History is currently repeating itself in the flooded areas of the Midwest.

The creation of the Dept. of Homeland Security has essentially tied all police and government agencies into one huge enforcement jurisdiction. FEMA, et. al., are not deployed to protect you or your property, as you will see from the reports below. You and your circle of family and friends are your most trustworthy allies in emergencies. When uniforms and guns are issued to ordinary family members, and these normally law-abiding, caring people are given a mission by the government, a significant percentage will become transformed into ruthless, mindless, dangerous people.

The largest natural disaster ever recorded in the history of the United States was hurricane Andrew, which struck South Dade County, Florida, August 24, 1992 (the same time period that the standoff between the Weaver family and federal authorities was underway at Ruby Ridge).

Contrary to what the American news media broadcast, the outer wall of the hurricane unexpectedly slammed into South Dade, packing 214+ mph winds which quickly escalated to 350+ mph. Most of the 414,151 residents living in the danger zone were asleep when the outer wall struck. Thousands of them lost their lives, for no one in South Dade had been evacuated or even advised to evacuate. Instead, residents had been repeatedly informed by local news media that South Dade should expect "50 mph winds."

By 11 a.m. the following morning, 8,230 mobile homes along with 9,140 apartments had vanished off the face of the Earth. The Hiroshima-like horror was beyond catastrophic. How do I know? I was in the midst of it all.

Our tiny pre-fab apartment, which was nothing more than a glorified mobile home, had been constructed to withstand maximum wind speeds of 90 mph.

Ask any survivor of Andrew what the six-and-a-half-hour siege was like and the answer will always be the same. "We didn’t have any prior warning."

This is the same description given by survivors of monstrous F-5 tornadoes (packing winds of 350+ mph)—the only difference being that tornadoes strike for just seconds, whereas hurricane Andrew struck and stayed for hours on end.

I was only one of thousands of severely injured victims who struggled to survive the aftermath. For 10 long days we were roped off from the outside world by United States military forces, leaving us stranded with no food, no water, no medical supplies, no shelter. Suffering from severe shell-shock, we waited for rescue teams to arrive, but that just never happened. None of the injured in the roped-off areas were ever rescued from the devastation.

Fighting mental shock became such a big problem for the body pick-up teams that a special group of psychiatrists had to be brought in to help them cope with it

The total number who died during Hurricane Andrew is obviously staggering, yet whenever the "official death toll" is mentioned in the media, a ridiculous figure of anywhere between 15 and 59 is quoted. Again, the population of the 21 communities annihilated by Andrew’s eye-wall had been officially recorded by the Dade County Census Bureau as 415,151 before Andrew struck. How many really died?

Bodies of human beings were disposed of like rubbish as if their lives had no more worth or meaning than a piece of litter. And then a cover-up was dutifully carried out by armed military forces.

What actually did take place when Andrew survivors tried to get help from those collecting dead bodies in the aftermath? Well, I can give a first-hand account.

About the third day into the aftermath, a long line of police cars cautiously drove into my area during the late afternoon. We had not had contact with any other people from outside the devastation up until this point. There were approximately 12 to 15 police cars comprising this caravan. Each car was driven by a man dressed in a dark police uniform and had three other plain-clothed men riding as passengers.

Someone from our group spotted the caravan and ran to get me, knowing that I had been badly injured and urgently needed emergency medical help. My twenty-five-year-old son and one other adult male survivor helped escort me to the caravan. It stopped moving when we approached the cars. The officer sitting behind the wheel rolled down the window. For a few moments he rudely ignored us.

This is the exact conversation and course of events that took place.

"Please, sir, I need medical help," I begged, barely able to speak.

"Do me a favor," he answered. "Find yourself a piece of paper and a pencil. Write down your name and social security number next to the telephone number of your nearest living relative. Tuck the piece of paper in your pocket so tomorrow, when I find your body, I’ll know who to contact."

"No! No!" I cried out. "You don’t understand. I need to get to a hospital. I’ve been badly injured."

"No! You’re the one who doesn’t understand," he hissed back.

It is curious how the United States Government evacuated Homestead Air Force Base just before hurricane Andrew struck, yet never released the information to the civilians of South Dade.

