FEMA gives away $85 million of supplies for Katrina victims

FEMA gives away $85 million of supplies for Katrina victims

www.cnn.com

The material -- from basic kitchen goods to sleeping necessities -- sat in warehouses for two years before the Federal Emergency Management Agency's giveaway to federal and state agencies this year.

James McIntyre, FEMA's acting press secretary, told CNN that FEMA was spending more than $1 million a year to store the material and that another agency wanted the warehouses torn down, so "we needed to vacate them."

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FEMA - Federal Emergency Mangement Agency

Wow just wow. People are still living in tents and these basic items are just sitting in storage.

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A 6 year old running a lemonade stand could have done a better job then FEMA and our government did after Katrina. However, that said, these people need to make things happen for themselves. How long are they going to sit around in tents living off of our tax dollars?

my big question is why the hell dident they give them to the victims that they were intended for. i mean they were able to get these unfortunate people in to fema trailers with all the fermaldhyde. they were capable of giving them those lil fema cash cards. yet were unable to get them the goods that were slated for them? what the hell!!, and then to say "this is not news" what a crock. also they just gave it all to other agencies? thats retarded they could have given it to some of the many non profit charitys in the area that are set up for the purpose of helping katrina victims and it would have gotten to the people that needed it. why keep it sitting in a warehouse for a couple years at a million dollars a year cost to the goverment when with a few months worth of work they could have dispersed it through the non for profit agencies and not only used the goods for there intended use but also saved a butt ton of money which considering our current national debt would have been the smart move. ahh the inteligence of fema the same nutbars that said duct tape can save you from biological attacks during the antrax scare.

reply to post by StephenF


well maybe they would have helped them selves if entire neighborhoods inhabited by the poor werent locked down and bull dozed to make way for use by the rich and the city of N.O. to turn the place in to a new las vegas party town even though the neighbor hoods in question were not damaged by the storm or floods.

The answer is simple, just keep the tents for the victims of the next major natural disaster.
Some of these Katrina victims have spent enough of my money on beer and adult entertainers, time to move on,.
How many times are we going to lap the alphabet while we continue to help out these "Katrina victims"?

i can tell you right now, most of these tents will soon end up on ebay and craigslist.

You do have a point there. Katrina was a way of testing the waters. I guess that it was a success.

NOW:

FEMA blames the state of Louisiana.

The director of Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sunday defended giving away an estimated $85 million in hurricane relief supplies, blaming Louisiana officials for turning down the stockpiles.

A New Orleans charity keeps goods in trash bags in an empty church. FEMA never told it about the free items.

"We still have quite a few left if Louisiana needs those," David Paulison said. "But we did find out, we did ask Louisiana, 'Do you want these?' They said, 'No, we don't need them.' So we offered them to the other states."

Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, an outspoken critic of FEMA's response to the hurricane, told CNN the supply giveaway was "just a shame."

"It's just another example of the failings of the federal bureaucracy," said Landrieu, who wrote Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff last week to request an explanation. "We're still trying to fix it. It's going to take a lot more work."

CNN News Story