posted
I heard some disturbing things about the evacuation. I don't know if these are just rumor or what, but the sources are people I trust who have been working closely with the evacuation effort.
1) The $2000 ATM cards were given to some people, but the "experiment" has been halted. So, not everyone gets them.
2) A woman was offered a job in TX and was told by her NO-based employer that if she accepted a job elsewhere they would assume she was resigning and would lose retirement (must not be vested, I guess). Of course, the NO-based employer is a government institution that is currently closed...and can't offer housing...or a job for any spouses... But if she works elsewhere in the interim, she has obviously quit...
3) Evacuees were being loaded onto buses to "elsewhere" without being told where they were going and without any regard to whether or not they might have relatives near another possible relocation choice. This practice has apparently stopped because the people simply refused to get on the buses without being told the destination.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
I'm not sure why they stopped the $2000 card program, but I heard last night on WTOP that they started funneling the money into checking accounts instead.
posted
There was a family in the St Paul paper yesterday who say they were told they were getting on a bus to Texas and ended up here instead. They were less than thrilled, but are apparently being sent to Virginia now, where they have relatives.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
A plane carrying evacuees was headed to Charleston, VA, and went to Charleston, WV instead. Apparently, WV made a quick fix and accepted th evacuees. I have not heard more on that story.
The Red Cross came on with a story of how they were not allowed in to help because they did not have some sort of order. They were moved from city to city, and, while prepared with all sorts of medical supplies, were able to treat only one cut arm.
An aside: My grandmother was very surprised to learn that there were so many black people in the country. I bet she is not alone.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Wes told me they were sent by FEMA to a rural area of south Missisippi and told to clear the area. They talked with the local fire dept and sheriff's office, both of whom said they (the local people) had already cleared the area and everything was fine. FEMA said they had to go anyway. They got there, only to find that an SAR task force from Florida had already been there and had cleared everything, even marked every building properly.
When they got back to camp they heard FEMA give the SAME assignment to clear the SAME area to another group.
In Wes' opinion FEMA should be reduced to nothing more than a financial agency - they should release disaster funds and let the local people handle things.
He also told me FEMA has only 225 employees, anybody know if that's true? Seems way too small. The Birmingham fire dept. has over 600 firefighters, in comparison.
At any rate, in MS, the local governments had things under control and FEMA only hindered progress.
He also holds an enormous amount of respect for the Gulfport fire dept, said they were amazing.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Belle, I believe I've heard before that FEMA works almost entirely through "independant contractors." So they quite likely may only have 225 actual employees, but they employee a whole lot more people. No data to back that up at the moment, though, I just remember it as background info from a newspaper story about a year ago.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
I don't know if I'm the only one annoyed by this, but the Red Cross is paying for thousands of evacuees' hotel bills for two weeks with likely extensions.
here is the article. I think evacuees need places to stay, but this is a tremendously inefficient use of the money.
Posts: 1261 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
I head the story about the medical team that only treated one cut. They traveled 11 days, being moved from one state to another. I saw it on the Dateline special last night. I don't remember if they were with the Red Cross. I thought the Red Cross kept sending them different places. From Mississippi to Louisiana to Houston and have now been moved again.
Apparently, they will finish handing them out in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio this weekend, but everyone else will have to apply for direct deposits. (I wonder what help that will be for people whose checkbook was in their house. )
FEMA launched its own $1.4 million investigation of its hurricane response.
The White House announced an investigation.
The Senate and House have launched a joint investigation.
I wonder how much the White House and Senate/House investigations will cost the taxpayers.
I also wonder if they will bother reading the report generated by the investigation. Apparently they never read the study they commissioned and paid for about New Orleans and hurricanes.
quote: DES MOINES — A federal airlift brought 20 flood victims to Iowa Friday, a destination that the evacuees did not know until the plane was in the air.
quote: By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff | September 10, 2005
Many were told by heavily armed men that they had to leave their homes or else risk removal by force. All were herded onto airliners, learning their destination only after they were already in the air. They eventually found that their new homes were on a military base, watched over by armed soldiers.
quote: About 90 hurricane holdouts, plucked straight from the floodwaters of New Orleans, arrived by chartered plane at a Milwaukee military base Thursday, some unaware of their destination until they were in the air.
posted
Belle on FEMA's website, it says they have more than 225 employees.
quote: FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security's Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate. FEMA has more than 2,600 full time employees. They work at FEMA headquarters in Washington D.C., at regional and area offices across the country, the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center, and the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Maryland. FEMA also has nearly 4,000 standby disaster assistance employees who are available for deployment after disasters. Often FEMA works in partnership with other organizations that are part of the nation's emergency management system. These partners include state and local emergency management agencies, 27 federal agencies and the American Red Cross.
posted
Madison has accepted 7 families into refurnished empty apartments, and we are awaiting anouther 13. One thing I hadn't thought of (but others did) is to supply some African-American-specific hair care products and supplies.
