Gulf Coast Update

Taken from Aimee's Blog:

Yesterday we tried requesting a new insurance adjuster because ours is wet being the ears, plus we had a Builder's Risk policy & that is supposed to cover ANYTHING that goes wrong during the building process. Our adjuster had no experience, much less experience with this particular type of policy. Not only were we denied the request for a new adjuster, but the insurance company is giving us the run around on getting us the paper saying we're denied any type of compensation (we need this paper to give to FEMA.)
Ahh-FEMA. They told us today that we do not qualify for any type of assistance. We can't get an SBA loan on the place we were living, because we were renting & we can't get a loan for the new place we were building because it wasn't our primary residence yet. So once again we're bureaucracy is bending us over & having their way with us.
So since the squeaky wheel usually gets the grease...we called the bank our construction loan is with, Dicky Scruggs' office, the MS Attorney General's office, Gene Taylor's office, the MS Insurance Hotline & I'm going to call the FBI to put in a complaint about FEMA. So far no luck. But our story needs to get out there. We can't be the only ones in this situation & no one will know that young, hard working couples like us are being screwed if no one speaks up.
Also, I would like for someone to explain something to me. My bil (Darren's brother) had a tree pushed into his house by the wind. His insurance is going to pay him for everything. We had water pushed into our house by the wind & our insurance company is telling us to go fly a kite. What makes a tree more worthy of insurance money than water????

I wish I was in a position to do something about this. Right now, I'm wracking my brains, trying to see if I can't find someone in a national news operation that might be able to tell her story.

Because the sad truth is what Aimee alluded to: The government, and the insurance companies, will do their best to deny as much coverage to the victims of Katrina as they possibly can.

This is the problem with small government (or in this case, humongous government running a massive deficit). This is the problem with Dubya's 'private sector' approach to assistance. At some point, private sector concerns say "Hey, we have to think about the bottom line." At some point, all the promises of huge amounts of assistance given at the podium run up against the bean counters who say "From were do we get this money?"

I don't want to overly politicize this. I have no idea, nor do I care, what Aimee's politics are. But the fact of the matter is: she's just one of thousands in the same predicament.

Let's help these people.

Yeharr

Oh, and one other thing: the ever-excellent Greg Saunders rips Bill Bennet a new asshole (passing right through the New Republic's Andrew McCarthy along the way) at This Modern World. Worth a read.