JCTownsley.com

30 days later, the news has stopped following Katrina as a top story. I have to admit, I can’t blame them. The hurricane happened, homes were destroyed, people rescued, celebrities did good deeds, but a full month later its old news. The media is all about selling- thats all it is. People donated money, [...]

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Throughout the past two weeks, as I have dealt with hundreds of applicants who did not receive expedited assistance checks, rental assistance checks, or any other type of funding, I have been dumbfounded as to why. As the government proclaimed that anybody who was forced to evacuate and ended up in temporary shelter should [...]

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1. I upgraded to a Pro Flickr account finally. I’ll be posting pictures throughout the day now. Make sure you click on the link to the right to see all of them.
2. I’m posting throughout the day when I have a chance. Remember to scroll down just in case there are other new entries below [...]

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A tough day at the job today, more people needing help. Kaite and I do our best, but we’ve only got so much to give. The good news is that we are moving into a hotel tonight. Although we find some ethical issues of being under a solid roof while others around [...]

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It’s 2am and I can’t sleep. It seems like I’ve been up at this time in the morning every day this week.
FEMA has decided to stop issuing $2,000 expedited assistance checks. Initially anybody from the affected area was to receive the money. “Official” word here, or at least from our FEMA official, is that [...]

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It’s only day two of our re-opening, but Kaite and I are both exhausted. Yesterday was a slow day, as Mayor Nagin had not officially re-opened the town yet. Today was the busiest day yet.
I wanted to post some more thoughts, but I honestly am too tired. Senator Gordon’s office has asked [...]

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Among so much poverty and despair, perhaps this is an appropiate time for a Ruskin quote.
“And if, on due and honest thought over these things, it seems that the kind of existence to which men are now summoned by every plea of pity and claim of right, may, for some time at least, not be [...]

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The halls of this school are a frozen piece of time. Assignments are on the chalkboard, students supplies on top of desks, graded homework sits on the teachers desk. Can you imagine that final day the school was open?
Did the teachers give hugs goodbye?
Did they continue teaching or just simply pray?
What did the teachers say [...]

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Hurricane Rita has passed, the school survived just fine. Some more water damage
from roof leaks, but that is about it. We holed up in the school Friday and
Saturday, only losing power for a couple of hours during the night. Yesterday
we took an opportunity to explore the West Bank, the Harvey Canal flooding into
the industrial [...]

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We are ok. Power went out for a while. Safe and sound though. Hopefully get internet access later.

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I talked to josh today. FEMA told them to evacuate, Josh and the 100
other FEMA contractors in the school said “screw you, we’re not leaving
the residents of new orleans”.
–JST

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The DRC is closed, we’re closing shop. Not evacuating as I-10 is gridlocked.
Rita is turning east we’ve heard, we’re 15 feet above sea level. Things should
be good. Probably won’t have communication for a few days, we’re shutting down
the satelite truck and moving it to a secure location.
I had a review of my experience to [...]

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Just a quick update, I appreciate everybody’s concern the past few days. I’m
trying to keep the updates rolling as I can through the computers. I have not
had a chance to respond to many of your emails however.
As of now, we are not evacuating for Rita. We have plans in place to evacuate to
Baton Rouge and [...]

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I don’t remember the last time I slept through the night. As my cot crashed to the floor around 2am last night, I found myself in vain trying to fall back asleep. Yet the tides of insomnia have hit me the last few nights, and insteadI found myself reading the “Meditations” of Marcus Aurelius until [...]

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Perhaps out of boredom, but mostly out of a desire to help people
receive as much aid as possible, I have spent most of the day
‘teaching’ people here at the DRC how to be eligible for as much as
possible.
Remember the scene in “the Incredibles” where Mr. Incredible is
helping the lady file a claim on her insurance? [...]

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