We learned a lot about federal disaster response policy in the months after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August, 2005. The stories of how neighbors were prevented from helping one another while contract civilian and military disaster responders raped, pillaged and plundered the devastated people of the storm-stricken area are endless. The "authorities" broke down doors of homes that were unaffected by the flooding and confiscated weapons and stole whatever else they wanted. Supplies that came flooding into the region from all over the world to help feed, clothe and shelter the people of New Orleans never made it to those in need; it was either piled up undistributed or stolen.

And then tens of thousands of New Orleans’ poorest and most disenfranchised were herded into the SuperDome and locked up for several days without food or water. The federal disaster response was so discompassionate, it wouldn’t even arrrange a water truck for these people.

On June 4, 2008, severe thunderstorms began in the upper midwest. Tornadoes, lightening, torrential hail and rainfall caused widespread crop damage in the region. Resultant flash flooding in low lying areas the following day have spread to include millions of acres in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota and Wisconsin and continue to spread.

While the corporate media is reporting the damage and taking pictures of flooded fields, flooded neighborhoods, flooded cities and how the floods are already causing food prices to increase, it is not reporting the martial authority under which the federal government is managing this growing disaster.

In fact, the corporate media is reporting this event as if it were receiving all its information from the White House. "President Bush pledged housing help and other federal aid to victims of the Midwest storms...he said the government was providing a variety of aid including 2 million liters of drinking water for people in Iowa..." reported FOX News (the feds still haven’t learned how to fill a water truck).

News from the flood-ravaged region is tightly controlled for reasons that will become apparent after-the-fact—just like they have for Andrew and Katrina. Following is one excerpted report from Paul Joseph Watson of Prison Planet:

Shocking footage out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, shows cops and government employee "strike teams" breaking into houses of flood victims and threatening anyone who questions their actions in complete violation of the 4th Amendment right that protects against unlawful search and seizure.

No warrant, no knock home invasions are being carried out on the flimsy pretext of "checking for structural damage" as cops harass and threaten with arrest people who refuse to have their homes ransacked by thugs in uniforms.

Cedar Rapids police chief Greg Graham promised residents over the weekend that "Law enforcement officers are not entering homes," and that firefighters would only enter homes through unlocked doors and windows yet the video clearly shows locked houses being broken into.

People who attempt to gain access to their home before it has been "cleared" by authorities are being apprehended and those who attempt to drive around police checkpoints that have been set up in the affected areas are arrested at gunpoint.

"Each strike team consisted of six or seven people, including police, firefighters, utilities workers, and city employees," reports the Iowa Gazette.

After kicking in the front door of an undamaged home Police Officer Josh Bell had a heated exchange with homeowner Steve Delaloye and told him that if he didn’t go back inside his house and stop harassing the strike team, he would be escorted out of the area. Delaloye was visibly agitated about his broken door and pointed at Bell. "It’s just wrong," he said, over and over.

So people who are uncomfortable with jackbooted thugs breaking down their door without even knocking and express their distaste for it are to blame for "harassing the strike team?"

Respondents to the You Tube clip and the newspaper article expressed their outrage at the behavior of those in the video tasked with "helping" flood-stricken people yet doing nothing more than intimidating and invading their homes.

Another Iowa resident expressed her anger that authorities will not let her re-enter her home. "I understand the houses can be unsafe. Just let me at least see my house, so that I can assess if it hit my top floor. I have pictures and memories on my top floor of my deceased mother, all I want to do is rescue those," she wrote.

As we reported in 2005, Hurricane Katrina was exploited by the federal government and used as a martial law drill while victims were abused and treated like rats in a laboratory.

In New Orleans, following Hurricane Katrina, door to door gun confiscations were ordered and cops ransacked homes and took weapons from multi-million dollar homes which were in the high and dry areas and completely unaffected by the hurricane. In some cases, residents were kicked out of their own homes for no reason.

From where does the government derive the authority [lawful or moral], on the flimsiest of pretexts, to break into people’s homes when their lives have already been devastated by massive floods?

The 4th Amendment states, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Even if there was a legitimate reason to inspect homes, why on earth do they not even bother to knock on the door?

Cops break in or climb through windows uninvited because this procedure is all about sending this message: When a crisis unfolds we are the bosses and you—the peasants—will yield to our authority.