It’s really nice to see our government dollars at work in Beaumont, Texas. The power crews are out fixing up the decimated utility lines so I may once again, someday, have air conditioning. And FEMA took these neat pictures that can be found on their Web site.
I suppose I shouldn’t complain. After all, at least FEMA is doing something. And I can tell you first-hand they are not doing anything to provide the relief assistance they promise, to me at least. Oh, that agency and other government officials are good at patting each other on the back and saying what a good job they are doing. But for the life of me I can’t figure out what it is that they are doing. Except, of course, taking pictures. You can’t have too many of them.
Here is a little snapshot — pardon the pun — of how FEMA’s efforts work. I filed for emergency assistance because I have spent a ton of money that I just don’t have to evacuate to homes of friends and relatives. So, I filed for assistance on FEMA’s much self-ballyhooed online avenue. I finished making my application and tried to create an account in order to check the status of my request. But I couldn’t create the account because I failed to answer the trick questions. An example:
Which of the following addresses did you live at one time?
1. 940 Kilmer
2. 5530 W. 41st
3. 1800 Ashton
4. RR 1 POB 153
Well, I knew I could rule out the first three. But No. 4 looked vaguely familiar because I lived at two seperate rural route addresses at the 17 different places in eight cities in which I have resided over the past 27 years. Supposedly that was a wrong answer so I got a shot at four other similar questions. I know I answered all of them correctly, but I was told online that I still failed.
Next I tried to call the toll-free assistance number for FEMA. I have tried about 25 times now since then during all times of the night and day including during the early morning hours. My call always gets dropped at the same point in the recorded message. I have contacted the office of my congressman, U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, and have talked with the nice young lady who handles FEMA issues for that office. But I don’t have any faith that she will be able to help me. You want to know why? Because she works for the federal government, and right now, I have zero faith in our federal government. I realize that is harsh but until I am shown that the federal agencies are doing something other than sitting on their asses or taking photos, I reserve the right to remain skeptic.
Okay, that’s my rant for today. It’s funny but I still don’t feel any better.