Katrina, FEMA & The Banks...oh, and the people

Living hundreds of miles away, and never seeing any stories on the news aboutit, it's almost as if all is ok in New Orleans. I mean this great government ofours wouldn't let it's citizens get screwed because of bureaucracy, greedy banksand do nothing politicians...would they? Yes, yes they would.

Reuters: "AidFlap is New Threat to New Orleans Rebuilding"

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - As homes in New Orleans' flood-stricken zones inchtoward habitability, a bureaucratic storm is brewing between state and federalrelief agencies that could derail the city's recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Officials from the state of Louisiana contend that a new federal requirementthat aid checks be issued jointly to homeowners and their mortgage lenders couldmean that money bypasses the owners -- many of whom lost their jobs as a resultof Katrina -- and goes straight to paying their defaulted mortgage payments.

So the banks are getting theirs, now you get your's. But FEMA (Federal EmergencyManagement Agency) must be watching out for the people right?, that's their job right,well...that's a "NO"

Johnson has been waiting for funds from the Federal Emergency ManagementAgency and the state-run, federally funded and roundly criticized Road Homeprogram since being rescued from her attic days after Katrina hit the U.S. GulfCoast.

The Road Home program has received more than 121,000 applications and has60,000 still to process, and has closed on fewer than 6,100 of them. Of $7.5billion in funding, some $4.7 billion has been allocated, but not necessarilypaid out.

"It doesn't make sense. Everywhere we been, we build other people's(countries) but when it come to ourselves it's completely different,"said Vernon Lawrence, 75, pointing to the cost of the Iraq war andreconstruction. "Here we are in this country suffering like hell."

The Washington Post: also reported on the current situation: "KatrinaAftermath Still Undercuts Special-Needs Housing"

And for anyone that thinks it was a big task and the governmenthas been working on this situation all along, On August 28, 2006 Amanda of ThinkProgress kept us posted with this story OneYear Later: The Real State Of New Orleans. There are great links in thisstory which are important, because there was some talk about how "greatthings were going" with the rebuilding. The rebuilding was being focused on thetourist areas.

I've been through a few hurricanes in my life, and when I think of how muchof a "disaster" and "inconvenience" it was to be withoutelectric for 2-3 days, I feel ashamed now. After these current stories, maybewe'll see McCain walk around the French Quarter and say how wonderful everythingis going.