Frustrated !!!!!!!!

Tonight is New Year’s Eve night and I don’t know where my dollars are. I have been waiting for 3 months for FEMA to send me the money for the damages for my home in New Orleans. I am from the lower 9th ward and my home and personal possessions that I had acculumated for 26 years are gone. I live in Memphis, TN now and have no plans to return to New Orleans. I was treated like a second class citizen then and I feel like I am being treated like a second class citizen now. When I read that the Saints players got $40K after the hurricane, I could not believe it. Because they could not use their stadium. So the way they play, it does not seem they use it anyway. Mayor Naguin and Governor Blanco talk about how they want their citizens back. My house is a total disaster. It had about 9 feet of water or more for more than two weeks. My roof is gone, my wall has collapsed, the kitchen cabinets have come from the wall. My shed and yard items are completely gone. What is there to go back to? It is all because they need money. Things are so high in New Orleans and Louisiana that I could not afford to live there again if I wanted to. How would you feel if your family was in another part of the world and you are in another? My son, daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters live in another state. Because of the lack of reliable transportation and money, I have not seen my new grandchild that was born in November. Before Katrina hit, my family was close. New Years eve would be the gathering place for all the family at my mother-in-law and my father-in-laws. Now we say happy holidays by cell phone. My mother is still missing. I gave some DNA samples about a month ago and have not heard from them since. I gave them time to do what they had to do and called them. The lady said someone was going to call me back but I have not heard from them since then. FEMA, if you read these letters from these people, have a heart. I was told that you are weeks behind. What’s wrong with our government in letting this go on?

Bernadine Harris
Tired and Disgusted

I lived in “The Big Easy”, it’s called that because it was. I can’t take what has happened during and after Katrina. This country is in the toilet. we have No regard for ourselves as a nation. We are letting each other down, everything that has happened to ONE person has happened TO US ALL!!! Please let me explain. The only complete story I know is my own. I stayed through Katrina. Where could I go. I don’t drive, never had to. Good transit system. I went to work Saturday night from 3:30pm to 12:am (we closed 2 hrs. early). Yes on weekends I worked 10 and 1/2 hrs. on my feet with no dinner break. OK you get it I worked hard just like thousands of others in the city I loved. And just like thousands of others I rode out the storm at home. after the hurricane it looked like we had dogged a bullet, for a little while. Slowly the people in my nieghborhood began to realise something was very, very wrong. Like many people who live on the gulf coast and inland I had a battery operated tv a little b&w. So I knew the power was out all over the city. I went to the local fire house and told them I had to keep my insulin cool. they said they would make sure I had ice and insulin. OK things are not so bleak. The next thing I hear is the levee is breached in three places, water is filling the city like a fishbowl. THERE ARE BODIES IN THE WATER!!! The horror of hearing those words. People are dying. People are dead. New Yorkers know what I mean. The pictures! Who was taking those pictures of people on thier roof tops three days after the storm. WHY WERN”T THEY SAVING THEM? Just tell me people are signeling from there roof tops, THEN GET THEM OFF. Next bulletin the Superdome is full and people are running out of food and water. The heat is so oppressive, it’s like trying to breath in a steamroom. Again I’m shone pictures, scenes that repeat over and over in my dreams. Still three months later. I see the people abandoned, at least thats what it feels like. Like nobody cares.Like we we’re the girl you would sneak off and see in high school but didn’t want any of your friends to know about. You know, used and forgotten. I worked in the Quarter, I probably talked to 10,000 tourests a year. I could really make them feel welcome. Make them want to come back. And why not, I was proud of my city. Who failed? Everybody from the beaurocrats in FEMA, to the cop on the beat, to the president of the United States, to the Governor to the news people who left out LARGE parts of the story. Did you know that Jefferson Parish (what you would call the next county) was pumping water in the 17th street canal when it broke? No that was only mentioned on local radio. What has happened sense. Well for me, just like thousands of others, I am far
away from home with no job running out of money for food and rent and no prospect of anything changing in the near future. Like many of my fellow evacuees I was forced from my home with threat of death ” You have to leave right now. 10 feet of water will be here by morning” can anyone doubt that is a threat. I lived in an apartment building. I was forced to leave my home and my cat to get on a bus to who knows where. Yet FEMA tells me I didn’t suffer enough dammage to get rental assistance. I’m sorry could you repeat that, you say I didn’t suffer enough? Want to trade places? I’ve talked to other evacuees, they all say the same thing the stress is killing people. Dancing through hoops for FEMA is worse than you can imagine. Yes I LOST EVERYTHING. NO I can’t go back and get it. NO I can’t live there i can”t affored it. They have no support system, No reliable transet, no hospital system,very few stores, unrelible electricity, no afforable housing. AND I HAD TO LEAVE MY CAT!!!! My health is ruined I now have Hypertention I did not have that before Katrina. The same thing has happened to countless other evacuees. Especially the very young and the elderly. Sometimes it feels like America is culling it’s people like they cull the dear in some states. Please if you see someone in pain today reach out in some human way, return America to a state of grace. Where every citizen cares about every other citizen. Don’t forget those of us who have lost our homes and lives. In anyway, war, disaster, crime, neglect. However! Don’t forget. Tell your elected officals All of these people are suffering stop with the red tape that is killing more people. After 28yrs. of living in one town you come see what I have left of my life and tell me to my FACE that I haven’t suffered enough damage. By the way my cats name is Face.

