August 28, 2009
July 4, 2009
Dear America, Have a Happy Birthday!
Well Darlin’s this day makes Year 233 A.R. (After Revolution). We all should be proud of the fact that somehow the strange collection of folks that have lived through those years managed to keep it all together (The War Between the States was a major blip on the screen…), and so much has been done by the people of this Nation. I can’t say by the Nation because the people are the Nation. It has always been up to citizens to create, build and advance our lives here and to provide for the ones to come.
I am proud to be an American. I’m proud of the service I rendered in the Navy to help protect this country. But… I am upset with the Government for the slow, and possibly non-existent rebuilding along the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike. Many private people stepped up to the plate to help all os along the Coast out from the devastation, but the Government has been sorely lacking, especially for those of us in New Orleans who lost almost everything from the failure of the Federally designed and built floodwalls and levees. Betty and I lost 95% of our pasts and four years of our lives fighting to rebuild our little world. Many others have lost and they have yet to be able to get to the restoration point that we have reached. Along the Coast many of us feel as if America, the Government, has forgotten us. We know that America the People didn’t.
The Church of Our Lady of Gentilly wishes many Blessings to the American People. Party hearty!
Sinn Fein
August 29, 2008
July 8, 2008
Yes, I Freakin’ Hate Republicans
Here’s their latest crap concerning the FEMA trailers used on the Gulf Coast.
I must get an elephant gun, and tons of ammo.
November 12, 2007
FEMA Trailers Vanish!
Over the past week I’ve been seeing FEMA trailers being hauled out of the sacred “Lost Neighborhood” where our house sits. I kept thinking that something is strange since we didn’t have that many trailers in our neck of the woods and I didn’t notice any missing from the neighboring homes.
Well we went to visit “The House” to say hi and all, and then I noticed that an entire FEMA trailer park was gone. There were no craters signifying a meteor strike or wholesale abduction by aliens (FEMA and Shaw Group folks act like aliens…). There were no charred remains of those gaseous emergency shelters either. I figured that it was just magick, plain and simple.
The FEMA park filled Perry Rhoem Park, a football and baseball field that is the center of our neighborhood. So many folks showed up for the games, even if they didn’t have kids playing, and many would be grilling up goodies for all and sundry. It broke my heart to see the fields covered in white boxes on wheels… where would the kids play?
It turns out that there really aren’t that many kids around anymore. I still plan to do some fundraising so that the park will be better than before… a thank you to the fields for being a temporary home for so many folks, but when will our city have all of the various teams of short kids wearing huge shoulder pads or the little ones swinging a bat taller then themselves?
It is progress in the Post-Flood world here, but I will be very much saddened if the park doesn’t get used for what it was meant for very soon.
November 4, 2007
ChatUsHome Alert!: By Nov. 6– chance to get reform of FEMA elevation allowances for Lousiana homeowners
For those who have been following the news concerning rebuilding along the Gulf Coast post-hurricanes/Federal Flood, you might know that Mitigation Grants were being awarded that would aid folks in rebuilding safer and with less cost to the Nation in the event of another disaster.
We were awarded an ICC Grant for mitigation of our dangers by us raising the house to above the Base Flood Elevation and in accordance with the newest flood depth maps provided by the ACOE two months ago, but FEMA had to consider a way to allow those of us who have already done the necessary work to be re-imbursed for work done prior to their October announcement.
FEMA is now in the process of amending it’s procedures and policy since the situation down here has taken too long and many of us decided that we didn’t wish to hang out and wait for the funds to be disbursed. We decided to work on our homes and do the right thing. We are rebuilding NOW.
CHAT has just alerted us to FEMA’s upcoming procedural changes, but as usual, FEMA didn’t give much of a lead time on these changes, and that’s were we need you to help. Please visit CHAT and send their message to the Feds by Nov. 6th.
This is vital to folks’ rebuilding efforts. Many people here in New Orleans, with the promise of these Grants have moved forward on getting back into our homes and businesses, but unless some of the rules are changed, we will never see those monies. If the latter proves to be the case, those of us who showed initiative in rebuilding will be shorted many dollars that were promised to us all because of forgotten procedural rules on the part of the Federal Government’s part.
October 8, 2007
A Light On In City Hall?
I’ve spent the last several days pretty much bedridden and completely physically ill. Never has my body experienced this kind of pain and malaise (and I’ve has some really bad scrapes with med probs in my life)… then “Eureka!”, there was the brilliance not far away: The light was shining ON CITY HALL.
I have recovered fully, and I trust this symbolic gesture means that the City will finally use the rest of the damn funds given by FEMA to do even more important projects NOW!
(Actually I healed up on my own because it was my first major attack of nerves and PTSD. Betts called me a piker for having held out against it so long. “Just must stay centered… de-stress and find a hobby outside of the rebuilding. Sheesh! We are going out for drinks tonight.)
UPDATE: Saw the new City Hall sign last night… I like babies, I really like it.
October 3, 2007
September 24, 2007
House Raising Mitigation Grants Coming?
News from the T-P. It looks as if the Hazard Mitigation Grants will be here later this Fall.
Sounds like good news for folks desiring to raise their homes, but there seems to be a catch:
“Deckert said he applied to the state-run Road Home program for federal aid to rebuild and raise his home in New Orleans’ Lakeview neighborhood. But since the mitigation grant he expected to get got tied up in the squabble between the state and feds, he used his rebuilding money to raise his house. He doesn’t think he should be penalized for trying to get on with his life.
“It’s frustrating,” said Deckert, who lives in a government trailer in front of an unfinished house now raised 9 feet off the ground. “If you took care of it because you couldn’t wait any longer, because you can’t fix your house until the foundation is fixed, you’re screwed.”
It looks like Betts and I are screwed too. We were awarded the $30K grant, but then the squabble between the State and FEMA held off the delivery of the money until the Fall. We couldn’t wait that long to get back into the house… it took 10 months to get the thing raised anyway from the day we made the down payment.
My fucking depression is not getting better over this news.
