It’s rather shocking to see such things in America of all places. Very sad indeed. Maybe some of our fellow Americans should look in their own direction before they start going off at other people/nations.
*Lisa Ling, an Oprah Show correspondent who reported alongside the Angel Network team in September, returns to the region to see how communities are coping. She travels to Pass Christian, a Mississippi town about five miles from the ocean. Surveying the destruction, Lisa points to a home crushed beneath a fallen tree. A marking on the home indicates it was inspected by government officials on September 5, 2005…but it seems no action has been taken since that time.
Lisa is advised by officials not to walk on what used to be people’s front lawns because of unsafe E. coli contamination. Yet the people of this community are living in trailers and tents on that same contaminated property.
She points out the rubble, debris and litter everywhere, including a refrigerator with decayed meat still inside. “I can’t even describe the smell,” says Lisa. “That can’t be safe for the people who are living here. It’s a really dangerous place.”
Not far from “Tent City” are trailer parks full of unused FEMA mobile homes. Sandra, Lisa’s guide through Pass Christian, says they’ve been there since shortly after the storm. “‘Tent City’ would be able to fit in those trailers,” says Lisa.
“With lots of trailers left over,” Sandra adds. “That’s part of the frustration here. People don’t know that these trailers aren’t rolling out of there [one] behind the other.”
When Lisa and Sandra try to investigate one of the FEMA trailer parks, a security guard at the gate informs them it’s a “closed government site.” Lisa asks to speak with someone in charge but she and Sandra are turned away.
“We’ve just been with hundreds of people who are living in tents, and they’re wondering why they can’t get trailers,” Lisa says. “It’s just infuriating.”
Lisa continues to search for answers. She says she called FEMA to ask about the empty mobile homes she saw sitting near Pass Christian. “They said, ‘Look, we’re trying as hard as we can, … it’s not like we just give these trailers and distribute them openly,’” she says. “They’re dealing with it on an individual basis.”*
http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200602/20060221/slide_20060221_284_116.jhtml (how do you insert the link correctly, or will this do)
