FEMA and Disaster Assistance

Folks you have to be there to understand the enormous task of recovery after a hurricane or major disaster. We went to the Katrina area pretty soon after the disaster, yes it was organized  and unorganized chaos.

Now, the e-mails ‘leaking’ out of FEMA itself show they were not prepared for the disaster, this time any more than before, mainly because Sandy hit densely populated areas they say. FEMA officials on sight told FEMA personnel them selves, to ‘sight see’ and do not go into the worst damaged areas. for 4-5 days.

We are very giving people in the USA. As soon as a disaster hits Organizations, individuals, churches and  charity groups of all kinds start giving and sending ‘stuff’ food, clothing and supplies. Unless you are there to see the results, you cannot understand. Picture a Truck arriving in a neighborhood with cloths. People are anxious to replace what they are wearing. But if you are size 8 and cannot find anything but size 5 or 15, things get tough. The volunteers have no time to set up tables so they start passing stuff out, many times by the box. If the guy in front cannot use it it goes over his head to the next guy etc. When it gets to the end and no one can use it, it stays on the ground.

(Katrina, donated things)

When the truck leaves, there are piles of new clothes and shoes scattered all over. Most of the time no one picks it up to refold it and besides by now it has at least one or two foot prints pressing it into the mud. The first pile I saw, I honestly thought, how ungrateful! until I took time to think. We saw many piles the same.

NOW COMES THE NEWS MEDIA, filming the pile and discoursing how there must be a better way, bad mouthing all the assistance as being unorganized. My LORD, of course it is unorganized, it’s a disaster. It takes time for things to get organized in the disaster area.

(Things donated,  we did try to repackage some of this!))

Things work well on paper, but in reality you cannot predict human nature. I mentioned only one small problem, the clothes. We saw a truck load of frozen bread, someone had donated, a great gesture, but no one had gas or electric, and some no houses to cook it in. so most of it was lost. I wish the media could understand, you cannot organize chaos in three or four days. Like Bush or hate Bush, his administration done as well as the present administration. The FEMA officials admitted in their own correspondence, they were not prepared for Sandy.

(Back Bay in Biloxi)

All I am saying is like most situations, you must be there to understand it.

Natural disasters are terrible to deal with.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

It is hard to give a guy a break when you just do not like him.

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Disaster, don’t make your girl mad, if she owns a back hoe!

From the Studebaker museum in South Bend, IND