So sad, seeing how the scattered people in Katrina's wake try to put thier lives back together.
I'm sure all of us understood that the hotels FEMA paid for were only a temporary home for refuges, but given the amount of rebuilding to be done in these peoples lives, it seems a little early to be turning them out. Some refuges were able to request an extension until March 1st. Others, would not or could not.
First thought. "WHAT?! How DARE they blame the refuges for failing to navigate the beaurocracy?!"
Second thought, after thinking it through more. FEMA says that many refuges avoided them or refused to apply for an extension. Why would that be? It all comes back to the fundamental problems with our societies treatment of the poor, and the lack of trust in our government. Many of these refuges have little reason to deal with the government.
There's still soreness from the response to Katrina at ALL levels of the government, local, state, and national. Also, not everyone in urban area's is totally square with the government. Perhaps they don't have social security numbers, or are struggling just to stay alive and have not been completely honest on their taxes.
Either way, all they need is for one government employee to add 2 and 2, and they'll be in worse trouble than before. So of course they would avoid lots of paperwork attracting attention to them.
Also, so many refuges are not registered with FEMA. All of the chaos and the devastation took us very much by surprise, and we were not and ARE not equipped to deal with it. This is only aggravated by the mistrust towards the government. Their homes have been completely destroyed, and they have lost any equity on them, or they rented and thus do not get enough reimbursement. There is simply no where for them to go.
So I can see why this might have happened, although I wish that there were more we could do to help rebuild. Much more of Bush's attention needs to be focused on this situation. Perhaps by allowing tax breaks to company's who house refuges or provide job stability for refuges, we can help these people get back on their feet or we can encourage businesses to rebuild New Orleans with tax incentives.
Democrats need to lead the fight for New Orleans and our devastated lower classes. If they don't, no one will until its too late and these problems have festered beyond saving.
Though by now you may have guessed that I am utterly disappointed in President Bush and his response to Katrina, I also must be honest and say that this appears to be something that is not his fault. THERE! I said it!(yuck!)
I guess, we just have to wait and see what happens next. People are still having hard time rebuilding their lives. The government should step in more effciently. If Bush can improve to make the system (FEMA) run more smoothly, things would have been much better, dont you think so?
ShockerBlazer
Improvements would be nice. I fear that there isn't a way to repair some of the damage done by the mistakes. But there's no point looking back unless its to make a change.
Reform would be nice eh?
Living down here in south Louisiana I can tell you that it's a mess. There is no plan to follow, no precedent to look at. There have been quite a few plans presented, but most of them are unrealistic. Many of them include improving the city infrastructure by using land that most people think will be largely abandoned. Inserting parks, speed-rails (or whatever they're called), wider roads, or just more public space to improve the city all involve taking what was once someone's private property. The question always arises, whose property you're going to take? Many of the people who left New Orleans aren't coming back, and around 1000 people also died, but no matter where you try to place these projects, imminent domain will have to be used as there will always be people who don't want to give up their property. If you want to get a headache, try thinking about ways to find everyone who has left New Orleans and have no intentions of coming back.
Imminent domain will ALWAYS be used, regardless of whether the wish is to build a car plant or a speedway. As uses of it go, this is one of the most beneficial ones. Public records would indicate who the land belonged to. FEMA could look at its records and attempt to find them, if the admitted they weren't coming back, an offer would be made for the land. If they said they were, then you would look into imminent domain. If you could not find them, set a point of time for them to provide some proof of intentions to return, or interest in owning the property and if they do not respond of their own free will, the land would become the governments to help improve the infrastructure. The biggest difficulty is providing money for the purchase and developement of land. Either way New Orleans is too great a piece of our culture to just give up.
What, Me Worry? Kitty Genovese and Katrina
There is so much to understand about inhumanity. Your voices are needed. If a surprise, here's just one of may eyewitness accounts, written just two months ago:
"Walk on by" might apply to the media and political focus on the ongoing horror that's occurring for the survivors and victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Over 200,000 lives are at risk and little attention is paid to them. Time is running out.
