I just spent 3 hours at a FEMA/SBA disaster help site...

in order to take care of about 3 minutes of communication. We were hearded into a school cafeteria in a predominantly black area. They had armed guards for intimidation in case anyone got too upset, frustrated. The tables were connected to the seats which were just disks and had no backs. One guy was repremanded for resting his feet on a nearby seat.

FEMA had 6 laptop computers set up. Only one or two of these were being used at a time to help people. Everyone was visibly frustrated, desperate and traumatized. One girl behind me intermittently cried during the wait.

I didn't have some of the paperwork that I needed so I'll have to go back. I think next time, I'll go to another location that's in a predominantly white area and see if there is any disparity in the treatment.

It's really upsetting that this is the way our government treats those who are struggling to recover from a disaster of biblical perportions.

There is no disparity.

We are all poor folks now.

Hell, I had The Red Cross guy lecture me when he gave me the check they had for survivors. He told me "Spend it wisely, this is all you are getting from this organization."

I guess he didn't want me to go out and buy any porn or crack with it.

Good luck with FEMA, it has also been my experience that you will never have the right paperwork and they will have confused things for you somewhere along the way.

:hi:

just trying to get some rental assistance b/c rents here are outragious with limited housing.

can they bar me from doing that? I'd like to document this aspect of the recovery along with my other photos.