Something frustrating

[heidi]

Since there's been a diaspora from the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama areas, I think it would be good for everyone if the national newscasts spent a smidge of time covering what people who have been forced from their homes can do, in terms of contacting their insurers to find out about what their homeowners' policy will pay for in terms of food and shelter, or if they rent, the fact that they possibly don't need to pay rent on an uninhabitable place, and if their job is gone, there will be unemployment benefits which will probably be supplemented by FEMA, etc. These were all things we learned about down here after Andrew, and right now, people feel so lost and shellshocked and I don't think the tv networks are really helping explain, as much as they can.

ETA: FEMA has put up a page of resources for those suffering the impact of Katrina.

Comments

[darkjediprncess.livejournal.com]

While it would be a nice thing for the news to do, these are three of the poorest states in the country and the hardest hit were the poor and undereducated.

Most of these folks (at least 40%) don't have insurance of any kind. There's no insurer to call.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Then for the poor people, the government needs to be pro-active in different ways - governments, as I understand it, haven't even announced whether people in subsidized housing need to pay rent today, or who to pay it to. There needs to be clarity of message, and the messages should have been generated years ago and been just waiting for a time to be distributed, and they weren't.