In 1964, 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was brutally stabbed while 38 New York City residents in nearby buildings watched and did nothing to save her. Social psychologists have used this horrible scenario as a metaphor for passive crowd behavior, i.e., the amazing situation where people will essentially ignore something awful happening to fellow human beings nearby.
The same behavior applies on a much larger scale sociologically. Whether it involves politicians, the news media, or entertainment, the tragedies society responds to are few and far between. Noticeable exceptions are Pearl Harbor and the tragedy of 9/11. Those rattled our American cage, and across the board there arose a demand for a reckoning, patriotism surged, and cost was not an obstacle.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit and for a solid month, the news media, politicians, and entertainment personalities demonstrated great concern for the victims of these natural and man-made disasters. Then, as suddenly as it started, the attention drifted away. After all, New Orleans was rebuilding. On to Stan, Wilma, Pakistan, the musical chairs of the Supreme Court, the beleagered Bush Administration, and the debate on Iraq. In entertainment, we're back to reality shows, the World Series came and went, and now the NFL season is in full swing. It's all good.
However, except for gas price gouging, buried deep in newspapers and off the main page of news websites, the horror of Katrina and Rita only grows. The bureaucratic barriers are nothing short of despicable. In the next two months, FEMA will evict over 150,000 Katrina/Rita survivors from hotel rooms they were allowed to stay-in. Maybe on some economic surface that makes sense, but there's no difference between the situation now than after the hurricanes hit. These citizens have no homes to return to; mud and oil (from the second worst oil disaster to Valdez) saturate the remnants of their homes. They have no records, tax documents, bank statements, clothes, pictures, appliances, tools, etc. What are these people supposed to do? It's well known that tens of thousands of victim/survivors have roamed the northeastern area above New Orleans and southeastern region of Mississippi without housing since the disaster struck nearly three months ago. Perhaps the evicted can join them and have a giant scavenger hunt.
For the past two months, Fannie Mae offered 1,800 homes rent-free for 18-months, thousands of mobile homes were ready for placement in the New Orleans area, and an on a much smaller scale, a friend of mine prepared a 225,000 square foot facility to house and re-integrate survivors into new communities (Greenville, Mississippi). This week under intense pressure, FEMA finally agreed to 1,500 homes in Fannie Mae's offer. Other options haven't been acted on, because of "negotiation challenges." 200,000 people are awaiting eviction or roaming the countryside. What could possibly be the "negotiation challenge" priority that overrides theirs?
New Orleans was the most racially impacted city in the united states in terms of the disparity of income, education, and privledge. We have been reassured that the absence of disaster relief has nothing to do with race or class, like black people in lower socioeconomic levels, the vast majority of New Orleans and gulf coast residents hammered by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and the predicted levee failures. In addition, pigs fly upside down. If this horror was happening in the Hamptons, Beverly Hills, Cherry-Hills, New York's upper east side, Honolulu, etc, would the response be the same? Would the nation's attention dissolve and tens of thousands' life-critical necessities be so simply pushed aside?
Disaster relief workers know. If you would just take a couple hours and look through "blogs" and postings from volunteers and relief workers on their experiences in the gulf region, their impressions, you'd find thousands of statements about the lack of relief that's truly being offered. I was a disaster relief volunteer in the poorest region of Mississippi, written about in Newsweek: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9729481/site/newsweek/. The first, best, honest media article appeared in the Washington Post "Night and Day in New Orleans". It touches the tip of an iceburg. American citizens on our own soil need our help, our advocacy, and our intolerance of media/political avoidance and denial. Katrina and Rita should not become America's next sociological version of Kitty Genovese.
