I wish I had a link to refer you to the whole story, but if you live in South Texas, you’re just going to have to scavenger for the article yourself.
Juan Casada is missing half his home. The kitchen’s caved-in roof illuminates the three-bedroom trailer and brings other damages to light. He’s lived here in far north San Juan for two years without incident, until Hurricane Dolly tattered this South Texas region known as The Delta. You can smell the mold, visible on the living room ceiling, and hear the constant drip of water on the floor.
“The floor went to total waste, along with all my kitchen appliances,” Juan said pointing to the mold-black floor. “The inspector said that my house was still livable. How? You tell me. My family is spread out, and we have been living on sandwiches for two-weeks,” he said in August after being denied assistance by FEMA.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said that the condition of his home was livable when the agency denied his application for help. The inspection report stated that Casada’s home didn’t have sufficient damage for needed assistance.
from “The homes they built and FEMA deferred” by Mary Nichols. South Texas Nation Issue #4. (Emphasis is mine)
While not at all compared to Katrina, it is unsettling that many people were turned away – “Out of 36,000 requests for FEMA’s help, nearly 23,000 have been denied. That’s about 80% of all applicants.” I don’t know about you, but it’s sickening how they’ll go around and say that the houses themselves were probably damaged before Dolly hit. That makes about as much sense as paramedics saying, “Nah, he had AIDS before he was shot. There’s no use helping him.”
The Life of Ennui Prayer 