (Read more from “Unnecessary Lockdowns” HERE)