I wrote a very positive article about the responses to Katrina for http://ezinearticles.com Entitled New Orleans My Home - Katrina My Nightmare and another article Katrina What It Is Like To Be An Evacuee In both articles I endeavored to stay on the upside and we arent complaining to anyone but today was the straw that brokeetc Everyone it seems, has an answer for who is to blame or who to call for help or how to deal with your insurance company. But I wonder if anybody is really asking the right questions! As evacuees, as victims of Katrina we have our own set of questions. They are not a product of bitterness but of pure frustration and at times exhaustion. Anyone may answer these questions since the people or agencies we are dealing with have notso far. Here is just a short list of our questions. The long list would overwhelm you. Why has my wife been dialing Red Cross for five days only to hear someone say she should keep trying but all the lines are busy. Then a recording says we are going to hang up now, and they do! Where are the 40,000 volunteers said to be helping the Red Cross when we call them? What does Red Cross do exactly with the billions of dollars it collects in times like these? Have they thought of contacting some of the giant telecommunications companies that boast so often about their ability to connect the whole world? But would these giant companies actually answer the phone? Has anyone of the agencies helping people in shelters considered that giving people food, water and a blow up mattress for the next few months contributes nothing to their starting a new life. Do insurance companies that are already trying to find ways out of paying for losses have a legal right to do this? Is it decent? Is it moral? If they file for bankruptcy do they know that under the new bankruptcy laws they must still pay after they re-organize? Would they, or the banks let us pay after we re-organize or would the insurance cancellation warnings come in the mail as usual? Do the national guard soldiers that were standing by as we entered our neighborhood assuring us that all was safe and secure realize that it is a little to late for safe and secure? Does a pile of rubble need to be secured? Have all the warnings about those who are committing fraud when it pertains to being a legitimate Red Cross site or collection point sufficiently scared away what might amount to thousands of donors. What ever happened to check it, then give. Is it might be fraudulent the new excuse for indifference. Is there something wrong with helping an individual or a family. Is it just as conscience soothing to dump big checks into big organizations as to actually help a real person, one with a name and not just a social security number. Does FEMA really expect people to return from places they have gone to for refuge, some that are hundreds or thousands of miles away from the Gulf coast area to keep an appointment with them to see their house? Is there even a child in America that doesnt know that these houses have been photographed sitting in ten feet of water for the past ten days? Could one of these children please call FEMA and let them know? Oh, I forgot it took my wife over five hundred attempts to reach FEMA before she got through. The result is now the familiar hurry up and wait. Will America with its worldwide reputation for its short attention span and its penchant for the pop culture, hottest item, latest news mentality really carry this thing through. Will interest wane before the water is dry? President Bush said, New Orleans will rise again. But infrastructure and Superdomes do not a city make. A city is people. How can we help people? How do you help people? |
