As Hurricane Ida reminds us, where we choose to work, pray, play and to call home can be a perilous area, even in November.

Along the awe-inspiring coast of the Gulf of Mexico, millions of Americans enjoy pleasures like coastal breezes, outstanding food, fishing, boating, and many other unique amenities of life.

But (the word that’s always in the back of our minds), no matter where you choose to live, there always will loom the possibility of disaster albiet catastrophe.

The unexpected fire, unprecedented blizzard, unparalelled earthquake, or the monumental flood just hasn’t happened yet.

Emergency experts say the key to survival is preparation. And, as Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike and others before have taught us, prayer, vigilance, preserverance, and resilency are just as important. Some folks have it, and some don’t.

I’m not knocking those waiting for the next disaster so that they can give up on the place they were born, or who no longer want to call the Gulf Coast home. But (the word again), for some of us – NO, we’re not leaving – at least not until the next mandatory evacuation followed by the predicted doomsday scenario, when the forces of nature force us out.

Just a reminder that the Academy Award-nominated, Sundance Film Festival Best Documentary “Trouble The Water” was released on DVD a few weeks ago, on August 25.

This remarkable piece of work is unlike any other Katrina-themed documentary ever made, and is raw, inspiring, surrealistic, and subtly sensational, but that’s only a part of what makes it one of the best documentaries of any kind produced in recent memory. It’s so good, I watched it twice already.

Anyone connected through Hurricanes Katrina and Rita should make it a point to see this movie, if you haven’t already (apologies to Kim, Scott, Tia, Carl and even Brian for taking so long to spread the word). Register and leave your opinions below.

The DVD is on sale at most major disc outlets. It’s also available for rent or sale from New Orleans DVD at its DVD machines in Laplace and Harvey, LA. Watch the trailer here:

Even though the President didn’t make it to the Gulf Coast for Katrina’s anniversary this year, we all know he deserves a vacation. And even during vacation, he sent a message. Watch it here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32607347#32607347

Certain guests at Daniel Yeh’s hotel in Galveston after Hurricane Katrina had rooms paid for by FEMA, and Yeh probably thought he’d latched onto an easy way to guaranteed guests and payments. Problem was, the guests weren’t really guests or Katrina evacuees, or the rooms were unoccupied, or were even occupied with paying guests.

Yeh, 55, of Sugarland, Texas, an owner of the Flagship Hotel (a Galveston landmark which sits on piers over Gulf of Mexico waters and suffered damages from Hurricane Ike) was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $30,000 in fines on September 26 because of his scheme.

Yeh has already repaid about $232,000 to the government in restitution, not long after search warrants were served on him in December, 2005. He had faced a maximum of five years in prison without parole and fines of up to $250,000. His sentencing originally had been set for Feb. 1, 2008.

His attorneys had filed a defense motion for a lower sentence because of a claim that diminished mental capacity due to a brain tumor caused him to hatch the scheme. The federal judge rightfully called the medical testimony comparable to “Alice in Wonderland”.

A 39-count 2006 indictment alleged that between October 1, 2005, and December 15, 2005, Yeh knowingly devised a scheme to defraud the federal disaster relief programs of at least $232,000.

In October 2005, Yeh gave a desk clerk about 30 names to put into the hotel’s reservation system at the “FEMA rate” of $84.99 a night. He then picked up the room cards for the rooms and started billing FEMA. An investigation found a number of those people were Yeh’s employees, relatives and friends and were not hurricane evacuees

Yeh pled guilty in 2007 and admitted he submitted a false claim to FEMA for Room 701 at the Flagship from Oct. 28 through Nov. 11, 2005. Based on that claim, FEMA paid the hotel $1,189.

The investigation started when agents got a tip saying the hotel records showed it as full when, in fact, a significant number of rooms were unoccupied. Federal agents say they interviewed a man whose name was listed on Yeh’s claims as the guest, but the man (a contractor who submitted bids in 2004 and 2005 for remodeling jobs at the Flagship and another hotel Yeh is associated with) said he didn’t have a room at the Flagship then.

As part of the alleged scheme, Yeh took over the job of billing the federal lodging programs online after Hurricane Rita, filing false claims for reimbursement for rooms in the names of hotel employees who had stayed at the Flagship free as part of their employment arrangement; rooms in the name of supposed hurricane evacuees on dates when the rooms were occupied by paying hotel guests with different names; rooms occupied by friends, relatives, and employees of his wife’s business, who were recruited to stay at the hotel, but were not evacuees; rooms in the names of supposed hurricane evacuees who never had rooms; rooms in the name of supposed hurricane evacuees on dates when those rooms were unoccupied; and for multiple rooms in the names of a single guest when, in fact, the guest didn’t occupy as many rooms.

Yeh has been free on bond and a date hasn’t yet been set for him to report to prison.

You have to wonder how many other hotels took advantage of the system back then. And that corruption is shamefully greater than that done by any Katrina evacuee or undeserving individual.

Anyone suspecting criminal activity involving disaster assistance programs can make an anonymous report by calling the toll-free Hurricane Relief Fraud Hotline, 1-866-720-5721 or 1-800-CALL-FBI, 24 hours a day, seven days a week until further notice.

