posted on March 6, 2006 07:06:24 PM new
The mobile homes that FEMA purchased to temporarily house the homeless were not zoned for flood areas and hurricane areas. There is a terrible shortage of temporary housing on the Mississippi coast.
The people living in tents and trailers on their own property are not all slackers, so many are fighting for insurance claims that have not been met, so they can start the process to rebuild.
Others are in limbo.. awaiting the government's go-ahead to rebuild.
Right now in many areas new laws and regulations are being made stipulating where and how people will be permitted to rebuild, and IF in fact they will be allowed to rebuild. They are caught in red tape, wanting to rebuild and restart their lives, but not taking a chance to rebuild when permits have not been issued. The local government is dragging their feet.
The people who did not evacuate and lost their lives or the ones who have relied on government to do for them are a minority.
The majority did evacuate, like myself, only to return to nothing. Their jobs in many cases are lost along with their homes. They have no insurance, no offer of buy out, nothing, but the land their homes were once on.
My area is rebuilding, we got off easy, because we are not in a flood area and only suffered the hurricane winds.
I have no pity for the people who were set up in hotels or on the cruise ships for 6+ months in surrounding cities and states, who sat those six months without lifting a finger to help themselves. Only to scream bloody murder when FEMA told them they had to depart the ships and hotels, where their food was provided, etc. Or those who shout to the rooftops that they have lived 35 years in what do you call those places where the rent is reduced or paid for and have collected welfare for those 35 years and look at it as a right and expect to finish their lives being taken care of.
But these are not the majority, and I thought it was a good idea to invite them back and give them temporary housing only if they get on job training and work towards getting off of the welfare train.
Hurricane season is 3 months away and God help us if another big one hits, with thousands of people in those little FEMA trailers, tents etc..
posted on March 6, 2006 07:47:58 PM new
::She is one of many liberals that thinks everyone else is to blame for the position these people and others like them find themselves in.::
to take a page from your book...
You are a liar Linda. I have never once said that. The reason we can no longer havbe a discussion is because you don't pay any attention to what I actually say. You just figure out what the least defensible position would be and assign it to me regardless of whether or not it bears any resenblance to what I say or think.
Like I said - you are the conservative version of Peepa.
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Never ask what sort if computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If he's not, why embarrass him? - Tom Clancy
posted on March 6, 2006 10:55:19 PM new
This is kinda long but read on regarding N.O. and the trailer situation and other crap....in answer to some of the statements above...You have to see it in real life and hear from the natives that live in it.
I just returned from New Orleans I did get to go with my wife and we toured N.O. and surrounding area with people we stayed with there who have lived there all their lives and YOU KNOW those Fema Trailers they claim are not being provided? Well there ARE & many trailer parks set up by Fema with the Trailers and NO ONE wants to live in a trailer so they are sitting empty---YES I said EMPTY. SO this BS about Fema not providing Trailers is just that BS. I saw personally 6 huge parks all Fema Trailers just sitting empty, 99% empty. They are all set up have utilities water electric, sewer and just empty as Fido eating exlax.
They are new and still not good enough for these sit on their butt people down there. We saw lots of the 9th ward, downtown N.O. Meterie Misspelled that I believe), St Benard, Jefferson county the West End and a lot more and there are a lot of people living in those water infested mold growing homes instead of a new trailer. Also there is not much cleaning up at all. every one waiting to see who will do it for them.
It is a crying shame how all this is going on and people are blaming the government or just anyone other than themselves for not getting busy and doing something about it.. Today the day after I came home they finally put to use all the crains and bulldosers I saw to start demolishing all the misplaced washed away from foundation houses and they found a body in an attic today also.
I have to tell you that I saw it first hand all the devastation, the destruction and the trash and debris still there. Roads are awful and surrounding areas have no homes or apartments available and the businesses are paying big bucks just for fast food servers and can't find anyone to work. They are begging for help, I saw many many signs wanting help. I also saw many many for sell signs everywhere.