Good luck Robert and all the victims. We're trying our best to help you and all of us. There is so much going on and part of it is deliberate on the Rovian's part. We're trying to help you too--no matter what the media is doing.
new info:
here
from the democracy cell project
Posted by: wild salmon at February 11, 2006 01:55 AM
It may not be popular or well-administrated, but FEMA is not doing anything illegal by ending the hotel program for those who did not file for extensions.
1. Stafford Act says 18 months is the maximum, not the minimum.
2. No requirements on location of temp housing.
Here are the relevant parts (with some words omitted...Google "Stafford Act" to see in full...apologize, it's long):
SEC. 408.
The President, in consultation with the Governor of a State, may provide financial assistance, and, if necessary, services, to individuals and households in the State who, as a direct result of a major disaster, have necessary expenses and serious needs in cases in which the individuals and households are unable to meet such expenses or needs through other means.
Housing Assistance.-
Eligibility.--The President may provide financial or other assistance under this section to individuals and households to respond to the disaster-related housing needs of individuals and households who are displaced from their predisaster primary residences or whose predisaster primary residences are rendered uninhabitable as a result of damage caused by a major disaster.
Determination of appropriate types of assistance.-
In general.--The President shall determine appropriate types of housing assistance to be provided under this section to individuals and households described in subsection (a)(1) based on considerations of cost effectiveness, convenience to the individuals and households, and such other factors as the President may consider appropriate.
Multiple types of assistance.--One or more types of housing assistance may be made available under this section, based on the suitability and availability of the types of assistance, to meet the needs of individuals and households in the particular disaster situation.
In general.--The President may provide financial assistance to individuals or households to rent alternate housing accommodations, existing rental units, housing, recreational vehicles, or other readily fabricated dwellings.
Direct assistance.-
In general.--The President may provide temporary housing units, acquired by purchase or lease, directly to individuals or households who, because of a lack of available housing resources, would be unable to make use of the assistance provided under subparagraph (A).
Period of assistance.--The President may not provide direct assistance under clause (i) with respect to a major disaster after the end of the 18-month period beginning on the date of the declaration of the major disaster by the President, except that the President may extend that period if the President determines that due to extraordinary circumstances an extension would be in the public interest.
Collection of rental charges.-- the end of the 18-month period referred to in clause (ii), the President may charge fair market rent for each temporary housing unit provided.
Sites.-
In general.--Any readily fabricated dwelling provided under this section shall, whenever practicable, be located on a site that-
is complete with utilities; and
is provided by the State or local government, by the owner of the site, or by the occupant who was displaced by the major disaster.
Sites provided by the president.--A readily fabricated dwelling may be located on a site provided by the President if the President determines that such a site would be more economical or accessible.
State Role.-
Grant to state.--Subject to subsection (g), a Governor may request a grant from the President to provide financial assistance to individuals and households in the State under subsection (e).
Maximum Amount of Assistance.-
In general.--No individual or household shall receive financial assistance greater than $25,000 under this section with respect to a single major disaster.
Adjustment of limit.--The limit established under paragraph (1) shall be adjusted annually to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers published by the Department of Labor.
Posted by: Veritas at February 11, 2006 08:49 AM
IMO--sometimes the law just is so blatently cold it sucks!
Katrina and Rita Hurricanes: The Real Fraud is Hiding From America
I love the United States of America. I have since I began life here, 53-years ago in Colorado as a fourth generation American. I’ve taken her for granted in many ways, especially in critical thinking. I believe in the framework of our Constitution and still do.
What I no longer believe in is the perversion of the Constitution by way of wealth, whether individuals, corporations, or the religious. The owners of our political and news systems are wealthy, very, very wealthy.
Politics is an ugly game of disguise, smoke screens, covering, and bait and switch. No one talks honestly or openly. Behind what they're talking about is financial influence; how that power is leveraged. Heck, I love money. I'd love to have a ton of it. You do, too, whether you do, are getting along well, or even if you don’t. Greed trumps meaning and integrity across many issues today. One of them surrounds the games in play regarding the hurricanes of August and September in the South.
