My Blog

I am on a letter writing campaign to get money so I can live.  Anyone who wants to participate, please feel free to use the letters below to assist you.  Send them to your politicians or favorite celebrities.  I have written to all the senators, represtentatives and governors of Minnesota and Wisconsin.  If you want to write to any of them, it may reinforce my efforts.

By the way, I’m in MN for Christmas.  It was 13 degrees yesterday.  You know how I feel about that, I am sure.

So I watched TV the other day, and Oprah had a show where her audience was full of Katrina relief workers (none from New Orleans).  She gave them thousands and thousands of dollars worth of gifts.  I had to leave the room.  I appreciate what she did, but it reinforces the media’s portayal of New Orleans which disgusts me.  Everyone from NOLA, e.g. those crazy women before congress, is stupid, helpless, lazy, crazy, etc.  Thank goodness the rest of the country came to save us from ourselves. 

This attitude completely ignores that fact that no resue workers showed up for a week, and a skeleton crew of local residents and NOPD (the firefighters had run away to the west bank) did everything by ourselves.  Why do they always pick the worst people to represent NOLA in the media?  Brian Weber had pointed this out before the storm - they always pick people like voodoo priestesses to tell the world about our city.  They never do that for New York, LA, Houston, Minneapolis, etc.

The media completely sucks.

I’m also writing a letter to Oprah, but I haven’t finished it yet.

Dear (senator/representative/governor):

I lived in Minnesota and Wisconsin for many years until I moved to Louisiana to attend Tulane Law School in May, 2004.

Since Katrina, I have received no assistance from FEMA.  Please review my attached appeal.  In addition, I cannot receive disaster unemployment because I was a student before the storm.  I also cannot receive an emergency SBA loan because my pre-storm wages were too low.  Also, the post-Katrina utility bills in my neighborhood have been 3-4 times higher than normal, and I cannot afford to pay my bills.  I am desperately in need of some assistance.

Since the storm I have been doing odd jobs in New Orleans in order to pay my basic living expenses, helping many of my neighbors in myriad ways, and volunteering with New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation (NOLAC) and the Disaster Legal Project.  NOLAC has filed many appeals for people to FEMA since September, but thus far has received no responses.

I am hoping that someone from your office can find some way to assist me.  If there is anything you can do, I would really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Machelle Lee

December 21, 2005

Re FEMA Application No.: xxxxxxx

Dear FEMA;

I am writing to request a review of my application for assistance.  I appealed twice before at the DRC (Disaster Recovery Center) on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, and am writing to request both a review of my original application (and appeals) and to request an appeal of your decision not to reimburse me for repairs on my car.

I stayed in New Orleans through Hurricane Katrina.  After the storm, I worked with other local people who remained in town to deliver food and water, help people evacuate, and defend our neighborhood from fires and crime. We had one fully functional and one partially functional telephone, so many people were calling us to help them.  During this time there were no relief workers or security/military in our neighborhood, just local residents and occasionally members of the 6^th District NOPD with whom we were in regular contact.  We also kept in regular contact with one doctor and one nurse in the neighborhood who were assisting the elderly members of our community.

After the military arrived and instituted law and order, we helped people get downtown to the evacuation area near the Convention Center.  I left New Orleans after I felt that everyone in my neighborhood was safe and all who wanted to leave had an opportunity to do so.  That was on the evening of Wednesday, September 7.  (I believe in an earlier appeal I told you that I left on the 10^th, but I was confused – the 7^th was the 10^th day of the storm’s aftermath). 

I evacuated to Florida with 3 other New Orleans residents.  We all applied for assistance; they all immediately received $2000 and shortly thereafter $2350.  I still have received nothing.  I have visited the DRC in New Orleans a variety of times, and they have assured me every time that there is no reason that I have not received these forms of assistance and that the money will eventually make its way to me.  As stated above, I appealed in person at the DRC twice with assistance from your employees.  On November 12^th, FEMA sent me a letter stating that the Hyattsville office had received one of those appeals and would reply as soon as possible.  On Monday, November 14^th, FEMA sent an automated message to my cell phone that said that FEMA would review my letter and respond in writing in two weeks.  I have received no response.  Please review this aspect of my application for assistance.

In addition, an inspector visited my apartment to see if I had any personal property damage.  I told her that the undercarriage of my car had been damaged delivering food and water and helping people evacuate.  During the first 7 days after the storm, the streets were filled with fallen trees and other debris.  We removed many of these from pathways along the main streets, but there were many times that we simply had to drive over them to get to people who needed assistance.  It cost $748 to repair the damage.  On November 18, you sent me a letter denying transportation assistance because of IID (Ineligible – Insufficient Damage).  I believe the inspector was very tired when she was reviewing my case and erred in making this decision; she never asked me how extensive the damage was.

I hope to receive a response from you as soon as you can review my case.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Machelle Lee

Sorry to be so venemous in that last post.  I do love my friends, and understand that you were frightened.  I am sorry if I made people feel badly.  Especially those of you who were just asking my sister how I was doing - that was no problem.  I expected that.  I just am bored, and miss my home, etc.

I feel much more emotionally complex about the whole situation than my first blog appears.  I felt sad for the first time yesterday - melancholy, lost, etc.  Writing an angry posting really helped.

I am ready to go home.  I am very sorry for my friends from the 9th Ward, Bywater, Slidell, and St. Bernard Parish who lost everything.  I am lucky that my home and my school are completely fine and life will be normal again in a few months.  I met so many wonderful people in New Orleans after the hurricane and look forward to working with my nieghbors to rebuild a better place.  It is both a devastating and exciting time.

I am just impatient to get busy.  I’m not used to being so idle.  I miss everyone.

I am in Florida.  I left New Orleans last Wednesday.  I was completely fine in New
Orleans, and didn’t really want to leave, and now I wish I hadn’t. 

I’ve spent most of the last week regretting my choice.

People 1. were scared of what they saw on CNN, 2. refused to
listen to me when I said that I was fine, and 3. don’t understand that I
am not driven by fear and anxiety (unlike most people).  They harassed my hapless sister
and myself incessantly.  Also, a minority of the city officials were
trying to get me to leave (most of them were asking, when not on duty,
for me and others to stay so that they wouldn’t be left all alone
in a ghost town). 

I got worn down by all the emotional blackmail and
left.  Next time something important is happening in my life, I won’t answer the phone.  I learned an important lesson and will never be bullied like that again.

I especially felt badly for my sister, who told me everyone was trying to get her to tell me what to do.  First, she doesn’t control me.  Second, she understands me and knew I prefered to stay where I was.  She got worn out.  She has enough complications going on in her own life. 

I feel like most people were just upset that they couldn’t control what they saw on TV, so they were desperate to control the one thing they could -
me.  Now I am bored and frustrated, and I am missing out on everything happening back home.  I was having a lot of fun there.  I was doing interesting stuff.

Those of you who told me not to leave were
right.  Thank you for supporting me.

I am returning
home soon - probably Monday.  My neighborhood is completely fine.  The water
was on was when I left (a week ago) and the electricity had started coming
on in the neighborhood but hadn’t reached my building yet.  I’m sure
it’s working by now. 

There is no cholera in New Orleans.  Media rumors
of doomsday were/are greatly overexaggerated, per usual.