Pretty noble sounding title, right? I like to joke around with myself and imagine that my job is much more grand than it actually is. When I arrived down the way in St. Bernard Parish I had no idea or expectations about what I would be doing. You probably have not heard of Chalmette, Arabi, or Meraux in the news following the aftermath of Katrina- but you should have. You would be surprised at how accurate and corroborating each individual’s account of the extent of destruction is. My guess is that it is not hard to be accurate when only 3 buildings in the entire parish were habitable following Katrina. Now, why haven’t you heard these small towns in eastern New Orleans mentioned on the nightly news when the destruction there far exceeded that of even the 9th Ward? I don’t feel the need to politicize this blog, but if you can’t tell - sometimes I lean to the right.
The title does hold some relevance to my job, however. No, I’m not speaking of political light or even bringing the light of God down here to the parish (believe me, they have that here in spades); I am speaking of literal light. My job is to oversee the repair and installation of streetlight poles destroyed by the Hurricane. But I don’t ever have any physical contact with these broken streetlight poles- we have contractors who do that, and I don’t even have to supervise the repairs- we have monitors to make sure the repairs are being done according to the contract. My job is made possible by the wonderful government entity known as FEMA. I have to prove to FEMA that all the damage recorded on my endless list of destroyed light poles is not only accurate, but also that it was caused by Katrina and not by some other infinite list of possibilities. Not to pat my own back, but this process had already failed three times before I came on the job so to have FEMA finally approve and sign off on the validation gave me a pretty big sense of accomplishment. Of course it wasn’t until today that they tell me I have to show precedence for how new items are added to the expanding list and also give evidence stating how broken streetlights were repaired before the storm. Arghhh….
But now I reach the point where I will be met with some (and by some, I mean a lot) of contention from residents of New Orleans. I believe that many of the speed bumps that are slowing down the rebuilding of the city are not only purposeful but also completely necessary. I can already hear the hate mail rolling in! Let me be the first to say that I have not enjoyed working with FEMA. Their people have been simply miserable to deal with, are sticklers to every single point in their Bible (the Public Assistance rulebook), and are often apt to ignore simple rules of logic. But their incompetence has a silver lining. In my limited time here in “Da Parish,” I have witnessed and heard of more than a few crooked contractors. These individuals see FEMA as a sign screaming “Hey look, I’m handing out free money in New Orleans!” There are several outright thieves down here and many more who think they can get away with doing a poor job since it is “just government work.” By religiously following every rule set out before them, FEMA minimizes the chance of handing out money to these dishonest contractors. Even if I have to show them another damaged streetlight because the spec sheet says the one we are examining should have a completely missing housing while only the light is actually gone I think that in the long run it is worth it. There is definitely a balance to be struck between forward progress and spending money, but the series of checks and balances imposed by FEMA does serve a purpose. Its not like we have a choice otherwise- their money, their rules, right?
Comments, hatred, libel gladly accepted below or in email form.
- Clark Daniel
Cd21@duke.edu
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