North Dakotans "whinier" than most, it turns out

For some time now, there has been an offensive email circulating about how the people of North Dakota, unlike the whiners and brats on the Gulf Coast, took care of themselves expertly after a giant blizzard, with no help from FEMA or any branch of the federal government. The email was ciruclated as part of a campaign to discredit Gulf Coast residents as inept crybabies who could do nothing but beg, complain, and loot when faced with a natural disaster.

Well, it turns out that--using the email's own criteria--the real crybabies are North Dakotans. In an editorial in today's Times-Picayune, Mark Folse explains:

In reality, North Dakota didn't hesitate to belly up to the federal trough for aid after their ice storm, as they've done every single year for the last decade. North Dakota is tied with Louisiana, Texas and Ohio for ninth place among states with the most major federal disaster declarations.

In fact, North Dakota has the longest streak of consecutive major disaster declarations of any state in the Union, receiving $711 million in federal disaster assistance in the last decade.

Please pass this information along the next time you hear about how the stoic citizens of North Dakota built the storm-proof cabins in which they were born.