Information can also be emailed to the inspector general at dhsoighotline@dhs.gov or sent by snail mail, with as many details as possible, to:
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC. 20528
Attn: Office of Inspector General, Hotline

Katrina and Rita survivors in Houston had planned a special day on September 13, But Houston had a problem: Hurricane Ike arrived. And it wasn’t to be a hurricane party, but a show of thanks.

“Thank You, Houston” which had been planned for September 13 as a commemoration of the hospitality Houstonians showed Katrina and Rita survivors in 2005, is set to celebrate Gulf Coast traditions through music, food and survivors’ stories. Because of Hurricane Ike, the original program was changed to reflect Houstonians’ recent support for their neighbors.

The event takes place today from 6:30 – 9 pm at Discovery Green, just outside the George R. Brown Convention Center, where thousands of Katrina survivors were welcomed and housed in September 2005 and many first responders to Hurricane Ike worked throughout last week.

In the park’s Houston Public Library Express, a video version of a photo/audio exhibition, “Who we Are” , will be playing. In addition, you can check out headsets loaded with podcasts featuring recorded stories of thanks and gratitude from Katrina and Rita survivors.

KPFT 90.1 FM will be on hand to record Hurricane Ike narratives. Service organizations and computer access/support will be available. Members of the public are encouraged to bring non-perishable “ready-to-eat” food items for the Houston Food Bank, to assist with their hurricane relief efforts.

At 7pm, the music starts, featuring Al “Carnival Time” Johnson as well as the Voodoo Brass Band, comprised of N.O. and H-Town-bred members.

“Thank You, Houston” is sponsored by the Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston project, Houston Institute for Culture and Discovery Green, and funded in part with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast, Discovery Green, Houston Arts Alliance and the Houston Endowment.

Government leaders from throughout the Gulf Coast were in D.C. today to ask Congress for money. FEMA said the agency would provide some temporary housing in Houston, but willl not allow its dreaded deathtrap trailers there, while New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin wants his city reimbursed for the recent hurricane evacuations.

Check out the full story here

If only I had talked to 63 year-old Lucille Canty and her family before they evacuated to Alexandria, Louisiana for Hurricane Gustav (see “Mass Evacuation Worked In Rehearsal, But..”).

In 2005, thousands of us Katrina evacuees from New Orleans who were in Lake Charles became Rita evacuees, escorted non-stop by state police through sleepy southwestern Louisiana towns in a special, joyous bus and car caravan.

I would have let the Canty family know a little about what they could possibly face in the Red Cross shelter from hell – a dilapidated, old, musky domed coliseum built in 1965 that eeks of stench after thousands of long-gone fans abandoned it.

“It turned into a horror movie, said Ms Canty. The sewage backed up to where we slept at. It was awful!”

Sure, I would have told Ms. Canty and her family about the moist sleeping arrangements and the humiliation of stepping off a police-escorted evacuation bus and being scanned with metal detectors for weapons, as police dogs stand close by.

But, maybe I could have also told them “good luck” in finding their luggage (scattered on different buses), and warned the ladies not to head for the ladies room expecting a “very nice, very clean” spot to squat, and to watch for stray cats running wild about the complex.

Worse than that, mosquitoes and gnats drawn to bad plumbing that leaks, runs over, and floods the restrooms make it almost unbearable in a complex fit to be used only as a prison camp for work release inmates running a horse stable.

The food served after Katrina and Rita in 2005 wasn’t all that bad, I guess (though I only ate there a couple of times), but the cafeteria building was a seperate disaster, waiting to happen, as it did when Hurricane Gustav blew through, causing power outages and street flooding like they’d probably never seen before in Alexandria.

Oh – and the MREs? Well, you got ‘em! Morning, day, and night – anytime you want ‘em. I prefer to spend my hard-earned cash on something a little more decent – like at least a Big Mac and a Motel 6 if there’s a room, until my last paycheck runs out.

As Hurricane Gustav approached, I was stupid enough to evacuate to Alexandria again, in the hopes I’d find a motel room as comforting as the one I found there for a few of those weeks after Rita. What I went through this time is another story. One thread that binds it together is that I again spent time staying in a car outside the same shelter.

You can bet the Canty family or mine won’t be among the next evacuees sleeping in the shelter from hell!

Thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the devastation from Hurricane Ike. While Ike was no Katrina, the death, pain, hurt, suffering, and damages left behind from the Carribean Ocean to Louisiana and Texas is especially heartfelt in our Katrina-ravaged communities. May you be blessed with a speedy recovery.

In a press conference today, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said six houses had collapsed – five within one hour, and that 28 others are in danger of collapsing today, presumably as a result of Hurricane Gustav. He urged hurricane survivors returning home to avoid any buildings that appear dangerous.

Hurricane Katrina began a blight assault on the city, and many homes and other buildings – as many as 400 – have been slated for demolition, with many others already demolished as a result.

The homes that fell down today were all unoccupied, and there were no injuries reported.