One of our social workers took her vacation time to go look for people who wanted homes with us down at the Houston Astrodome.
posted
Here's another rumor (with some basis) - in this area, at least some elderly evacuees are being placed in nursing homes (don't know how many). And they are not people who "need" a nursing home. There is a concern that once placed in one, they may not get out.
Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
The 225 is probably the number of Dubya's political appointees rewarded with the FEMA executive positions solely for their success in election fundraising. Yep, FEMA does have the highest percentage of patronage jobs of any federal agency. And yep, FEMA does have the highest number of patronage jobs awarded to folks with absolutely no job-related qualifications whatsoever.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:Originally posted by sndrake: Here's another rumor (with some basis) - in this area, at least some elderly evacuees are being placed in nursing homes (don't know how many). And they are not people who "need" a nursing home. There is a concern that once placed in one, they may not get out.
Not just nursing homes, but psychiatric residential facilities. Tinley Park Mental Health took in around 100, and somewhere in Maywood (River's Edge, perhaps) around the same number.
I do know that the "once placed, you'll never leave" mentality is a common one, and it's what's got my grandmother fighting against leaving her independent living facility even though she definitely needs assistance. My impression from discussions I've had and things I've overheard, though, is that the cost of living for someone of independent means (typically by way of trust accounts, retirement funds, or real estate) in a nursing-home type facility is so high that by the time they're potentially able to move out, their funds are wiped out. My mother and her siblings are currently in the process of selling off Grandma's few real estate holdings (which frankly are worth next to nothing because lot sizes are too small for current building codes to allow development) so she can finally become eligible for public aid to pay for her housing costs in a SNF. Once that's done, they're next going to be pursuing a competency hearing because they've had two doctors both suggest she may need an independent guardian.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
"I wonder how much the White House and Senate/House investigations will cost the taxpayers."
We had better investigate that!
I have limited myself to half an hour a day of watching. ijust get too upset.
One thing that the evacuee centers need is school supplies. A friend who lives in the area said she knows a few places, so i am trying to get our school to donate things. We are about to throw away a whole grade's worth of Reading textbooks. Plus, if the kids get involved, they will get their parents to buiy extra paper, etc. I hope it works.
Also, what is the number of displaced people, does anyone have an estimate?
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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the same thing will happen to those elderly people who don't have much more than Social Security. The nursing home will take all but a small fraction of their Social Security check. That leaves no way to come up with the start-up money to get into an apartment - even one they could afford on Social Security income.
(Too many seniors end up in nursing homes this way. A health crisis lands them in a nursing home for a "short" stay - and they lose everything. Even though able to live on their own - some without much assistance - there's no money to move out.)
Here's another thing that's really bugging me. The administration cancelled the debit card program and says they'll mail checks to people's bank accounts.
I'd guess most of the FEMA bureaucrates don't know too many poor folks. An awful lot of low-wage workers and those on public assistance don't have bank accounts at all. Unless the poor in New Orleans are very different than the poor elsewhere in the U.S., there will be a lot of people in that boat. I haven't heard how they're going to get money to these people.
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posted
I really didn't know. I am astounded by the bungling. I really did have faith, even after the first few days, and was cutting slack in all directions.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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I was thinking about this the other day and realized that 2K really is NOT much money at all. Yes, I have expenses that they wouldn't have right now (car payment and insurance, cable TV, a small budget for craft stash or books), but they also have a lot of start-up (or start-over) that I don't have. 2K is just a tiny bit short of my monthly net, and I don't have anything left over at the end of the month. If I were to cut out the things that weren't absolutely necessary, I might be able to stretch that same amount to two months. But certainly no more than that.
I'd love to know how the government realistically thought that 2K was enough to get these people back on their feet again.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
well THAT at least is good to know... I haven't been glued to the news so I must have missed out on the details. I just knew that the evacuees were getting this money and the little bit I'd heard made it sound as if this was supposed to be start-up cash.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I believe it's typical of TANF one-time aid for families in need - this amount of aid is supposedly going to help a family stay off of welfare, and stay employed. I.e., unexpected car repairs that are unaffordable - but no car = no go to work. That sort of thing . . . and it's an "up-to" amount, based on variables such as number of family members, COL, if car repairs, estimates of the repair cost, etc.
Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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The Madison social worker who went to the Astrodome said that those in authority at the Astrodome were doing background checks before allowing people to enter or leave the building; ie., it was verrry difficult to get approved as a volunteer and certainly much much harder than that to get out. You could certainly not just walk away, once you were in there. Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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That link is VERY disturbing. I was physically ill reading it.