I’m not someone with an axe to grind. I could care less if the government comes out smelling like a rose or a pile of mushroom fertilizer. I don’t care about Mike Brown, the FBI, whether George Bush is viewed as a great president, an idiot, a manipulator, a conservative-Christian soldier, or an American hero. I’m no one, just like you; a nameless, powerless (beyond my own life) individual who rides along in America.
I happen to be a professional, a lucky break by way of my father becoming a professor after living in poverty in the early 1900’s. When the hurricane Katrina disaster hit, I received an e-mail out of nowhere, asking mental health professionals to volunteer. I am a psychologist by training, although I’ve worked as an executive for several years in behavioral healthcare. I don’t have some big ego about it. I’m just someone whose work and education went this way. Mainly, I’m a Dad, a husband, a sports fanatic, still love rock-and-roll, a quiet about it Christian, an action movie follower, a lousy shopper, lazy around the house kind of guy. I’m nothing special in my mind or in some form of grandiosity. Anyway, this horrific catastrophe pushed me into going. I'd never done anything like it before.
I went to Mississippi, 90-miles above New Orleans. I was in hurricane Rita, having the crap scared out of me. The whole thing was mind-boggling. There are tens of thousands of people whose lives have been completely obliterated by the hurricanes. All of their belongings, records, access, information, in many cases family members, dogs, cats, barbeques, cars, trucks, credit cards, pictures albums, TVs, VCRs, radios, electricity, water, gas, toilet paper, toilets, food, resumes: you name it, it’s gone. I participated in the first financial and bulk goods “assistance
Katrina and Rita Hurricanes: The Real Fraud is Hiding From America
I love the United States of America. I have since I began life here, 53-years ago in Colorado as a fourth generation American. I’ve taken her for granted in many ways, especially in critical thinking. I believe in the framework of our Constitution and still do.
What I no longer believe in is the perversion of the Constitution by way of wealth, whether individuals, corporations, or the religious. The owners of our political and news systems are wealthy, very, very wealthy.
Politics is an ugly game of disguise, smoke screens, covering, and bait and switch. No one talks honestly or openly. Behind what they're talking about is financial influence; how that power is leveraged. Heck, I love money. I'd love to have a ton of it. You do, too, whether you do, are getting along well, or even if you don’t. Greed trumps meaning and integrity across many issues today. One of them surrounds the games in play regarding the hurricanes of August and September in the South.
I’m not someone with an axe to grind. I could care less if the government comes out smelling like a rose or a pile of mushroom fertilizer. I don’t care about Mike Brown, the FBI, whether George Bush is viewed as a great president, an idiot, a manipulator, a conservative-Christian soldier, or an American hero. I’m no one, just like you; a nameless, powerless (beyond my own life) individual who rides along in America.
I happen to be a professional, a lucky break by way of my father becoming a professor after living in poverty in the early 1900’s. When the hurricane Katrina disaster hit, I received an e-mail out of nowhere, asking mental health professionals to volunteer. I am a psychologist by training, although I’ve worked as an executive for several years in behavioral healthcare. I don’t have some big ego about it. I’m just someone whose work and education went this way. Mainly, I’m a Dad, a husband, a sports fanatic, still love rock-and-roll, a quiet about it Christian, an action movie follower, a lousy shopper, lazy around the house kind of guy. I’m nothing special in my mind or in some form of grandiosity. Anyway, this horrific catastrophe pushed me into going. I'd never done anything like it before.
I went to Mississippi, 90-miles above New Orleans. I was in hurricane Rita, having the crap scared out of me. The whole thing was mind-boggling. There are tens of thousands of people whose lives have been completely obliterated by the hurricanes. All of their belongings, records, access, information, in many cases family members, dogs, cats, barbeques, cars, trucks, credit cards, pictures albums, TVs, VCRs, radios, electricity, water, gas, toilet paper, toilets, food, resumes: you name it, it’s gone. I participated in the first financial and bulk goods “assistance