Ah, Jesus...another one for the "You're Shitting Me" file...

[WilliamPitt]

'We called it Hurricane FEMA'

Trailer park in Louisiana quickly emptied by federal agents

By Peter Whoriskey
The Washington Post

HAMMOND, La. - Shortly after noon, FEMA agents began rapping on the trailer doors, their knocks resounding inside the tinny white homes. Everyone in the park, the agents announced without warning, would have to pack and leave within 48 hours.

Where do we go now?

Why?

What about school?

To the residents of the Yorkshire Mobile Home Park, all of them families displaced by Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency crews offered answers that were uncertain and sometimes contradictory. As residents spilled out of their homes to meet their similarly bewildered neighbors, the adults wondered where they would be sent next, and how far they might wind up from their jobs. Some began sobbing. Then the children, seeing their parents' tears, began crying, too. A woman fainted, and an ambulance came.

"It was like shock and awe," recalled Ron Harrell, 40, a tenant. "We called it Hurricane FEMA."

The Yorkshire residents were eventually scattered to other FEMA parks. But their sudden evacuation last weekend illustrates the upheavals that still accompany life in a government trailer park 18 months after the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005.

About 12,000 households in Louisiana live in such settlements, temporary arrangements that only out of desperation are being stretched out indefinitely.

More: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17575595/

...oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave...o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

[ReadTomPaine]

1. Welcome to the New American Century...

now get on your knees and put your hands behind your head.

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. These Republicans really know how to make people suffer if they

need government assistance. Injured soldiers, displaced hurricane victims. They really don't care who you are. Not a drop of compassion.

[Hubert Flottz]

2. The BUSHSTAPO strikes again!

Compassionate Kahnservatives on parade!

[Horse with no Name]

3. It never stops does it?

Just an endless barrage of insults from this administration. There are so many you can't even keep up with them.:(

[Mojorabbit]

4. It has to be so hard

on those children. I wish I could wave my wand and make it all better.

[frankly_fedup2]

10. You have a wand? (nt)

[daveskilt]

45. I have a wand....wanna see it?

:evilgrin:

[Auntie Bush]

52. I hope you're not planning on waving it.

[daveskilt]

56. more waggling than waving - aunties beware

I sound like a french taunter now - no they waved didn't they?

[koopie57]

18. The kids are never going to feel safe

As I was growing up I always worried about my mom throwing me out of the house or that she couldn't come up with the $200 in property taxes every six months. When I first moved out, I made sure that everything I owned could fit in my Chevy Chevette. I kept where I lived spotless clean just in case I would have to leave quickly. It has only been in the last ten years of so that I started feeling okay about letting the house get dirty/messy. I can't help but wonder what kind of lives these kids are going to find for themselves.

For the next 50 years there will still be suffering from this worthless person, our president.

[salin]

5. anger at bad press by Fema (over a late power bill led to power outage)

so they *displace* folks again? Geez. I can not even begin to imagine. Folks who can't afford the now again escalating gas costs suddenly have longer drives to work or to take kids to school. Grrrr.

[AtomicKitten]

6. America is becoming immune to outrage.

It's time the Democrats started screaming.

[Skidmore]

7. Which committee needs to jump o this in congress?

Like yesterday. This is as unconscienable as the Walter Reed travesty. Effin' phone call time again.

[WilliamPitt]

8. Pick one

Homeland Security

Finance

Government Oversight

Interior

[Usrename]

28. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Chairman Joe Lieberman and Ranking Member Susan Collins

http://www.senate.gov/~govt-aff/

good luck with that

[loudsue]

60. LIEBERMAN heads that Senate Committee???

No phucking WONDER these people are being displaced! It doesn't jive with LIEberman's DLC corporatist agenda!

:kick::kick:

[formercia]

9. The scary part

It could happen to almost any of us, unless you are so rich you could relocate to your condo on Maui.

They will keep the people in camps until they default on their property taxes so the city can seize their property and sell it to developers connected to Bush Gang.

