[StBernard] Stupid FEMA Tricks

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Thu Jun 29 23:23:02 EDT 2006


Just remeber its alway, they said, he said, or its policy. That is until
you want to talk to they, he/she or let me have a copy of the policy. Then
it becomes a completely different story.
Personally, most of what has taken place is a big scham.

George


>-----------------------------------------------------

>This is in response to the article about rebuilding the schools from a

>few days ago.

>

>Quotes from the article:

>"Donors showered St. Bernard with enough supplies to fill a spare

>classroom floor-to-ceiling and FEMA will cover 90% of rebuilding. But

>Voitier can't financed the other 10% - strict rules forbid using other

>relief money to make up the 10%."

>

>"She says the rules sometimes border on comical: After she put together

>the laundromat - a fire marshal had declared the trailer unfit for

>classroom use

>- FEMA reported her for misusing federal property."

>

>As long as it is not FEMA money, who cares how they make up the other 10%?

>This is like telling a man dying of thirst in the desert, I'll give you

>all the water you can drink, but first you must have a Waterford

>Crystal Goblet to drink it from. It just seems at times you need to

>have "three Philadelphia lawyers" with you at all times when dealing with

FEMA.

>

>I wish the article gave the name of the fire marshal. I would love to

>know who declared for all that you cannot use a Laundromat for a classroom.

>From

>what little I can see, it looks like there was no intention to use it

>as a classroom to begin with.

>

>Perhaps we should start sending letters to the editor. Don't give us

>positions without giving us names. Who is this genius of a fire marshal?

>

>By the same token, who is FEMA? SBA?

>

>Collectively, I think we need to stop accepting a generic answer, "The

>rules say we can't do this." Everything FEMA and SBA does is governed

>either by a Congressionally passed law or an Executive Order signed by

>the President, usually the former. Last time I checked, it was all

>public record (I realize some Executive Orders are sealed, but I can't

>see how anything pertaining to FEMA or SBA would be considered

>something that needs to be sealed).

>

>Don't accept handbooks as a final answer any more. Ask for the law

>that governs any decision made by FEMA, HUD, or SBA and look it up

>yourself. If it is too complicated to understand, ask others. If need

>be, visit one of the local law schools.

>

>Until someone starts questioning their interpretations, we don't know

>if they are right. If they are right, but stupid, we can then working

>on getting them changed.

>

>Westley






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