Many Louisiana Hurricane Gustav evacuees who ventured north this week to escape the wrath of whatever was coming were out of luck and in harm’s way, thanks to practices of hotel chains that, for whatever reasons, are putting them out on the street. They are finding their cash money is no good.

Whether for lack of preparation or lack of planning, many evacuees seeking shelter from the storm are running into a familiar echo among hoteliers in north Louisiana, particularly the Alexandria area, where stores were closing and gas was in short supply. Those who were smart enough to anticipate where the safest part of the state would be may have made hotel reservations when the storm was still around Haiti or Cuba.

Now that it’s here, those who evacuated as late as Friday or Saturday and tried to get a room ran into the old “no room at the inn” – “no vacancy” – signs.

Then, to add to the hurt, Alexandria’s convention center, used as a Red Cross shelter after Hurricane Katrina, was set up only for special needs evacuees. And the Rapides Coliseum, a blighted, old, circa 1960’s drafty, leaky, stadium dump of a Red Cross shelter, had “no new registrations” signs posted as early as the Saturday before Gustav made landfall in Louisiana.

It was only housing evacuees bussed in from several places around the state. Also, local shelters (schools, etc.) were only accepting local residents, said one evacuee who was turned down.

That left Monroe and Shreveport as the only two closest other cities with Red Cross shelters for evacuees, according to the state’s emergency info operators.

At hotels like Super 8, Ramada Inn, and others in Alexandria, those who got rooms were being told they had to leave “due to reservations”.

Now, who would get on highways and evacuate AFTER a hurricane heads their way? And the hotels wouldn’t accept money from guests already in rooms, so guests could not pay in advance for one day or one week and were forced to checkout. Most, if not all evacuees, had no relatives or friends in the area.

A call to FEMA got the response of “Louisiana hasn’t been declared a disaster yet”, so FEMA wouldn’t help. Also, FEMA was giving the city of New Orleans’ 311 info number or the state’s 211 or the Red Cross as the only further assistance, even for those outside the city of New Orleans.

In his latest news conference at 12:15 p.m. today, Mayor Ray Nagin said the city’s registration system for Hurricane Gustav evacuees crashed, Amtrak took 1600 people on its inaugural evacuee trip, and tourists were ordered to leave the city. He also said a mandatory evacuation order may come either at 8:00 a.m. or at 8:00 p.m. on tomorrow.

The City of New Orleans is trying to put it’s best foot forward, in safety’s best interest, by initiating “assisted evacuation” measures that should have been in place and should have took place as Hurricane Katrina took aim at the city.

Thousands of Katrina survivors are boarding buses at pickup points around the city for transport to the Union Passenger Terminal and to board buses bound for specific places like Shreveport, Monroe, or Alexandria, LA., or Memphis Tennessee.

The city had a system in place to register everybody boarding the buses (I guess too many people got by without being registered) so he said the system’s been suspended at the boarding points, but they’ll be registered on arrival wherever they end up.

He also said an Amtrak train carrying 1600 had been sent to Memphis, and said it’s “time for us to shut the tourists activity down” to give the city’s services free to serve citizens.

Hurricane Gustav is closing in on the Gulf, and fears are that it will slam into Louisiana as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane.

Take the bus, go by car, but boating is not advised, as Katrina survivors on the Gulf Coast start leaving home for parts unknown. Here we go again. Paying the cost to live in America’s most unique city or the beautiful Gulf Coast.

Whatever the case, most of us love where we live, and don’t really want to live anywhere else. And we pay the price, in losses from hurricanes – utterly destructive forces of nature that threaten all coasts of this country, that are called cyclones when on the west coast.

Other kinds disasters, like wildfires, tidal waves, or landslides, can strike anywhere, and you can’t always predict them, as with hurricanes, so at least we have warning systems in place, to give us time to think.

And thinking ahead is a key to avoiding a disaster. We’ve got to think of what we’ll do in case of a hurricane BEFORE it hits. So – don’t even THINK about hunkering down and going without power or water for at least a few days. The one thing you don’t need to think about is whether or not to evacuate when advised to do so.

With law enforcement in place to prevent looting in New Orleans and surrounding areas, the shameful stuff we saw after Hurricane Katrina won’t be seen this time. Besides, anyone found outside in these areas will be arrested, reportedly to be taken straight to the infamous Angola State Prison for booking. And Hurricane Gustav looks like it’s gonna be such a threat that it’s not worth taking a chance for anybody except first responders to stay behind…don’t even THINK about it!

As the City of New Orleans, State of Louisiana, State of Mississippi, and the rest of the Gulf Coast – still already ravaged by Hurricane Katrina three years ago – prepares to defy yet another tempest of the sea called Gustav, FEMA has issued no public media statements regarding the impending threat.

Is this just a repeat performance or a deliberate, calculated step in introducing the Gulf Coast to the new “FEMA of 2008?”

I checked out the old Craiglist Katrina board, and I am pissed off. It seems some peeps still think ALL of us Katrina people got these big checks for $5000 or 2000 or whatever. Not true! And that’s jus ONE of the stupid things people think about us. Seems like we are outkasts in some places. Not ALL Katrina survivers are moochers and thugs!