Posted on 08/29/2008 6:28:58 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Three years ago this morning, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore at the Mississippi-Louisiana line. It left a swath of devastation no mountain of statistics can describe fully: 1,836 dead; hundreds of thousands homeless; upward of $150 billion in property damage. That Katrina was the costliest natural disaster, by a factor of nearly four, in U.S. history only begins to tell the story.
Katrina was "the storm," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin would say later, "that most of us have long feared." For decades, scientists had predicted his city would slip beneath the waves in the 21st century from the combination of relentless natural forces and a powerful hurricane. Many thought Katrina would be that storm; had it passed west of the city, it might have been. But New Orleans, in the broadest sense of the term, survived Katrina, but was left more vulnerable, geologically and climatologically, than ever.
It would take volumes to recount all of the Katrina tragedies, but among the most troubling is the more than 14,000 Gulf Coast residents who have been made wards of the government by Jimmy Carter's Federal Emergency Management Agency.
To date, FEMA has spent many billions on hotel bills, rental assistance and living allowances for Katrina refugees, and lost hundreds of millions more to fraud by landlords and aid recipients, and to waste caused by its own fecklessness. It has promised to pay to rebuild the homes of the more than 14,000, but it may be years before they see a cent. So with no motivation to find their own places to live, to get a job, to get on with their lives, the shiftless sit and wait — and complain.
Interviewed in her "cramped" motel room in Gulfport, Miss., one woman complained to USA Today how "FEMA keeps bailing us out. But somehow, I always feel like a victim." As long as FEMA keeps bailing, she and the rest will continue to be victims — of "free money" and "compassionate government."
But when does it end? How much longer will the Katrina "emergency" last? How much more money are taxpayers expected to spend to house and feed those who won't help themselves? It's regrettable that rents in New Orleans are 46 percent higher than they were pre-Katrina, and that the city has demolished a good deal of its low-income housing stock rather than reopen it and have it collapse with many thousands of people inside. But how much more are the Katrina refugees owed because they chose to live in a region prone to this sort of disaster?
A lot more, apparently. FEMA is threatening to cut off housing payments on March 1, but it surely won't enforce that deadline out of fear it would produce a wave of homelessness. And at the current pace, public and private estimates say, it will take at least 20 years to rebuild the Gulf Coast. It's a timetable a storm called Gustav may upset in the next few days.
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
If you want on or off this list, let me know.
It will take 20 years to rebuild the Gulf coast? Tell me again why it needs to be rebuilt with my tax dollars?
Duh... because that’s how we do things now. It’s too much bother to ask people to provide for themselves these days. It’s SO unfashionable, too. Let the government do all the work so these poor people can get on with their (government sponsored) lives... and continue to live at our expense. Get over it... or just put some damned ice on it! Isn’t that obvious to you????? (Say “Yes,” or face mandatory reeducation by tomorrow at this time!)
20 more years of FEMA jobs.
Think about it.
What incentive does FEMA have to put itself out of work?
20 years to a federal pension.
As the union guys say, “Don’t kill the job”.
Funny how the people of Iowa picked themselves up after their devastating flood and went right to work cleaning up and rebuilding. Some people choose helplessness. It’s so much easier than being a responsible adult and working.
Does this mean I face mandatory reeducation? ;-)
You betcha! You’ll be picked up about 0330 tomorrow. Be ready. You won’t have to bring anything. It’ll be just you and all your family. Enjoy!
Because you are a taxpaying, hard working American you should be tasked with supporting all of those who are not. The nanny state so decrees. sarc/
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