When I heard the head of FEMA talking tonight on CNN, I just got angry. Maybe I am wrong to be that way, but he sounded like he had it all down pat. Maybe they are better organized there, as they have had private companies working a year on catastrophic hurricane possibilities. My previous diary lists the 3 companies involved in New Orleans supposedly.
FEMA may have privatized New Orleans emergency management.
I do kmow they did not have it together here. Eventually they showed up. The most aid went to Miami, and the damn hurricane did not even hit there! They did help a lot in many areas, but it was NOT immedidate. There were huge delays. They had become part of Homeland Security, and just were not set up as they should be.
Now after rambling, here is my point. I think the most tragic part of this will be the new homeless class from these hurricanes. Bottom line is that when low income housing was destroyed, nearly 95% in Charlotte County where Charlie veered ashore suddenly, they consciously decided not to rebuild it. Instead they are enriching the tax base by building nicer homes and new businesses.
The people in FEMA village there, some 500 trailers, will have to get out in February. This article shows their quandary, which basically is that they have nowhere to go.
Misery Follows Charley’s Path: First of Four Hurricanes to Terrorize Florida in 2004
Unlike typical developments, though, this one bears the stamp of planned obsolescence.
The community just outside Punta Gorda, officially called the Airport Mobile Home Park, is scheduled to vanish Feb. 13 — 18 months after Hurricane Charley made landfall on Florida’s southwest coast and churned northeast through the state.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency built the 59-acre community in a cow pasture next to the Charlotte County Airport to house people displaced by Charley. The agency laid sewer and water lines, installed an electrical grid and built roads to serve the largest temporary housing center FEMA has ever built.
It was good that FEMA provided these services. I have no gripe with that. But these people on the whole have nowhere to go. Their housing needs would not override the monetary importance of businesses and fancy homes that pay more taxes.
“I’d be lost without them,” said Hurst, 38, who is legally blind and lives off monthly disability payments of $720. “I’ll stay here until I run out of money.”
Residents are only required to pay for water and electricity but can opt for cable and phone service, said FEMA spokeswoman Bettina Hutchings.
These are the kind of people the right wing extremists and bloggers call irresponsible, say they need to pay their way. I believe most have jobs and are productive citizens, but they can not find housing they can afford. It is not being rebuilt because of cutbacks in federal funding and just plain greed.
But where Rusty and his dad will live after the makeshift village closes remains unsettled. FEMA estimates that Hurricane Charley wiped out 95 percent of Charlotte County’s low-income housing.
“There’s no place to go,” Hurst said. “We can’t live anywhere down here with these rents. The prices go $800 to $1,000 down here.”
DAMAGE PERSISTS
A year after Charley, Punta Gorda is a hodgepodge of devastation and renewal, with new homes and businesses rising amid the wreckage of the old.
Some houses remain unoccupied in the historic district near Charlotte Harbor, and vacant lots signal the disappearance of others.
“We’re starting to get new businesses opened that were not here previous to Hurricane Charley,” Nemec said. “Out of the rubble, we’re starting to see a lot of positive motion.”
And out of that rubble they are building finer things, and the people in FEMA village have nowhere to go. And I have seen very few articles that point this out, and very few people who care.
