A. H. Krieg 2005
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I have always been a skeptic when it comes to governments providing anything, Charley the little class 4 hurricane we just had down here in Florida more than supports my skepticism. FEMA is the Federal Emergency Management Agency that so many of us believe to have other purposes than those touted by the fed. I'm here to tell you that the conspiracy theorists have won this argument.
We live in Eastern Manatee county about 40 miles from where the center of the storm past. We suffered only a tree blown down and some minor house damage most trees had been tied up and survived in good order. Myakka City is 15 miles to the east and they do not do as well, with winds up to 120 mph and Arcadia the next town was literally blown away with winds of up to 147 mph. The first response was as is usually the case from the Salvation Army, Utility crews from Texas, Oklahoma, and the east coast of Florida, then the Red Cross, and local agencies. FEMA was nowhere to be found. The storm hit on Friday FEMA finally showed up late Monday afternoon in the person of a manager from DC who toured the region with the president. Shortly thereafter on Tuesday FEMA set up in Port Charlotte what they called a Disaster Recovery Center that was made operational on Tuesday afternoon four days after the event. Port Charlotte is about 50 miles from Arcadia or Myakka City. The entire effort consisted of 22 satellite-linked telephones from which you could make a request call to some FEMA office out of state. The totally disorganized staff could not provide water, air-conditioning or food to hundreds of people lined up for hours to use the telephones in a sweltering 98 deg. Heat. But wait it gets better! The application process required for people to provide a mailing address and telephone contact number to the FEMA officer on the other end of the telephone line. Needless to say if your house is blown away there is no address no mail delivery and no telephone contact number, and without those FEMA employees refused to provide any service. As Christy Picht so aptly put it we don't have a home, mailbox or telephone any longer, we have run out of cash staying in a motel. Many have also lost their jobs because the businesses where they worked are also blown away. Rather then provide any service the bureaucracy of FEMA wants your Social Security number, your employers name and address, income statements, and the physical address of the property lost so that they can assess the damage. Taking an individuals word that his home no longer exists is not part of the venue'. Everyone in the state knew that if your previous address was Arcadia you home in all probability no longer exists, you had no telephone or mailbox and chances were good that you had no insurance policy copy or any other darn thing. Let us now examine exactly what FEMA will do for you if you do not qualify for assistance because you are actually employed and paying your own way. They will send you to the SBA (Small Business Administration) who will become the guarantor of last recourse for a low interest loan from your local bank. In other words they will do nothing for you at all. I have in my business career seen these loans, you get perhaps one percent lower interest but you are personally on the line to repay, should you default they come and take your house, car, kids and wife. By Wednesday they set up additional telephone banks in Arcadia, and in Lee County. On a personal level we needed to document our loss for tax reasons. Our home insurance has a Florida escape clause so that the carrier does not have to pay the first $ 13,000.00 of damage. It works this way you pay for insurance and if you are one day late in your payment they cancel, and if you have any claim they will show you an escape clauses so that they do not have to pay. We called FEMA but they said they could not get out to see us for at least six weeks and that we were to leave everything the way it was, hole in the roof and all until they came to inspect. Stupid is the only possible comment. The County showed up the next day and documented the loss for us. FEMA never showed up. We paid for the repair out of our own pocket. The only possible comment is too late, too little, too bureaucratic, too few bureaucrats, and very little help to those needing it. As always the middle class who pays for everything gets nothing. |