Vol. 76/No. 13      April 2, 2012

Seven people here were killed in the tornado, including 77-year-old retired coal miner Donald Smith, who succumbed in mid-March to injuries from the storm. One hundred were injured, 441 homes and more than 100 businesses were either damaged or destroyed.

Ironically, among the pretexts FEMA gave for denying disaster funds is the large number of volunteers helping out in the wake of the storm. The agency also said the damage wasn’t bad enough. Congressman John Shimkus, who represents Harrisburg as part of his district, said to The Associated Press March 17, “The lesson again is that people need to have private insurance.”

According to Shimkus, only 20 percent of those whose homes were destroyed had insurance to cover the damages.

“It’s just wrong,” Bonita Humphrey told the Militant, as she cleaned up damage to her home. Her renter’s insurance will pay for items damaged inside the house, “but it turns out the owner didn’t keep up insurance payments, so we have nothing to repair the structural damage.”

For two weeks Humphrey’s family has been living in motels, which she says have raised their prices. “We paid $1,800 for two motel rooms for nine days.”

United Mine Workers of America Local 5929 opened a food pantry for people impacted by the storms the day after the tornado struck. “We worked with the city to reopen a closed-down supermarket to store the donations so we can stay open as long as it’s needed,” said Greg Fort, president of the recently organized union at the Willow Lake Mine outside of Harrisburg.

“It’s ridiculous that the government says there’s not enough damage here for federal aid,” he continued. “A lot of people are out of work and many are elderly.”  
 
 
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