In April, as many as 30 tornadoes whipped through Virginia, killing 10 people and destroying or damaging about 1,000 homes. Hit hard were Gloucester and Middlesex counties near Chesapeake Bay as well as Halifax, Pulaski and Washington Counties in Southside or in the west.

McDonnell sought emergency relief from FEMA for Halifax, Pulaski and Washington and possibly for other locations. In their wisdom, FEMA bureaucrats told McDonnell that his request was denied because relief “was not beyond the combined capabilities of the commonwealth, affected local governments and voluntary agencies.”

A few weeks ago, I happened to be driving on my way to a business meeting in Tennessee. I was on Interstate 81 a few miles east of Abingdon in Washington County. Suddenly, the rolling landscape took on the appearance of a combat zone. On either side of the highway, just about every tree was cut down. Roofs were missing on homes. Marquee signs on businesses were shattered. I’m no expert, but it certainly looked serious to me.

A couple of days later, after my meeting, I was heading to my cousin’s home near Chattanooga. He and his wife live on a small farm east of the city which was hit by as many as 60 tornadoes in the same outbreak of storms. An F-4 ripped through about a half a mile from his house and I drove the through a badly damaged area on my way there. It looked an awful lot like Washington County.

People in his area are going to get $1 million in FEMA assistance, while Virginia gets nothing.

Why is that? The obvious answer could be that the Obama Administration is punishing McDonnell, a Republican, for being part of the team that is complaining so loudly about federal spending. Specifically, the GOP wants to cut or cripple federal agencies that deal with weather-related crises.

None other than Henrico’s own Eric Cantor, Republican House Majority Leader, has called for federal emergency spending to be tied to other budget cuts. “If there is support for supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental,” he has said. Translated, this gobbledygook means no dough if no cuts somewhere else.

Republicans also want to cut funding or end the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which also is in the weather business by running the National Hurricane Center. It keeps track of storms that also can seriously impact the Old Dominion.

To be sure, FEMA got a major black eye with its botched handling of the Katrina devastation of New Orleans during the Bush Administration. (Remember Bush-appointee “Blackie, I’m proud of you”?). Reforms were needed.

But the Obama people are dead wrong if they are hurting ordinary Virginians just to get some political pay back. In this case, McDonnell has every right to be angry.

Peter Galuszka