I suppose we all knew this was coming. Disaster has struck the South in the form of an ice storm which has shut down power and most all infrastructure and services, leaving many residents of Kentucky in dire straits.

MARION, Ky. – In some parts of rural Kentucky, they’re getting water the old-fashioned way — with pails from a creek. There’s not room for one more sleeping bag on the shelter floor. The creative are flushing their toilets with melted snow.

At least 42 people have died, including 11 in Kentucky, and conditions are worsening in many places days after an ice storm knocked out power to 1.3 million customers from the Plains to the East Coast. About a million people were still without electric Friday, and with no hope that the lights will come back on soon, small communities are frantically struggling to help their residents.

Unfortunately, it seems that FEMA hasn’t answered the call in a satisfactory fashion, bringing up images of Hurricane Katrina in the minds of some observers.

Local officials were growing angry with what they said was a lack of help from the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In Grayson County, about 80 miles southwest of Louisville, Emergency Management Director Randell Smith said the 25 National Guardsmen who have responded have no chain saws to clear fallen trees.

“We’ve got people out in some areas we haven’t even visited yet,” Smith said. “We don’t even know that they’re alive.”

Smith said FEMA has been a no-show so far.

Given the nature of many Democrats’ response to George W. Bush and “heckofajob Brownie” following Katrina, we shouldn’t be surprised that observers from the political right are now pointing out the very different response to this crisis among the chattering class.

I guess what with Kentucky being a red state the heartless Barack Obama and FEMA can’t be bothered helping the suffering Americans trying to cope with a massive ice storm that has left them powerless.

Can you imagine the media reaction if this were George W. Bush? Heck, we’re still hearing about Hurricane Katrina nearly four years later.

I think the point being made here isn’t that anyone seriously believes President Obama is looking to exterminate White Republicans, but rather two more salient questions:

1. Where is the matching outraged response we saw after Katrina in the press?
2. Where is FEMA? This certainly looks like a disaster which should be right up their alley.

Stay tuned. And give some thoughts and prayers for those locked out in the cold in Kentucky.