It is so overwhelming to see all this crap and nothing being done and I mean that the people are not even trying to help themselves. The Tent cities are mostly blue tarp makeshift tents and my local resident friends are very knowledgeable about all this and they say these people would rather live in a tent than live in a decent trailer even if just for a short while. Got me beat as to their mentality over that thinking.
Also for miles there are flooded cars lined up 6 or more wide under the expressways really crammed in there just waiting to be towed off or shipped off to salvage places. I saw numerous auto transports taking the cars out and probably headed to a place for cleanup and passing them off to unsuspecting buyers of used cars.
PS My wife got sick with Bronchitis smelling all the mold spores apparently floating around in the stricken area. She is allergic so she sounds and coughs terribly since the tour. Still stinky, still dirty, and you don't get out of the vehicle in lots of areas.
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Without my ignorance, your Knowledge would be meaningless.
[ edited by irked on Mar 6, 2006 11:19 PM ]
posted on March 6, 2006 11:09:44 PM new
Maggie- I read your post above and agree with you about other communities are trying to help themselves and rebuilding but New Orleans is totally different in a lot of ways- big majority of butt sitters welfare expecting slakers there. You see rebuilding in nice areas but the projects are not rebuilding or cleaning up the owners/slumlords I was told are going to use this as excuse to get out from under providing housing for welfareand if they can collect insurance they are gone!
I do hope your area makes it sounds like they have a grasp of thing. It is SHAME how Insurance is doing these people who lost everything.
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Without my ignorance, your Knowledge would be meaningless.
posted on March 6, 2006 11:36:59 PM new
:: just returned from New Orleans I did get to go with my wife and we toured N.O. and surrounding area with people we stayed with there who have lived there all their lives and YOU KNOW those FEMA Trailers they claim are not being provided? Well there ARE & many trailer parks set up by FEMA with the Trailers and NO ONE wants to live in a trailer so they are sitting empty---YES I said EMPTY. SO this BS about FEMA not providing Trailers is just that BS. I saw personally 6 huge parks all FEMA Trailers just sitting empty, 99% empty. They are all set up have utilities water electric, sewer and just empty as Fido eating exlax.::
Irked. i wonder if those are the same trailers that were shown a couple weeks ago on Oprah. Lisa Ling was down there and talking to people in the tent camp. One of them pointed out that there were dozens of trailers just down the road all sitting empty. When they went to talk to FEMA about why FEMA told them that they were going thru the paperwork and research process on various families to try to get them in. It didn't seem that it was a matter of people not wanting to get into them but of bureaucratic red tape holding the process up.
As for clean up - There was a story a couple weeks ago about private vs government cleanup. Private industy has paid out half as much money but gotten more than twice as much done. Problem is a shortage of equipment and labor. BTW - just where does one dump contaminated debris from hundreds of destroyed buildings?
Did you know that 35% of the population of New Orleans now is Latino. The amazing thing is that these people are these, they are the ones doing to work cleaning up the city, they are being paid crap and charged outrageous fees for hotels to stay in. Being given little to no safety equipment and often not being paid at all by unscroupulous employers and to top it off they are being treated as unwelcome interlopers in the city that they are working to help rebuild.
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Never ask what sort if computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If he's not, why embarrass him? - Tom Clancy
[ edited by fenix03 on Mar 6, 2006 11:37 PM ]
posted on March 7, 2006 12:27:26 AM new
Fenix YES it is a big difference from when I was there so many times before, now you see lots of Latinos and many of them are living in tent cities too. The difference is that these tent cities have vehicles in them the locals have no vehicles to get them around in. Also the workers are brought in by some unsavory flyby night companies. They are catching some of them and trying to control it but very difficult to catch the scammers until someone is already scammed.
Another friend of mine has a store there that cashes their checks the workers that are there and say they are making pretty good money but said that they keep very little of it and that they Western Union it back to Mexico. The workers can be seen riding in back of trucks by the dozens to areas to work and most are staying 5 plus to a room if they can find one.