[mmonk]

11. Ugh

Something else to be depressed and disgusted over.

[malaise]

12. How much more can these people take

Bush will never be forgiven.

[jus_the_facts]

13. There is no help...there is no hope....there is no future....regardless of who is in control....

....nothing will be done...prepare for more of the same...just kill me now and get it over with. :cry:

[ends_dont_justify]

37. Don't give up

It's always darkest just before dawn. This is the exact reaction they want of us...it's tragic and terrible what they're doing to us, but that's why we need to keep our heads up and do better. Something has to change...but only if we have the strength can we make it better.

[EFerrari]

42. Send out the OP to whoever you can thinlk of

and never, ever give up.

:hug:

:kick:

[SalmonChantedEvening]

14. Another form of torture courtesy of BushCo

They sink predictably lower :grr: :cry:

[POAS]

15. Life in "Walmart America"----

The future for us all?

"People say we shouldn't still be living in a FEMA park," said one former Yorkshire tenant, a Wal-Mart worker who wanted to be identified only as "P." "But take a look at the rents people have to pay in New Orleans now -- who can afford that?"

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

16. Closed due to "bad press" with no concern for the tenants whatsoever.

After reading the article, it sounds like a pissing contest between the park landlords and FEMA with the hapless tenants as pawns that no one cares about. There seems to be absolutely no reason that the shutdown had to be so precipitous and cruel to the Katrina victims.

Someone was responsible for paying the electric bill and didn't. It's hard to tell whether the culpability is with the park owners or FEMA.I'm not sure from the article if FEMA just wasn't paying the rent as agreed to in the initial contract or if the park owners were remiss.

After all this time, why aren't they building permanent affordable housing? Single units, and smaller multi families, scattered over a wide area would be the way to go.

[TNDemo]

17. They will take those trailers and dump them in the field

at Hattiesburg, where thousands of FEMA trailers lay empty. It is just ridiculous that people who need them can't have them.

[Oilwellian]

30. I saw all of those trailers last summer

We were heading to Slidell and could see the field of FEMA trailers.....it was HUGE. My husband's sister lost her home to Katrina and had to live in one of those flimsy trailers until her home was rebuilt. Her street was lined with FEMA trailers and most of her neighbors were still living in them. She was one of the lucky few who could afford to rebuild her home. The irony was, she couldn't get FEMA to come and pick up the trailer after they no longer needed it. It's been sitting in her driveway for close to a year. She and her husband considered moving it themselves but FEMA said they would be prosecuted if they did.

[rodeodance]

20. Their misery never ends!

[progressoid]

21. Hey, I heard about this on CNN...

oh, wait, I was thinking about a country where the media gives a shit.

[tblue37]

22. In Iraq, families find a note on their door telling them to

leave within 24 or 48 hours--or die. Why does this rousting of FEMA trailer residents remind me of such ethnic cleansing?

[mod mom]

23. One word: DESPICABLE!

[ourvoicescount]

24. WOW. As if they haven't been through enough yet...

[raccoon]

25. K&R. nt

[helderheid]

26. same

[demrabble]

27. CONGRESS Should Not Fund the Supplemental for the War

Congress (the Congress that WE elected) should NOT spend a dime more on the war.

They should vote AGAINST the supplemental bill to give MORE money to the war in Iraq.

They should take the money that * wants for the war and instead FORCE Bush to spend it on providing decent housing, clothing, utilities, and the other necessities of life to the people of New Orleans displaced by Hurrican Katrina.

Then Congress shoulod DEMAND that FEMA employees who ordered and carried out this dispicable raid be FIRED!

[catmandu57]

31. That's what it sounds like

The money is going for the chimp hitting the Hornet's nest in iraq and to the haves and have mores. Fuck you if you don't belong to the elite class in this miserable excuse for a country, if you keep kicking the dog someday he'll turn around and rip you a new asshole. Keep kicking fucknutz, your day is coming.

