Cutting through red

Things are still going well in Louisiana and I’ve been learning so many new things every day about the people here and the amount of damage that’s impacted their lives. I’ve heard many different stories and most of them involve the government slowing recovery and aid. The huge amount of red tape in FEMA alone is the reason people like the family we’re working with had to live in their trailer for over two years. The government is the reason that a construction liaison from United Methodist Committee on Relief can’t recover from more than $175,000 worth of damage to his store. (The insurance deductible has to be 80% of the total inventory worth and the business must be more than 3 years old.)

The UMCOR employee also said that many government programs that have been started suffer from fraud and corruption because they’re run by private companies. I’m glad non-profits like UMCOR, United Way, Catholic Charities and Red Cross are actually helping. Pictures up soon, I promise.