Lots to Say…About Life Post-Hurricane Katrina

by Tula Connell, Mar 30, 2006

Let’s not forget Hurricane Katrina. That sums up many of the messages we’ve received this week at AFL-CIO Now. 

If you have news or comments on Hurricane Katrina or on any other issues of interest to working families, send it to us at: blognews@aflcio.org.

Jim Young from the USW International Union alerts us to a new USW project, A Safe Way Back Home, an environmental neighborhood clean up initiative and community outreach campaign. Together with Dillard University’s Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ), the USW is helping address contamination in New Orleans’ neighborhoods following Hurricane Katrina—and the lack of effective Bush administration response.

Says Dr. Beverly Wright, DSCEJ’s executive director:

This demonstration project serves as a catalyst for a series of activities that will attempt to reclaim the New Orleans East community following the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina. Ultimately, it is the government’s responsibility to provide the resources required to address areas of environmental concern and to assure that the workforce is protected.

Leo Gerard, president of the USW, which represents more than 1 million steel, chemical and other industrial workers, says the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)  

should replicate this demonstration project on thousands of blocks in hundreds of neighborhoods across the City of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region.

An analysis of sediment samples taken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at two New Orleans properties showed that all but one sample contained at least one chemical at a higher concentration than the Louisiana Risk Evaluation/Corrective Action Program screening levels for residential soil.

Contaminants include such heavy metals as arsenic, zinc, barium, cadmium as well as cancer-causing chemicals.

Imagine if your child played in a back yard filled with deadly chemicals.

Great work to USW members and all involved in project A Safe Way Back Home.

Meanwhile, in Ocean Springs, Miss., Patricia Griswold says Mississippi survivors of Hurricane Katrina—not just those in New Orleans—still are struggling in the wake of the Bush administration’s mismanaged FEMA.

We rent our home so we were not eligible for FEMA help since our home was not totally destroyed. The home is owned by my parents who were told couldn’t get insurance on the home because it’s a rental. FEMA also denied them for assistance because they don’t live here in the home.

We are still walking on tarps because we (my husband and I and my parents) don’t have the money to fix the floors. We have managed to fix the roof so it doesn’t leak any longer.

We were told FEMA would cover the cost of a generator since it was needed after the storm. So far, I have gotten nothing but denial letters from them. An inspector came out and looked at the damage and made notes but didn’t even look at my receipt. He then called me to say I would have to fax a copy to FEMA because he had not included that I even had a receipt. So because of his mistake, I have had to make several trips to find a fax machine and STILL got nowhere as the number to fax was always busy. I finally got a real person and got the mailing address.

The money to purchase the generator was borrowed on the premise FEMA would pay for it.

I think it’s a shame that people such as us are left to fend for ourselves because we can’t afford the luxury of owning our home.

In another hurricane-hit area, Tim Dunham from Port Charlotte, Fla., is outraged over the cost of insurance and the efforts by some companies to pull out of areas that experience natural disasters.

I believe if the insurance companies were held at a maximum profit margin of 10 percent, they still would make billions of dollars each year….We have allowed businesses to wipe out the little financial hope that was created for people that pour their hearts into their work for years and have businesses steal their pension.

It is not right to allow insurance companies to raise their premiums. When they wrote homeowners insurance policies and some homes had over 100 years pass with no claims. Now they want to raise the premium and pull out of areas that got hit. They claim they lose money and want to pull out of the areas. Considering the insurance companies have gotten financial fat at the expense of the American people. They will not get eliminated, they just need to be hyper-regulated to the point to help people and quit taken advantage of us. They should not ever get to pull out or sell off areas they insure. Some insurance companies went bankrupt and we cannot allow them to write policies then sell them. 

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)