Letters from FEMA

Louisiana received a letter from FEMA December 29th. Inside was a couple of bills totaling $155.7 million:

The bills signed by FEMA Chief Financial Officer Margaret Young include a collection stub, with notification of "Make your check payable to FEMA" and an Atlanta address to a FEMA lockbox to send the check.

The collection stub was a nice touch. And the Atlanta address? Priceless.

Let me tell you about another FEMA letter, sent in October to St. Bernard Parish President Junior Rodriguez:

To demonstrate what he has called "federal confusion," Rodriguez showed WWL-TV a letter from FEMA stating that he and his wife did not qualify for further relief because they did not live in a disaster zone.

FEMA sent the president of a parish that was completely inundated by storm surge a letter saying he did not live in a disaster zone. When he received the letter, he was living in a trailer still in the disaster zone, in the government complex set up near the Wal-Mart.

I know some people who *didn't* get letters from FEMA, as in the ones containing 2000 bucks. And they deserved it.

What's going on with the crazy FEMA letters? They want us to pay 25% of the disaster assistance they gave us. In the shape Louisiana is in, how can we pay this bill in 30 days before interest starts accruing?

I'll tell you what. We'll pay our 25% percent to the federal government when we get our 25% of oil revenues generated off the Louisiana coast. Oh, wait a minute. We might not even need your assitance if we got that.

I have a couple of letters for FEMA: F - U.