LA: Displaced oil workers get new homes

[rainbow4321]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/15/katrina.sugarville.reut/index.html

Compared with many others forced from their homes by Hurricane Katrina, residents of Sugarville have comfortable new houses, complete with amenities like soft beds, DVD players and full refrigerators.

Of course, "Sugarville" is actually a huge dirt lot on the grounds of the Royal Dutch Shell Sugarland Terminal in this southeastern Louisiana town.

The "houses" are Fleetwood Enterprises trailers supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to house oil workers and their families displaced by the storm that devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast.

For those in the storm's path, there are complaints far and wide that disaster response officials are not moving fast enough to find housing for storm evacuees. But when it comes to the oil industry, FEMA moved quickly, scrambling to get trailers so refineries could come back online and crude could begin flowing again.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

1. What is there to say but saying that I nominate this! nt

[Oreo]

2. Nominated

And CNN doesn't have this buried... the entire article is about this.
Amazing

[Lindsay]

3. Proving once again that BushCo has only one priority.

Not that I am surprised.

[fooj]

4. This is a bunch of bullshit!

Merh is fighting like hell just to get a trailer. I am sooooooooo pissed. She's not even sure she'll get one. From what I understand, she is on her own for electicity, water hook-up, etc. OMG. This is wrong. Pure and simple.

[Horse with no Name]

7. Hey fooj?

Can you share with me why Merh is having trouble getting a mobile home?
Maybe I can help her out.

[fooj]

10. Sure. Wow. That would be great!

This is part of a pm she sent me...

I spent hours in line for a FEMA trailer, am hot and sunburned and tired and not sure if I get one or if they will put it on my lot. I spent the afternoon trying to clear my lot for the trailer and looking at the remains of my house.

She's having a tough go of it. I wish there was more that I could do.

Any help you could give would be sooooooo appreciated, I'm sure.



:hug:

peace/

[Horse with no Name]

5. I saw a whole fleet of trailers go by a week ago and my first thought

was hurricane...second thought was....nah, they wouldn't spend $30k each on temporary housing.
I guess I was wrong.

[Coexist]

6. sonofabitch, sonofabitch, sonofabitch....

Why is this not on my television.
This is an OUTRAGE!

[TexasBushwhacker]

8. And they'll crumple like beer cans during the next storm n/t

[DFWdem]

9. I don't see this as a bad thing

How many of us were/are complaining about the skyrocketing gas prices immediately following Katrina? Well, in order for the prices to fall the supply must get back to pre-hurricane production levels. This isn't much different than providing police and firefighters with housing before the general public gets it. My father-in-law is an electrician on the MS gulf coast, so needless to say his services are in high demand. He worked for the power company for a week after the storm getting their offices back up and running, and guess what? They got better food than the general public, 3 square meals a day. They also filled his work vehicles with gas when it was still a scarce commodity and almost everyone else was waiting in gas lines. If these people are going ot be at work for 12-14 hours a day they will need somewhere to go home to so they can shower, eat, and sleep. Not everything is a big oil conspiracy.

[phusion]

16. I agree. Well said.

edit: Welcome to DU! :)

[KamaAina]

11. The Ninth Ward just announced its last-ditch recovery plan

They're drilling for oil! :-)

[nonconformist]

12. Nominated! nt

[Lori Price CLG]

13. OMFG. Kicking and nominating. n/t

[jsamuel]

14. K and N

[TahitiNut]

15. "All of the animals are equal, but some are more equal than others"

... in BushFarm. :puke: Heil Bush! :puke: Heil Bush!

[rainbow4321]

17. Energy consultant: "oil ...to start treating their employees like kings"

:grr: :grr: :grr:


http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/sep2005/nf2005091_2115.htm


An immediate complication for workers being summoned back to their offshore posts is the clear message from Louisiana state officials: Stay away. "There is just so much displacement. Everyone's working in a 'save lives' mode right now," says Louisiana Natural Resources Dept. spokeswoman Phyllis Darensbourg. "We're working on the basics -- water, communication."

The damage assessment "isn't just relegated to the gas pipelines, the platforms, the processing plants," analyst Eugene Kim of energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie says. "It's the highways, railroads -- and the workforce."

Kim's outfit has just begun examining the issues surrounding any necessary reconstruction of the Gulf's energy production region, but "we don't have any history on this. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event."

Veteran energy consultant Matt Simmons offered a blunt view of the problem facing the offshore producing sector. "It's time for the oil companies to start treating their employees like kings," he said in an interview. "Do it now, because they'll be forced to do it in three weeks."