- Mary McCollum

I am trying to help rebuild the coast. I struggle on with what’s left of my carreer at what’s left of Marine Life. Once my dolphins are “gone” there will be no use for people like me.

I’m a renter, since my career choice is more for the heart than the paycheck. My house received what I thought was minimal damage, but due to the age of my house it has compounded. My landlord lost his home to the storm so he is liquidating his assets to rebuild his home.

I don’t qualify for a loan anymore because my place of employment can’t be verified.

I can’t afford first, last, security deposits and so forth to move elsewhere in Gulfport — What are you supposed to do ?

My point is this, MANY of us want to stay and rebuild the coast but are being squeezed out by the very people who live here who are supposed to be here to help us.

If local residents are being forced out of their homes and jobs and these are being bought up by out of state people then there will be no more locals and Mississippi will have lost in it’s efforts to rebuild.

- Robert Bushrow

I live in a small town in upstate NY called Sanford/Deposit area, we around here have complained to the local state and goverment and to ‘fish and game’ that the local creek called Oquaga Creek floods with only 1 or 2 inches of rain due to rocks in the stream. So we get hit with 2 floods in less then 1 year and broome county is considered a distaster area and offers help from FEMA. I recieve money the first time which was only 1/5 of what was needed for repairs and they deposit the money direct and never to hear from them again, the second flood I ask for help again this one worse then the first and I am told NO HELP due to not getting flood insurance, first I thought Fema was there to help people with no flood insurance, so I appeal and send in all my paperwork again and state that I was never informed that I must buy flood insurance to get help in the future and I am informed that I will recieve money for the flood, I recieve one check but never recieve the second and when I call to ask about the second check I am informed that not only am I not getting the second check but they want all the money back even the second check I never recieved, I complain to deaf ears and still today I am being asked to pay back the money I recieved and the money I never recieved, I have called wrote letters and only get angry every time I try to resolve this problem, is there anybody out there that can help me, I even sent money to the bar association to request a lawyer to help me and no lawyer wants to waiste there time with this part of the goverment, IS ANYBODY OUT THERE THAT CAN HELP ME?

Sincerely,

Tom Barth
Deposit, New York

If you suspect that someone recieved government assistance by fraudulant means, please report them. You may remain anonymous and I assure you, an investigation into your claim will be done and action taken if neccessary.

Please read the information below, which can be found in detail at www.fema.gov

————————————–
False disaster claims or theft of government property, prosecuted by the Justice Department, are felonies carrying maximum penalties of 10 years imprisonment or $250,000 fine or both.

Through computer databases, informant tips, and hotline tips, we are receiving information of fraudulent claims, Skinner said. Those who have made such claims, whether to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or any other government entity, should take stock of their situation and seriously consider withdrawing their claims or voluntarily returning monies already disbursed to them, he added.

FEMA officials urged victims of the storms to beware of suspected criminal activity involving disaster assistance programs. Anyone can make an anonymous report by calling the toll-free Hurricane Relief Fraud Hotline, 1-866-720-5721, 24 hours a day, seven days a week until further notice. Information can also be emailed to the inspector general at dhsoighotline@dhs.gov or sent by surface mail, with as many details as possible, to:

Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC. 20528
Attn: Office of Inspector General, Hotline

The Department of Justice Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force and Federal Trade Commission Consumer Response Center will also accept disaster fraud information. To provide information to the Justice Department, access the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov. The Federal Trade Commission accepts disaster

- Mystery Guest