More New Orleans stories

PEARL RIVER, LA - Despite the resignation of under qualified former FEMA director Michael D. Brown and the subsequent appointment of Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen, residents of coastal Louisiana are vocally dissatisfied with the federal agency’s performance in the post-Katrina Mississippi Delta. I spoke with Jennifer Pulsifer, as she sat next to me at three in the morning, trying to get through the formidable busy signal presented to Red Cross callers day and night. My “office”, a ramshackle shed partially crushed by a large tree and swarming with giant, belligerent cockroaches and violent clouds of mosquitoes, is one of the few places in the neighborhood with a working phone. Locals come by at all hours of the night to place calls to various relief agencies. Nearly every call I’ve overheard has been frustrated with busy signals and off-putting messages.

Pulsifer remarks, “Come tax time they want your money, but right after a disaster they don’t want to help you out. Unless you left the state; then they’ll hand you a check if you’re in another state.”

Jennifer applied to FEMA for financial aid, but ran into difficulties.

"I couldn’t get through on the phone, so I had to wait until I found Internet access, and then it was a two hour process to apply. Days later, I end up calling them back. They said I don’t qualify because I am a renter. Even though I have property damage; the kids’ clothes are damaged, the furniture is wrecked, but I don’t get nothing. If you are just making it by, paycheck to paycheck, and don’t own your own home, then they have no help for you.” The twenty-eight year old mother of four adds, “FEMA’s for the rich. It’s funny that many of those who stayed did so because they couldn’t afford the evacuation, didn’t have money for gas or lodging; they’re the ones who need help the most, and they aren’t getting it.”

Earlier today I spoke with a frazzled Red Cross site director (who wished to remain anonymous) in a Wal-Mart parking lot where he and his crew were busily distributing garbage and lawn waste bags. “Yeah, we don’t seem to know what we are doing so well here; we are waiting on further instructions, but we should have more stuff later today, somewhere.”

The sun glinted gloomily off his sweaty scalp, the corners of his mouth were flecked with foam and his eyes were wild; how many soggy locals had offered this man ten kinds of shit today? I took pity on the poor bastard and offered him a Corona longneck from the carton I was walking around with (and drinking liberally from.) He shrugged and accepted.

There is no room for condemnation of anyone working at these low levels of the totem pole; we should heap gratitude on the volunteers at the aid stations and scream terrible insults and curses at the men and women who are managing their efforts so poorly. Although most of the nation is largely unaffected by the government’s absurd incompetence here is the devastated South, we all have reason for concern: When crisis strikes, be it natural disaster or terrorist attack, we seen several times over how easily overwhelmed our short-sighted, reactionary administration becomes, and unfortunately we obviously must be prepared for the worst.