The Daily Mail, one of the biggest newspapers in western civilization, roasted Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) on Thursday for making false claims about warnings provided to her administration by the National Weather Service in advance of a devastating Dec. 18 wind storm.
“Maine’s Democrat Governor Janet Mills is branded a LIAR by the National Weather Service after she claimed they didn’t warn her historic storm would bring up to six inches of rain,” screamed the Mail’s headline.
“Maine‘s Democrat Governor Janet Mills has been branded a liar by the National Weather Service after claiming its forecasters didn’t warn her about a historic storm,” wrote reporter Sophie Mann.
The storm left more than half of Maine without electricity, yet Mills made no public appearance until more than 36 hours after the power outages began.
The Maine Wire has filed a public records request with the Governor’s Office seeking her official schedule for the time period surrounding the NWS forecast, the storm, and her response.
From the Mail:
The esteemed federal agency lashed Mills after she was slammed for failing to adequately warn locals that up to half a foot of rain would fall on December 18, causing huge floods and leaving 400,000 without power.
Mills put her foot in it last Wednesday while touring flood-battered Kennebec County, saying: ‘The National Weather Service did not predict five or six inches of rain in any community in Maine.’
But a NWS spokesman said the 75 year-old lawmaker was talking nonsense, insisting state and local officials had been briefed about the impending inundation on December 15.
And on Sunday the 17th – the day before the storm – the weather service met with state officials to further brief them on expected flooding, winds, and impact to the state’s coast line.
