Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Victimizing the Victims


An item appearing in the Huffington Post today, is almost too shocking to believe: FEMA To Demand That Hurricane Katrina Victims Return Aid Money
Nearly six years have passed since Hurricane Katrina drowned New Orleans in misery, but many residents haven't forgiven the Federal Emergency Management Agency for its sluggish response to the storm. Now another delayed reaction by FEMA – a stop-and-start push to recoup millions of dollars in disaster aid – is reminding storm victims why they often cursed the agency's name.

As a new hurricane season begins Wednesday, FEMA is working to determine how much money it overpaid or mistakenly awarded to victims of the destructive 2005 hurricane season. The agency is reviewing more than $600 million given to roughly 154,000 victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and is poised to demand that some return money.
And if that isn't horrifying enough, we also learn that in Haiti, victims of the devastating earthquake are now being forced out of their temporary shelters.
Since 23 May, more than 300 homeless families have been forcibly evicted from two makeshift camps in the Delmas municipality of Port-au-Prince, continuing what seems to be a wave of forced evictions in the Haitian capital. Hundreds more are facing imminent eviction in the next three months.
Victimizing the victims. How did it come to that?

1 comment:

  1. Well, I don't know what's going on in New Orleans but it is plenty disgusting.
    Meanwhile, I can tell you how Haiti came to evicting victims: instead of the Canadian forces being there as peacekeepers and helpers, they're in Afghanistan getting killed.
    Things are upside down everywhere, Emily, not just in Canada.

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