[BlackVelvet04]

29. Where is the media?

Right after Hurricane Katrina the media were all over the place....news people crying, wringing their hands, hamming it up on national television. Now where are they?

Where is Congress?

[Jcrowley]

32. It can't happen here

Oh wait.

[daveskilt]

46. Deus Impeditio Esuritori Nullus - No God can stop a hungry man

Eventually this type of abuse never ends well for the tyrant responsible.

[yurbud]

33. Bush ideal is to make people WISH they lived in a trailer park instead of a refrigerator box under

a bridge.

This aint no entitlement society. You got to earn that indoor plumbing and such.

[rateyes]

34. Damned fuckers......nt

[EFerrari]

43. I hate these people. Please send the OP out to your guys.

:kick:

[lies and propaganda]

35. The Victims of this storm are going to be like War Victims

These vhildrenand the families that were in the Superdome and then the ensuining Fuck You are going to have the same PTSD and mental issues for the rest of their lives.

Because this country gives as much a shit about Katrina as much as they do soldiers they supposedly support.

[paparush]

36. How long before one of these multi-f#cked over Katrina Victims snaps

and does something R E A L L Y violent? Holy crap..how much can these poor people take?

[ends_dont_justify]

38. Victims of oppression

In a corrupt regime. Fortunately if there were a civil war it seems we'd only be up against 30%, makes me wonder how strong their ignoring this kind of thing would be if put up to face of it?

Something needs to budge...and people need change. Dunno how or what, but without a plan and without fighting back nothing will get better. When will people stop looking at * and co as a bad president, and start looking at them as our enemy? Direct enemies of the country who are fighting us. We need to fight back.

[underpants]

39. Next time a levee breaks, be a veteran

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=268284&mesg_id=268284

[geniph]

40. Can we call them "refugees" and "refugee camps" yet?

At some point, I'm sure the words "detainment" or "internment" will become apropos, unless we can get rid of the scumbags currently running things.

[EFerrari]

41. PLEASE SEND THE OP OUT TO YOUR NETWORK, FOLKS.

WE have to do the leg work. NO ONE ELSE IS GOING TO DO THIS.

Thank you, Will. :loveya:

:nuke:

:nuke:

:nuke:

[lpbk2713]

44. *We are from the gummint and we are here to help you.*

"Now get the fuck out and I mean NOW."


" .... and FEMA, yer doin' a heck of a job."

[blues90]

47. Oh say can you say ?

Welcome to HELL !

These poor people , how much more can they take , how much more can many hit by the bushco effect across this not so great land take ?

[stevedeshazer]

48. Speechless and late to the gig

K & R

[Blue_Tires]

49. ttt

[AikidoSoul]

50. A wish for a re-incarnated Bush might look like this

If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I hope and pray that the little fucker comes back as a fully sentient being -- mysteriously incorporated into the skin about four inches inside the assholes of every human being on the planet.

[BlooInBloo]

51. Thank GOD Lieberman went back on his promise to investigate...

... fuckwit Connecticut electorate.

[maggiegault]

53. WHAT?

Just...WHAT?

Why isn't this on the news...oh, fuck it. Never mind.

:nuke:

[Danger Mouse]

54. And just when you thought it'd never get any worse...

it's almost funny. Almost.

[RB TexLa]

55. There will be no outrage, America doesn't care about Louisiana

never has and never will.

[AZBlue]

57. They must have needed them for the FEMA trailer auction!

Those bids won't wait!!!
:sarcasm:

I'm so sick of the on-going, never-ending assualt on these poor people. Katrina was just the beginning of it.

[Kurovski]

58. "Nightmare America" marches on.

K&R.

[loudsue]

59. That is what the(Dept. o)f Homeland Security Act did to the U.S.

Besides allowing the neocons to "privatize" most government functions, it also took the Homeland Security away from Congress. The head of Homeland Security can pretty much do as he pleases, with any government agency he pleases to do it with. And the budget is huge.

The whole damned Act should be scrapped. FEMA should have stayed as it was.

:kick::kick::kick: