What is important - and sad - to note is that, as of yesterday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had yet to establish even ONE office in the entire state of MS. I'm not sure what they've done to mitigate the damage or help with the clean up or feed people around here, but the impact is obviously, obviously very minimal. I ask that you all get on the phone NOW and call your representatives, call the White House, and demand answers - demand action. The recovery effort is not over, by far. New Orleans is still drowning. And thousands of Mississippians remain without power or clean water.
We (my family) have literally lived off the good work of the Red Cross and the Salvation Army for the past few days. Those meals-ready-to-eat aren't all that bad when you're starving for something more than doritos or cheese crackers.
Until yesterday, the county our house is in (Covington) was not listed a disaster area, making it unable to receive federal assistance. With a lot of phone calls and plenty of pleas from local news, it was finally added. The federal government, under our lame duck president, is making every attempt possible to save money at the expense of people's lives.
I want to stress that the inadequate preparation for the storm is not the entire fault of local government. New Orleans, with its limited resources because of a stingy Republican congress, CANNOT hold all the blame for not getting more people out. Maybe Homeland Security should hand out more money to cities susceptible to natural disaster.
Those people left behind to suffer the wrath of the flood in NOLA were poor and needed help. I believe Nagin should have issued an evacuation order earlier, but the failure of the National Guard to be waiting to move in and help is not his fault, nor his city's. The failure of FEMA to license buses and get in before the leeves broke is not the city's fault. Law broke down and people died because Bush was on vacation, because the Congress refuses to acknowledge the importance of having a well-funded FEMA, because there was more to focus on in the White House than a couple thousand black folks dying. Fuck all the calls that this isn't about race. If Crawford, Texas was slammed with a category five, you can bet that Bush would be out in full force with the money and resources to save his folks.
This has got to stop now. This isn't even a partisan attack (well, kinda). This is common sense. When a much revered Department of Homeland Security fails to protect us from a hurricane that was a blip on a map for days and days - something has got to change. When our White House is more concerned with an Iraqi constituition (woo hoo!) than a historical American city - something has got to change.
Once again, thank you for your thoughts and prayers and help. Without private donations, we would have really been out of luck. Now that everything has calmed down and normalcy is on the brink of returning (at least for my part of the state) it's time to demand answers. We can't let this happen again. New Orleans must survive. Do what you can. Keep posting.
and.. Peace.
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