I am so angry right now I don't trust myself to post a reply.
------------------------------------------ Edit to add:
I just wrote to my two US Senators from Iowa asking them to check out that blog and see if they can find out if it is true or not. I expressed my idea of what should happen if it IS true.
posted
I know with the red cross shelters they don't let you in unless you're a red cross volunteer with a badge and all. I snuck in last week to make balloon animals, and got away with it cause my father was working there, but I was told not to move around from one part of the shelter to another. They're pretty strict about who they let in, I'm surprised those people were allowed in. Also hoping what they saw wasn't true
But I wouldn't be surprised if it was. At the fair/whateveritwas for the children at the shelters yesterday we saw army people with m-16s strolling around. For a children's fair. (no, I can't recognize guns, I asked) People are afraid of what the evacuees will do, so it wouldn't surprise me much at all.
Posts: 3493 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
The pictures are genuine, as far as the roads and buildings go. I've been there.
The rest of it...from what my husband says of Camp Gruber (where about 1000 refugees are being housed at the moment) I'd say it's probably all pretty accurate.
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Boon
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posted
Here's the thing...
I'm not saying all the refugees are bad. Far from it. But there ARE some bad people among them. I can totally see why the authorities would want to centralize and distribute donations themselves, to make sure everyone gets a fair portion.
These people have been victimized by mother nature, by our government's inadequate response, and by each other.
Yes, I said it. BY EACH OTHER.
Here's a story, and it's a true one: At one point a few days ago, soldiers and volunteers at Camp Gruber noticed that there were a lot of human feces on the lawn in one area. When they saw a woman go over there to relieve herself, they stopped her and asked her what she was doing.
She said she couldn't afford to use the bathroom inside.
???
A very large male refugee would not allow people in to use "his" bathroom unless people paid him!
---
There have been thousands of gang members identified so far among the refugees, and the authorities are doing their best to get them away from the "general population." There have been several instances of gangs stealing medications from seniors and then "selling" them back.
Also, are people forgetting about the thousands of prisoners that were turned loose as the storm approached?
---
I think it's horrific that so many good people have been victimized so many times, and that it's continuing. I understand, though, that it may be necessary to confine everyone in remote locations for a while to keep the peace and get people identified.
posted
Wow, I just read that about the internment camp. What has our country become? This is really scary. We have to fix this now, right now, don't you think? It's starting to sound like some nightmare dystopia bad science fiction book.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
apparently they started to radio jam certain areas in new Orleans....
posted
You know, I know all that about how not all the people displaced by Katrina are what you'd call upstanding citizens. But by far most of them are, simply because most people generally are upstanding citizens.
God save me from my cynicism, I guess, but if that blog is in any way accurate, I'd say that at least some of it has to do with not wanting people who were there to talk about the real story where the rest of us can hear about it, at least until the disinformation gang can do their job of convincing us that it wasn't really all that bad and that the cavalry really got there right on time. Five months ought to about do the trick.
Honestly, I really hate that the above even crossed my mind, and I hope that I'm completely wrong, but there it is.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
So, one of the other things that wasn't planned about the evacuation of a major urban metro area was what to do with prisoners? Um...please tell me that after ordering an evacuation, they didn't just leave the prisoners in the prisons to wait out the storm.
And then, of course, let them out later...
Please tell me that's not what happened in the New Orleans area at least. I could maybe understand it in one of the areas that got taken by surprise and hadn't had a government evacuation warning already before the storm hit.
But if these are prisoners from the New Orleans area to which you are referring, I'm going to just burst a blood vessel!
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
I did hear that, Bob, about prisoners being let loose. But I feel that I am endangering your health by mentioning it.
Sadly, many folks with severe mental illness are also "on the loose," as in, severely mentally ill people who are without medication. That, to me, is more frightening than prisoners on the loose. It seems to me that a prisoner, let loose, would run. Whereas a severely mentally ill person would suffer unimaginably.
Truly, even with better preparation, and a more constructive response, this disaster was beyond anyone's imagination. (Well, except for novelists, film makers, and folks with apocalyptic visions) Though things are wicked screwed up, I still believe, from the bottom of my heart, that the intention is to help.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
So, a temporary detention center is there to process the people so we weed out the bad ones from the the ill ones from the mentally ill ones from the ones that could be integrated into the surrounding communities?
And the reason it's hush-hush is so we don't spread panic in the communities and reduce people's desire to help?
And the ones that were put on buses earlier in the process and simply sent on to other parts of the country (like the folks who are now fanning out across the Midwest)...how exactly were they sorted? From what we've been reading, the process involved getting whoever came next onto whatever bus or plane was next and telling them where they were going after the vehicle was on its way.
