7.1 Billion in Hurricane Aid?!
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| Tue, 09-28-2004 - 4:40am |
All right... where the heck is this going to come from? Taxes are going to have to be raised to pay for this....
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040928/D85CHFB81.html
Bush Seeks $7.1B More for Hurricane Relief
WASHINGTON (AP) - Billions more federal dollars will likely pour into Florida and other Southeastern states as they struggle to return to normal after a series of devastating hurricanes.
In his third request to Congress for supplemental storm aid, President Bush asked lawmakers on Monday for an additional $7.1 billion. Congress has already approved Bush's first request of $2 billion and is considering his second, a $3.1 billion proposal - meaning the price tag for all three could exceed $12.2 billion.
The government will have to borrow to pay for the packages, adding to already huge federal deficits.
The latest request includes $4.5 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides assistance to individuals and to state and local governments.
That means that if the requests are all approved, FEMA would get more than $8 billion for the four storms that have pummeled the Southeast since mid-August. The most FEMA has ever spent for a natural disaster was $7 billion after the 1994 Northridge earthquake in California.
The latest request was coming to Capitol Hill as the remnants of Hurricane Jeanne, the fourth in a row, rumbled north into Georgia after adding to the damage its predecessors caused in Florida.
While the first two requests focused on hurricanes Charley and Frances, the latest was supposed to include damage caused by Ivan - and some initial funds for recovery from Jeanne.
The new package also contains $889 million for the Defense Department to repair military facilities in the affected area.
Other requests in the $7.1 billion package include:
_$600 million to make emergency repairs to hurricane-damaged roads and highways.
_$472 million in Small Business administration loans for businesses and homeowners.
_About $400 million for the Agriculture Department to aid farmers suffering crop and other losses.
_$81 million for the Army Corps of Engineers to restore navigational channels and other repair projects.
_$132 million to repair major federal facilities, including installations of the Veterans Affairs Department and other agencies, including wildlife refuges.
_$50 million in disaster and famine relief assistance to Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica and other countries struck by the hurricanes.
The repeated pummeling has frustrated many in Florida and made some of its lawmakers impatient for more federal assistance.
Miffy - Co-CL For The Politics Today Board
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Miffy - Co-CL For The Politics Today Board
Miffy - Co-CL For The Politics Today Board
Renee ~~~
"Without music, life is a journey through the desert"...
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com
"Without music, life is a journey through the desert"...
Are you familiar with Ringing Rocks State Park in that area? The land used to be in my late wife's family, around the Upper Black Eddy area. Some of the streets are named after her family.
dablacksox
Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.
www.bushtax.com
just so you know what kinds of tax cuts Bush granted other Americans in diff income brackets (you might want to sit down first).
"The hurricanes have taken an emotional toll, as well. Gov. Jeb Bush said domestic violence reports are spiking in areas hit by the storms.
"Nerves are frayed and frustration levels run high," Bush said. "The stress of rebuilding a home or business can be overwhelming."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040929/ap_on_re_us/hurricane_jeanne_us&cid=519&ncid=716
Can you imagine everything you had gone and you are lucky to escape with your life, and then you have to deal with high tempers from the ones you love? Those poor people, may GOD help them all......
This too..
Storm Stress Hitting Many Floridians
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040928/ap_on_he_me/hurricanes_mental_health_1
By JILL BARTON, Associated Press Writer
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - It's not just roofs that have come apart and walls that are falling down. After four hurricanes in six weeks, many people in Florida are suffering emotional breakdowns.
Mental health centers have been flooded with calls from people distraught, depressed or anxious, and authorities say suicides and domestic violence are up in some places.
At an enormous, crowded relief station at a fairgrounds, one woman climbed out of her car before she reached the end of the line and began screaming, "I can't take this anymore! I don't want to do this anymore!" Relief workers calmed her before taking her to a hospital for treatment.
For another woman, Delores Davis, the stress started taking its toll three weeks ago after Hurricane Frances smashed her windows, flooded her carpets and forced her to throw away food she could not afford to replace.
This week, after Hurricane Jeanne took a swipe at her apartment over the weekend, she found herself waiting again at a relief station under a relentless sun. She managed to get a bag of ice, but wondered where she might find water or a meal for her three children. Relief workers had no answers.
"The first one, I stayed strong. But this second one, I started crying and couldn't stop," Davis said as she hugged her two oldest children to her chest. "I tell them God will see us through, but I can't control all the hurt that I feel."
Davis said she has tried calling the American Red Cross (news - web sites) hot line to find a counselor, but clogged phone lines kept her from reaching anyone.
Mental health experts caution that the emotional strain will worsen in the next few weeks as numbness wears off and people grasp the devastation around them. Authorities are warning of an increase in alcohol and drug use, as well as child abuse and other violence.
"This is a time when a great majority of people show their strength of character and act on that to help others, and some get so stressed out that they hurt others," Gov. Jeb Bush said. "We've got provide support for them so it doesn't happen."
Residents have besieged mental health centers with calls for help since Charley struck Florida's southwestern coast in mid-August, and clinics and hospitals have been overwhelmed since Jeanne.
"The stress and anxiety seemed to escalate exponentially," said Christine Cauffield, chief executive of Coastal Behavioral Healthcare in Southwest Florida, where calls increased 150 percent in August and September compared with last year.
Suicides in the southwestern section of the state have increased 13 percent since Charley struck on Aug. 13, compared with previous years, she said. Domestic violence incidents have also risen, state officials said, and the governor and his wife planned a public awareness campaign to offer help.
"We are slammed with people that just are not able to cope," Cauffield said.
The time it takes to get back to normal can seem the longest to children, whose regular routines are scrambled with school closings and hours inside steamy houses. Debris and downed power lines make playing outside dangerous.
Counselors try to help children understand their feelings are normal.
"This is not therapy. It's letting them know it's normal, it's hard, and helping them understand it will get better," said Capt. Peter Delany, a social worker with the U.S. Public Health Service working in Daytona Beach.
Counselors urge parents to try to return to pieces of their regular routines — even sticking to the normal bedtime in a motel or having cereal for breakfast on the front porch.
Stressed-out counselors have even sought help themselves. Many relief workers live in communities struck by hurricanes and have had no time to straighten out their own lives before helping others.
"To them, it's not been a number of storms. It's been one long disaster for them. It's getting to a point that's too overwhelming," Delany said.
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Edited 9/29/2004 9:11 am ET ET by sondra_wins
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