I forgot to mention that a park outside of New Orleans has an area that people set up their makeshift tents and the City is charging these people 500$ for their little tiny plot of land. That fact is not clear but is stated as fact down there by people living there. But then I don't know that I would believe everything the dwellers have to say.
The friends we stayed with are owners of Taxi Service and escaped the damage since they mainly operate in area not as badly affected but that their business is booming due to lose of cars there. They carry people very often to the tent cities and hear all sorts of stories about the conditions in and around N.O.
As for the trailers there are many people homeowners that already have them on their lot next to the damaged houses but there are parks set up and people are turning them down too. The red tap I think is all due to so many not wanting to live in a trailer. OH another fact the ones living in their awful homes are there to protect their dumps from vandals that run rampant. I don't think anyone there respects anything or anyone or their property. I know that is an exageration as all are not that way but a big portion in the 9th ward is that way. Funny thing is some live there and not able to fix them up but can't understand why Fema won't pay to have others fix them up for them, all the while just sitting there on their butts. OH and they don't own the property are renters wanting Fema money to supposedly fix up their place. They just don't comprehend why fema doesn't give them money for property that isn't theirs. Duh!
I had my home ripped to shreds in 1979 Wichita Falls tornado that destroyed huge portion of north central Texas and Oklahoma. Course there was no flood and I got total paid coverage on it. But I didn't sit on my butt waiting for the government either. I hussled and my recovery was long hard one but I did it and Fema was Johnny on the Spot. We got lucky and relocated to another portion of town, cleared the lot sold it. They said after it hit that it would be 5 to 10 years before people would recover and everything was rebuilt, boy did our town fool them within a year you could hardly tell there was a massive tornado damage anywhere. It looked like a war zone and ran for about 8 plus miles through the city and over 1 to 3 miles wide path. I don't live in Wichita Falls anymore and kinda glad too since it is in middle of Tornado Alley. No week long warning there.
OH sort of OT but while I was there the newpaper listed I believe 39 candidates for Mayor of N.O. about 23 approved of and none are black. Mr Nagen I was told has bought a fancy home in Dallas where his family is currently at. I didn't know it but he is a VP or president some big wig of Cox cable. Guess I wasn't listening if they ever told that on TV or anywhere.
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Without my ignorance, your Knowledge would be meaningless.
[ edited by irked on Mar 7, 2006 12:31 AM ]
posted on March 7, 2006 01:13:43 PM new
What the neofascists here like Colin, Linda, and Bear seem to forget about is the fact that many people who were what they like to deem "self-dependent" came back to NOLA to homes that were not only destroyed, but to Insurance Companies that were offering them pay-off checks for pennies on the dollar of what they actually lost. How does one afford to hire an attorney, file lawsuits against those companies when they lost their jobs and everything else they had? What the neofascists want you to actually believe is that everyone in NOLA is black, worthless, and could care less about working. I have heard it way too many times.
Linda can take all of her pictures and "prized possessions", but the reality is she has absolutely no clue how hopeless many people, including those who evacuated were left behind.
And for Colin to claim and Linda to back up, "I dont think anything the federal government could have done would have made this situation any better," simply proves how shallow minded these neofacists are.
Just like these anti-American neofacists like to blame Clinton for everything, I would like to commend Clinton for establishing FEMA's strong role to handle the problems during his Administration. Unfortunately, you have Bush who has managed to dismantle just about everything positive in this country. Bush is shameful.
posted on March 7, 2006 08:50:05 PM new
Nice try rusty. It has already been proven that the Demomorons were responsible for the lack of response.
It has already also been proven that the republican leadership did not fail. Florida two weeks later proved that. And three weeks later in Minnesota when most of the northern suburbs had extreme damage due to severe storms. No bitching from lazy demomorons. Just everyone picking up their boot straps and got everything cleaned up and rebuilt.
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Many misleading tricks in 2006. The new Demomoron slogan.
