Below is a good article in today's Times Picayune. People are often criticized when they do not evacuate when a hurricane approaches and they have the means to do so. But this article points out the financial and employment problems evacuations cause for the working poor. And there are plenty of them along the U.S. Gulf coast and East coast that have to deal with this every year, sometimes multiple times in the same year. More than a few people who work with me or in the same building have said that, after evacuating for Gustav and Ike, they will ride out the next one. Scary thought. Let's hope the private and public sectors work together to create an efficient way to get large numbers of poor people out of the way of approaching dangerous hurricanes and back home quickly after it is safe.
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Troubles? Get In Line
Posted by Jarvis DeBerry, Columnist, The Times-Picayune September 21, 2008 1:00AM
The poet Langston Hughes was known for his brevity, but his poem "Ennui" set an all-new standard for terseness. In its entirety: "It's such a / Bore / Being always / Poor
Boring isn't all it is. In fact, New Orleanians who were barely making do before evacuating for Hurricane Gustav would probably say that their meager resources and mounting bills have produced feelings closer to panic.
New Orleanian Terrell Newsome stood in First City Court Wednesday and told Judge Charles Imbornone that he couldn't pay his $950 rent because he'd spent $600, more than he'd anticipated, to leave for Houston in advance of Gustav.
The $350 Karen Glapion spent getting to and from Sugar Land, Texas, where her stepsister lives meant she couldn't pay her $426 car note.
Glapion is one of the thousands of Louisianians who has received an emergency food stamps card during the last couple of weeks. The state began distributing the aid in recognition of the hard time Louisianians had. Not only did people have to spend money to reach an evacuation point, but the extended power outages meant that many people lost everything in their refrigerators and freezers. Hence the need for special consideration.
Unfortunately, Judge Imbornone didn't consider Newsome's plight worthy of his intervention. "I understand it's a hardship," the judge told Newsome, then ordered an eviction, as if Newsome's particular hardship was irrelevant.
Apparently the judge thinks Newsome was foolishly self-reliant. He shouldn't have been so wasteful as to do for himself and spend his own money getting out of town. According to Judge Imbornone, Newsome should have depended on the city-assisted evacuation plan. It wouldn't have cost him any money, and Newsome would have had his rent money.
But maybe not a job. As Newsome told a reporter outside the courtroom, he decided against the public evacuation because he was afraid that by relying on the government he wouldn't be able to quickly return to his job as a groundskeeper at a local college.
Too bad. Newsome's desire to be at the ready for his job ultimately meant he got kicked out of his apartment. Again, being poor is more than just a bore. It can lead to moments of outrage.
Take for example the distribution of the emergency food stamp aid and how it has been mismanaged by the state Department of Social Services. On Tuesday, officials announced that 22,000 applicants were provided twice as much money as they should have been, while 33,000 applicants hadn't received anything at all.
Some people, who already felt humiliated just having to ask for help buying food, got an extra dose of humiliation when they found out at the cash register that the card Louisiana gave them hadn't been activated.
The higher cost of living has hurt everybody, not just the people who barely scrape by week to week. Included in the higher cost of living is a higher cost of evacuating from New Orleans. Just filling up a 15-gallon tank with regular gas would have cost $37.80 for a Gulf Coast resident fleeing Hurricane Katrina. That same resident driving the same car would have paid $53.25 to flee Gustav.
If a stop-and-go evacuation takes two tanks of gas going and two coming back, the $151.20 it took to leave and come back for Katrina would have taken $213 for Gustav. That's a 41 percent increase.
One shudders to think what will happen if the financial difficulties that followed Gustav evacuations prompt poor people to stay in place for a hurricane that hits us.
If they don't go, they'll be accused of being lazy and irresponsible, even if it's a sense of being financially responsible that makes them stay put.
Jarvis DeBerry is an editorial writer. He can be reached at 504.826.3355 or at [email=jdeberry@timespicayune.com.]jdeberry@timespicayune.com.[/email]
Edited By kaytodd on 1222003985