Vol. 72/No. 39      October 6, 2008

“They make it seem as if the worst has passed,” said Jorge Bahena, 37, a worker at a furniture warehouse, talking about the media and government officials. Bahena came to one of the emergency food distribution sites set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). “The economic crisis that follows the storm is the one that nobody talks about,” said Bahena. “Landlords won’t stop knocking on the door asking for rent payments, even though people haven’t been able to work for a week.”

At the distribution center, restaurant worker Silveria Juarez said she and her coworkers showed up ready to work only to find out that the restaurant where they’re employed was not open. “We don’t come here because we want to. We come here because we have nothing to eat,” said Juarez, as she protested the abuse by a cop who had yelled at her sons who were waiting for her to get through the line at the distribution center. “We don’t come here to be humiliated for a bottle of water,” she said.

Observing the damage, Calero said it is obvious the government did not make adequate preparations for the storm. “They spend billions of dollars to prevent a collapse of the financial system, so the bosses can maintain their system of capitalist exploitation,” he stated. “At the same time they tell us that they are doing everything they can and nothing more can be done,” to help those affected by the storm.

FEMA announced that those with damaged homes who have filed claims with their insurance companies can apply for federal aid. Applicants, however, are required to have a Social Security number and other documentation, disqualifying undocumented immigrants and others without appropriate documents.

Sonia Davis, 45, a resident of a predominantly Black, working-class neighborhood on Houston’s northwest side, said that she couldn’t evacuate because she didn’t have transportation. She has not been able to go to the distribution center either. “We just all stuck together and helped each other,” she said, pointing to her neighbors. A tree knocked down in the storm just missed her bedroom, landing on the street and blocking it. Several days after the storm most of the fallen trees in the area remained untouched.

CenterPoint Energy boasted that power has been restored to 941,000 households in Houston as of September 19, yet more than 1.2 million of their customers have no electricity going into the second week after the storm. Entergy Texas, the other main electric company in the outlying areas, reports 50 percent of its 392,600 customers are without power. Texas-New Mexico Power Co. and the Sam Houston Electric Cooperative companies have a combined total of 81,800 customers without power.

Juan Pablo Guerrera, a day laborer who normally stands for work just north of Interstate 10, described how he saw a caravan of 20 CenterPoint Energy trucks on their way to restore power lines in the Memorial area of Houston. “They go to where people have money. On the north side where I live we are still without power. I am an electrician, I know how to do all of this work and I haven’t worked for five days.”

Guerrera was very favorable to the demand by the Socialist Workers candidate for a federally-funded public works program that can immediately put millions of people to work to build badly needed infrastructure.

José Ortiz, a maintenance worker at Galveston College, and Johalma Ortiz, who works in housekeeping at a Galveston hotel, share a home on the east end of the island, not far from the seawall. Their neighbor’s house collapsed into its garage, they said. They lost everything and there is no running water to clean anything up.

Texas authorities admit to 23 hurricane-related deaths, including a couple who died because they had no access to dialysis, and a woman who lost power to her oxygen system. A woman in Huntsville, 65 miles north of Houston, died when a tree fell into her house. At least five deaths are attributed to carbon-monoxide poisoning from poorly ventilated generators individuals used to get some electricity. The official death toll form the storm is 57 around the nation so far, with an untold number of people washed into the Gulf during the storm. Several people died working to remove debris left by the storm.
 
 
Related articles:
Government of Cuba mobilizes population in wake of hurricanes
SWP vice presidential candidate speaks at N.Y. colleges, high schools
Kennedy meets day laborers in New Jersey
Calero discusses U.S. financial crisis with students  
 
 
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