Afghan evacuee footprint at US military base: Trash, food shortages, and no hotel rooms
by Tori Richards, Investigative Reporter |
| January 29, 2022 05:45 AM
Is the federal government comparable to a tenant trashing a bed-and-breakfast on the way out?
After five months, the final Afghan refugees at Fort McCoy, an Army base in Monroe County, Wisconsin, are leaving to start new lives throughout the United States. Residents seek a return to normal after the Biden administration housed 12,600 refugees at the base and brought in 1,500 government workers to care for them — almost one-quarter of the entire county's population.
This resulted in large amounts of trash, empty store shelves, restaurants without food, and few spare beds in hospitals and hotels. The costs borne by the county equal at least $1 million, officials said.
“We are more than ready — ready to have our motel rooms back, our hospitals back, and our doctors and dentists,” said Wally Habhegger, vice chairman of the Monroe County Board of Supervisors. “Literally what they did is drop an entire city on us. And they expected us to absorb the infrastructure.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/afghan-evacuee-footprint-at-us-military-base-trash-food-shortages-and-no-hotel-rooms
