| FEMA Continues to Do Heck of a Job
Michael Brown may be gone, but his spirit lingers on.
In spite of the recent (minor) shake-up in leadership,
the Feeble Emergency Management Agency continues to prove that it takes
more than just a captain to steer a ship aground. Numerous stories are
emerging about how the agency, citing privacy concerns, has initiated
tighter restrictions on the release of information about the evacuees from
the recent spate of of natural disasters. According to the
Washington Post:
FEMA officials have started
prohibiting workers at a large shelter here from sharing information
about evacuees even with family members unless the evacuees had signed
release forms. In many cases, relief workers said, such forms were lost
or never presented in the chaos of the exodus. FEMA authorities made
similar restrictions last week when they took over management of
shelters in Beaumont, Tex.
"If we find someone, we've been
instructed to tell family members, 'He or she is alive and well in San
Antonio,' and that's it," said Rene Gauna, a San Antonio city employee
working at a FEMA-managed shelter at the old Kelly Air Force Base.
"We're no longer allowed to release new addresses or telephone numbers
or tell people where their loved ones have moved."
How well if FEMA protecting privacy? Pretty darn good!
Shannon Perez, Texas communications
director for Service Employees International Union, one of the nation's
largest labor organizations, has faced similar obstacles trying to find
314 members from New Orleans who are believed to be in Texas. Perez said
she wants to find them because the union has raised $1 million for SEIU
members victimized by the hurricane. "We have money for these folks, but
we can't access the information," she said. "Either the databases are
incomplete or we're not allowed to find out where our members are."
Now that's bound to warm the cockles of your heart. And
it makes such good sense for everyone involved - the victims, who might
like to leave - you know, be rescued - at least won't have to worry about
Verizon calling up in the middle of dinner with a new DSL offer. The
families can glow in the joy of knowing that Grandma is still alive,
without the burden of having to put the old bag up for a couple of years.
And lets not forget about the taxpayers, who can feel some satisfaction in
knowing that at least they're not adding to the further victimization of
some poor soul who just doesn't have the energy left for one more move.
Okay, maybe you'd better forget that part about the
taxpayers. No information is being released to other agencies who want to
check for 'double dipping', or just plain defrauding the system. But at
least things should work out well for all the displaced sex-offenders and
parolees on the loose (1,340 and 10,000 respectively from New Orleans).
"These people have been robbed of their homes, their
livelihoods, and their dignity," said new FEMA director David Paulison.
"But I'll be damned if I'm going to let anyone take away their privacy." |
