My fellow New Orleans blogger and father of Kalypso, Michael Homan, recently penned a Times-Picayune editorial on being treated with little respect when wrapping up paperwork at FEMA’s local recovery office, also known as the Welcome Home Center (everyone: shiny, happy now!). Note that many who have gone through the grueling process of acquiring rebuilding money from the federal government, for the past seventeen months, are the old and frail, many of whom had paid off their houses and lacked flood insurance prior to the Federal Flood. Those houses were their life’s savings. Someone would be in for a world of hurt should my parents or grandmother every undergo the treatment Michael describes.
Therese and I are educated people, and we have family and friends to help us out emotionally and financially. What if you had to navigate this process and you were illiterate, frail, without transportation, old or — God forbid — didn’t have e-mail?
We both agreed that if anyone ever asked us for advice on how to handle rebuilding their life after something like this, it would be to move far, far away, cut all ties with the place that flooded and never look back.
