Disappeared News

by Larry Geller

WBAI news is a valuable resource. Unfortunately it’s audio, so I can’t easily snip from it. On tonight’s news was a long report on the situation with Katrina victims in New Orleans.

It seems that FEMA is going to evict those in trailers, without possibility of extension, and either auction off or scrap the trailers. It’s not like they need the trailers for another disaster, the report noted, they are just going to destroy them. As you may know, there’s no place for the trailer people to go.

The report mentioned bureaucratic delays and bungling that kept people from getting the funds they were due to rebuild their homes. Some just received funds in January, it said, and are now faced with a May 30 eviction date with nowhere to go. FEMA is also going to stop paying for 137 families staying in hotels in Louisiana and Mississippi.

There’s this, from commondreams.org:

Rights Network Condemns FEMA's Move to Evict Katrina Survivors from temporary Housing
Federal Government Set to Repossess Trailers Leaving Thousands Homeless

And this, a local story that also describes the plight of a Katrina trailer family, here in America, the best country in the world, who would lose medical benefits that pay $600 a month for her daughter’s prescriptions, if she got a job.

What a great country, indeed. We have trillions to bail out bankers (and their second, third and maybe fourth vacation homes) but nothing to rebuild housing for the Katrina flood victims stuck in these trailers.

If you’re reading this in the comfort of your own home, why not see if you can get hold of Obama somehow and ask him to do something about the ongoing human tragedy perpetuated by FEMA in the Gulf Coast.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 5/08/2009 08:52:00 PM