EDITORIAL: Trump administration’s swift action on storm designation appreciated

All other Washington controversies aside, we must say this about the Trump administration — its response to South Georgia has been exemplary.

On Thursday, Dougherty County — along with Berrien, Cook, Crisp, Turner and Wilcox counties — was approved for individual federal assistance for damages from the tornadoes, severe storms and straight-line winds that killed 15 people and devastated the region … only two days after Gov. Nathan Deal made the request.

Thursday afternoon, FEMA officials were already going door-to-door in storm-ravaged parts of Albany and Dougherty County, attempting to reach the storm victims and help them preregister for federal assistance.

On Wednesday, Dougherty County was approved for individual assistance as well for damages from the Jan. 2 line of storms that blasted other parts of the community. That designation came 15 days after Deal made the request for it on Jan. 10.

Earlier this week, we called on President Trump to live up to his billing as a man of action who will cut through bureaucracy. On this point, we find him to have been a man of his word. As with every other president who has occupied the Oval Office, we will find things to disagree with Trump on and others that we’ll agree with. On the promise to get things done, however, we found that to be the case in communities in which Americans have been hurting from loss of life and loss of property from forces we cannot hope to overcome, only survive.

While political rancor has been voluminous over the last few years — something we have bemoaned — it should be pointed out that this administration, put into office by the so-called Red States, has taken these two swift actions this week for a county that is about as Blue as you can get in Georgia. On election day last November, Democrat Hillary Clinton carried Dougherty County with more than 68.5 percent of the votes cast in the presidential election.

This FEMA designation was needed and still is needed in many of our neighboring counties. Worth County suffered tornado damage in the same area in both the Jan. 2 and last week’s storms. Mitchell and Baker counties were hit hard both times. They, and seven other counties — Atkinson, Brooks, Calhoun, Clay, Colquitt, Lowndes and Thomas — also sustained damage from this last round of devastating weather, and we hope their designations for federal assistance also will come through quickly.

It’s good to see that even in a nation as polarized as the United States is right now, when it comes down to rallying to the aid of those who are suffering by giving them a helping hand, the governor of Georgia and the president ignore the politics and go the extra mile to do the right thing. Such actions, regardless of your political leanings, should be applauded.