I'm a little chagrined. If the Feds were able to sort the bad eggs out sufficiently to know that they weren't just exporting gang members across the US, it seems to me they could've give THOSE people a bit of a choice as to where they went.
And, if, on the other hand, what they're really doing is setting up those sorting facilities NOW, then who did they send out already? And how do they know those folks aren't gang members, convicts, or the mentally ill?
And, from what I've seen, there hasn't been much discussion of mental health services or needs evaluation going on.
It's just weird. We've got some people going into reasonably well-kept housing (HUD approved at any rate). Some people going into mass compounds like the Astrodome. And some people going into sealed camps like this one in Oklahoma.
And no word as to how the decisions are being made about who goes where?
Oh, and by the way, didn't we pay a ton of money and render sections of our Constitution void so that law enforcement could share information? Are we suddenly going to have to worry that the only records on some potentially dangerous convicts were destroyed by a flood and so we may never be able to positively identify these folks?
Oh...I'm just so happy we concentrated on security from terrorist threats. I'm so glad our best minds are working on ways to keep us safe from swarthy religious zealots who might be living among us.
Yep. I feel so much safer that I really don't mind that civil liberties are now the punch line to a joke.
And there is no excuse for being unprepared for this disaster. NONE! Not when:
a) We've known NO and the entire Gulf Coast is always vulnerable to massive storm damage.
b) It was only a matter of time.
c) We've also been worried about port cities especially in terms of terrorist attack.
d) We've decided as a country that safety and homeland security are a top priority
Well...Unless someone comes forward to say something like:
"Well, this is exactly the kind of thing we were worried about, and it's just tragic that our plan was still under development and what we had so far was an assessment that we didn't have adequate evauation capabilities... But we were indeed working on it for this region in particular."
Then I'm going to have to say that this was a giant screw up that displays, at best, gross incompetence and, at worst, deliberate malfeasance.
And even if someone did come forward to say that bit about the plans just hadn't been finalized or tested yet, but that it was "in the works" I'd have to wonder why there wasn't at least an interim plan in place.
And the answer is...they already HAD a plan in place.
What this really points to, of course, is that our ability to plan is pretty weak.
And...that means that homeland security efforts are about as useful as "Duck & Cover" was in the 1950's.
The truth is that there is no security and there isn't the possibility of security.
What we've done so far is mostly wasted. And what we can do from here on in is mostly going to be a waste too.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
Well, remember, these are the people who told us to get plastic and duct tape for our windows in case of another attack. Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Don't badmouth the NewOrleans gang members. While federal, state, and city leaders were sitting on supplies as well as their behinds -- which musta been difficult what with their headupassitus -- gang members were "looting" the stores for water, food, blankets, shoes, and clothing to give to evacuees officiallymaldirected to non-functioning government-designated "storm shelters" and "evacuation centers". AND provided what little security there was to be had at those officially-designated "safe area"s.
quote:Originally posted by aspectre: Don't badmouth the NewOrleans gang members. While federal, state, and city leaders were sitting on supplies as well as their behinds -- which musta been difficult what with their headupassitus -- gang members were "looting" the stores for water, food, blankets, shoes, and clothing to give to evacuees officiallymaldirected to non-functioning government-designated "storm shelters" and "evacuation centers". AND provided what little security there was to be had at those officially-designated evacuation areas.
Out of kindness and love, right? I am SURE ti all went to others, the good upstanding Robin Hood types that they all are....
If you are going to feed us that much bullshit, at least hand us a clothespin for our noses first, ok?
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Look, most "gangsta"s have mommas and daddys and sisters and brothers and grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles and nephews and nieces and sons and daughters just like the rest of us. And they have non-gang friends just like the rest of us have friends who don't belong to our gangs: eg softball teams, country club, BoyScout troops, school bands, Rotary, SierraClub, etc.
And ya know what? Most of those "gangsta"s wish those friends and relatives well. And unlike folks whinin' about "looters", they have some degree of empathy. ie They can look at strangers and be reminded of people they like and love.
Right then, those "gangsta"s had friends and relatives missing. And couldn't do a darn thing about it. But they could see strangers and neighbors, sufferin' the same way their god-only-knows-where loved ones could be sufferin'.
Couldn't do squat for their missing, so they helped those who seemed in need, and hoped someone was doin' the same for their loved ones. Anything to keep from feeling helpless, from feeling worthless, from feeling like they let their loved ones, their neighborhood down.
Which ain't a whole heck of a lot different from the rest of us, 'ceptin' we got money&credit and places to buy relief supplies so we don't hafta "loot".
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