Promised Aid Not There from Bush

Last April President Bush put his arm around 74-year-old Ethel Williams at her flooded home in the Upper Ninth Ward and stepped in front of TV cameras. She was elated, thinking the media attention and the president’s apparent affection for her would help get her home back. Four months later her home still stands gutted and empty on like thousands of others. A report on All Things Considered today recounts Bush’s visit and follows up on his promise.

“We’ve got a strategy to help the good folks down here rebuild,” the president said that day. “Part of it has to do with funding; part of it has to do with housing; and a lot of it has to do with encouraging volunteers from around the United States to come down and help people like Mrs. Williams.”

Hmm. Let’s break that down....

• “Funding”: Promised Federal funds coming through the states “may take awhile,” according to the White House.
  
• “Housing”: Thousand of FEMA trailers are still sitting unused beside the interstate north of Slidell, while Mrs. Williams stays with her daughter.
  
• “Encouraging volunteers:” Camp Algiers, a FEMA-funded camp where we stayed as volunteers, was closed this June with thousands of homes still waiting to be gutted.

In the mean time, Ethel Williams and thousands like her are still waiting for the president to keep his promise.