FEMA Deja Vu

It is 1:50 PM on Sunday, and my daughter is still sitting in a flooded apartment, waiting for her apartment maintenance people to get off their butts and come investigate the problem. Apparently, her call last night went unrecorded, as the apartment managers claimed to have no knowledge of her situation. Their calls to the maintanence people went unanswered for hours, until someone finally called back and said they were waiting for the one guy who has the one machine that can suck up the water.

In the meantime, my daughter and her belongings remain in her living room, watching the wetness creep through the carpeting closer and closer. An investigation of the utility hallway from where the water was flowing has revealed a 2 foot high water mark, evidence of long standing and ongoing water damage, and walls covered with something black that really looks like mold. After some coughing and choking and fear of an asthma attack, my daughter is now wearing a surgical mask.

Her request for a temporary dry apartment was turned down, pending the maintenace people's evaluation of the habitability of the apartment - and they hope to arrive some time after 2 PM. So, 14 hours+ have passed since my daughter first reported this flooding. There are several other apartments that must also be flooded, however, the occupants seem to be away for the weekend.

If this is how one apartment complex thinks it is proper to respond to an emergency situation, it is no wonder that things went so horribly wrong in New Orleans. The fact that no one has even COME OUT TO LOOK AT WHAT IS GOING ON is deplorable.

I am sitting by the phone, with car keys nearby, ready to ride out there to Pennsylvania and knock some heads together.