In a rebuke to warm and fuzzy FEMA, federal Judge Stanwoood R. Duval Jr. (Eastern District of Louisiana) has ordered that the agency’s coverage of hotel bills for Katrina evacuees continue through February 7, 2006.
Link
Calling the Federal Emergency Management Agency “numbingly insensitive” and “unduly callous,” a federal judge ruled yesterday that the agency must pay the hotel bills of hurricane evacuees until Feb. 7, handing a reprieve to thousands who faced a Thursday deadline to check out or begin picking up the tab themselves.
The payments were to be discontinued as of mid December or early January 2006 depending on proximity to the disaster scene. Covered by this decision are some 42,000 families.
The Judge addressed the many decisions and reversals of the agency.
“It is unimaginable what anxiety and misery these erratic and bizarre vacillations by FEMA have caused these victims, all of whom, for at least one point in time, had the very real fear of being without shelter for Christmas,” wrote Judge Duval, an appointee of President Bill Clinton.
Recent decisions by FEMA have undercut the laws authorizing the very existance of the agency.
The judge said he based his ruling on the federal law that authorized FEMA. It requires the government to ease suffering and damage caused by natural disasters. The arbitrary deadline violates
that legislation, Judge Duval wrote, and discriminates against victims based on their economic status.
As welcome as this decision is it may not be enough.
“It’s certainly good news, but it doesn’t fix the entire problem,” said William J. Croft, a retired Army colonel who is heading a housing task force in Louisiana, where apartments for hotel occupants are scarce. “It’s going to take until April to provide enough housing for all the folks in the hotels.”
And then there are the warm and fuzzy words of fearless leader about racism and NOLA aid efforts.
Asked in an interview with NBC News whether the response would have been the same had the destruction occurred on Nantucket or in Chicago or Houston, Mr. Bush said he was aware of criticism that the government acted slowly because he was a racist, and he said such criticism was absolutely wrong.
“You can call me anything you want,” Mr. Bush said. “But do not call me a racist.”
I am barely able to restrain myself. But Laura is not much better apparently.
“And so I want to encourage families to try to settle where they are, to try to make the best of what they have right now,” Mrs. Bush said after a Toys for Tots event in Metairie, La., “but with the goal of moving back to New Orleans, because I know most people want to do that.”
Hmm, this couldn’t be because some would prefer to see a different population mix in NOLA, could it?
I am getting more and more pissed at these assholes. There are thousands of FEMA trailers still just sitting somewhere. What the Frick is the hold up of getting these poor displaced people out of hotels that are costing millions and into these trailers that are just sitting. Not only would it cut the hotel costs but these folks could cook and have something a little more homey than a damn hotel room. This administration just screws up everything they put there slimey hands on. They are the definition of incompetence.
Please see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/14/national/nationalspecial/14trailers.html
NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 10 – In a neighborhood that had not flooded, near orderly streets of dolled-up antebellum homes that now seem almost a fantasyland, a construction crew was chewing up a park the other day to install trailers for the legions of homeless people. And then abruptly, work halted.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency planned to install trailers in Annunciation Square in New Orleans but crews abruptly halted work after neighbors began complaining and local politicians got involved.
A site in the Gentilly neighborhood.
Blocking the path of a dump truck was an older woman so infuriated by the trailers that she was mounting a personal protest and refusing to move. Only when the police arrived did she relent, according to several workers who were there. But the mayor and the City Council have stepped in, and now several politicians are trying to use their influence to block some of the trailer parks.
Disgusting twits! And I am sure race has nothing to do with it.
There are other places to house the trailers, in my view. People will still need green spaces in order to function. Also, New Orleanians are sensitive to preserving historic structures and areas. I’ve driven around the city, and there are whole parking lots that aren’t being used for trailers. The two large city parks have golf courses that could be used as well, aren’t being used.
hey duranta, how much of NO is still without power?
While this story is Florida-Wilma related, it does offer insight into FEMA policies.
Further evidence that FEMA discriminates on the basis of class. It is my belief there is widespread discrimination on the basis of race: I’ve spoken to too many African-Americans who are having trouble with FEMA.
Sensitivity training, and more training period are badly needed for FEMA workers.
If people who work for FEMA(or anywhere)would simply stop and think how they would want to be treated and proceed accordingly we wouldn’t have all these companies etc having to go back and give ‘sensitivity training classes’.
And anyone who continues to say that racism doesn’t exist here would seem to be completely deluding themselves so they don’t have to take a stand against the racism that is exhibited every day in all parts of the country.