Hurricane Katrina Survivors Take Their Outrage to Capitol Hill

by Tula Connell, Feb 9, 2006

Olton Holmes is among 400 Hurricane Katrina survivors on Capitol Hill today, where they will be testifying before Congress and proposing viable legislative plans to deliver real assistance to Hurricane Katrina survivors and launch a real Gulf Coast renewal campaign.
When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Holmes, his wife, Elisabeth, and their two children rushed from their house as the roof caved in. Their neighborhood was declared a disaster area.

And here’s what the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said to Holmes and his family when they applied for emergency rental assistance:

“FEMA told me I had insufficient loss of property at my house because their inspector didn’t inspect the inside of the house. The whole area was declared a disaster area. Even though all the ceilings were down, all my furniture was mildewed and ruined, all my children’s clothes and toys and beds were ruined, the ceilings were all collapsed, the kitchen cabinets were torn off the wall, it was insufficient loss of property. How he said insufficient loss, I can’t figure it.”

Long after FEMA chief Michael “You’re doing a great job Brownie” Brown resigned, FEMA has failed across the board in addressing rental housing assistance needs. According to a Feb. 8 report by the Democratic Minority Staff of the House Financial Services Committee:

• Five months after Katrina hit, and even in defiance of a congressional directive, FEMA still has not issued eligibility criteria for ongoing rental housing assistance.
• On Nov. 15, FEMA gave some 50,000 families living in motels just two weeks to find alternative housing. Under pressure, FEMA extended the deadline, which is now expiring.
• FEMA’s trailer policies have been marked by concerns over concentrating the poor in isolated communities, overpaying for trailers and delays and confusion in making them available.

The AFL-CIO joined ACORN, the grassroots community organizing network, in sponsoring the survivors’ bus trip to Washington, D.C., and an “ACORN Rally for Return and Rebuilding” today on Capitol Hill, where they will be joined by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

We’ll share more of Olton Holmes’ story in a later post and about what Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) calls “the scandal called Hurricane Katrina…a scandal about incompetence and cronyism…a crisis of failed leadership by the government in Washington.”

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