Where is FEMA? The Red Cross?
September 18th, 2005Lifted from the diaries at the Daily Kos... URGENT FROM BOGALUSA (warning, has some cussing in it, but overlook it and consider the outrage)
I talked to FEMA reps, RC reps, State Health reps and the hospital
folks and received the same "we don't need doctors or nurses to run
clinics" (I've been placing medical teams)
Today at the Red Cross shelter, the doctor I traveled with...Dr. Ken
Levine, was STILL seeing patients that 'didn't need him' when I left at
7 p.m.
There is NO MEDIA HERE...PLEASE KOSSACKS, GET ME MEDIA...THE NATIONAL KIND NOW.
I went to check on my little 80 year old ladies today and stopped at
another house with TWO TREES still through it and the couple living
there...14 days AFTER the hurricane hit, they put a sign out on their
lawn that said "this is how the government treats you"...FEMA went
there the next day, gave them a $2k check and wished them good luck.
These people sent their kids to Texas and want to go there...it's a
town south of Houston, the name escapes me now. These people have NOT
seen the RC and scavange for food/water. She drove for an hour and
waited in line for 9 hours to fill out the paperwork for getting RED
CROSS vouchers and then was given a NUMBER and told to come back on
MONDAY. Now you might think, well they must be in the middle of no
where...WRONG, these people are on the ROAD THAT ALL THE GOVERNMENT
agencies take to the main control center at least 10 times daily. FEMA
never even got people to remove the trees off their roof, they had FRIENDS show up finally.
Now my own gripe about this. People have been wondering why the Red Cross doesnt want volunteers, doctors, actual items. We've been told, money only because they are better at coordinating and delivering the needed items. Well come on! This is coordination and delivery?
I know this disaster is grand scale, bigger than we'll ever see in our lifetimes, but I'm just shocked. Absolutely shocked that two weeks after Katrina has moved out of town, there are still people waiting for FEMA and the ARC to show up. I don't think the ARC will ever get another penny from me. Seriously.
This on the heels of seeing a doctor on tv last night. He was stranded at a hospital in N.O. and when they were finally evac'd to the airport, he and the other doctors with him started to try to help the sick and injured. FEMA told them to stop...they were not "approved" by FEMA. People all around them layed there, and died. Good Lord. Brownie was only the icing on this cake of incompetence!
Around a year ago on this day..
- I'm here.. sniffle sniffle - 2007
- Good Golly.. - 2006
September 18th, 2005 at 11:23 am
Ok, I know this is a Christian organization that I am about to recommend. I’ve been “sniffing after” the ARC for a few days now, and the smell is not gettting better.
But, Samaritan’s Purse also does disaster relief, including emergency home repair. 90% of donations go to program services, and that’s about as high as it’s going to get.
We *must* stop relying on the government for help. The government is great for maintaining the status quo, and not much else.
That FEMA is standing on the way of people trying to help is appalling. I know why they are doing it, and the reasoning is sound, but the results……..appalling.
September 18th, 2005 at 12:02 pm
There is absolutely no reason for them to stand in the way of people helping people. PERIOD.
Especially when they aren’t doing their jobs.
As for relying on government. Granted I believe people should have insurance for their damages. But if they arent going to step in and do the job, let others step in, and do the job.
ARC…they smelled bad after 9/11, and the stench has gotten worse. I already feel bad for contributing to them. I should have put the funds I was able to send elsewhere. I did make a contribution to a fellow listmate, whos company volunteered, rented a winnie and a uhaul, filled it with all sorts of goods and drove there from FL on their own time to deliver. They were making a second run, so I sent a check to help with that.
As for NOLA, I’d say the federal government deserves to pay for everyone’s home and to rebuild the city. It was Bush relocating funds that doomed the levees to break. Before anyone blames it on NOLA or LA, remember that its the feds that control/maintain the levees (the Army corp of engineers) And the ACE were screaming to anyone who would listen that exactly THIS was going to happen.
So many lives could have been saved if the money was put where it should have been in the first place. And more lives could have been saved if FEMA and the ARC actually did their jobs.
For an administration that wants to whittle down government until its small enough to “drown it in a bathtub” (Grover Norquist quote) they certainly held true to that.
September 18th, 2005 at 3:44 pm
Well, they want to make sure no one gets swindled. That is a worthy goal. The implementation sucks, though. There are vultures who wait to swoop down on people in a crisis, and there have been reports already.
Clinton also reduced levee funding. And the board of levees in NOLA funnelled monies to other projects in lieu of the levee repairs.
And the ACE was ready to start major projects there on the levees when they were stopped–by a lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club. The greenies fought the repairs, even as the levees slipped further into decline. There is no one place to lay the blame for this. That would make it much to simple. Besides, there is ample blame to go around.
My comment about quit relying on government was not referring to insurance, though. I think private charities are more than capable of handling these sorts of things. Habitat for Humanity, Samaritan’s Purse, and other ones that 1) get the money where its supposed to go and 2) don’t lose track of funds.
I don’t know that I agree the Feds need to do all the rebuilding, for another reason besides the above. They have to get that money from somewhere. Where do you think it comes from? Short answer, me and you, in the form of taxes.
Now, yes, I think there should be safety nets. And that the federal government ought to be involved in the re-building (especially since they already have our money). But they do not bear responsibility alone, given the failures of Blanco and Nagin to actually do something about the levees.
TANSTAAFL!