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Hurricane Laura Evacuees Need Federal Aid Now

by Conway Lebleu and Joseph Rosen

As of September 11, the mandatory evacuation of Calcasieu parish has been lifted. Still, Lake Charles looks like a war zone. Surrounding areas have also been devastated. Most places are without electricity and clean drinking water. Trees felled, roofs disassembled and detached. Some people have decided to leave, weary of destruction. Others would do the same but don’t have the means to get out of town. One resident reported staying on the porch of his friend’s home, fighting mosquitos and unable to sleep, because his own house was crushed. His phone was stolen, so he is depending on a cousin of a friend. They are both still waiting on FEMA to call them back.

A Lake Charles resident, Jennifer Fisher, described arriving in New Orleans without a place to stay: “we came for a voucher and they were out. We walked from hotel to hotel trying to find somewhere to stay. No help from FEMA. They just say call 211.”

“They’re telling me they’re going to assist me. I do everything I have to do. They sent me to SBA and they denied me a loan. How am I supposed to get a loan? I don’t have a job. I don’t have a car.”

As of September 10, FEMA had registered 131,000 Louisiana survivors of Hurricane Laura. Thousands have no housing except what they’ve secured through temporary vouchers or the help of families and friends. Another evacuee, Gabriel Raymond, put it plainly: “Just give me somewhere to stay. I can go to work. Just give me somewhere to sleep.”

Many homeowners cannot afford to repair their homes since only 20% of homes in the area are covered by insurance, and many can’t afford deductibles that often exceed 15 thousand dollars.

According to FEMA, 97 million dollars has been approved for individual and household assistance. The news station KATC claims that FEMA “distributed more than $89 million to residents.” This relief pales in comparison to the estimated $20 billion in damages incurred from the storm.

“We need help.” Fisher expressed frustration with the measly government aid. She pointed out that U.S. government had more than enough money to address people’s emergency needs if only the government put people over profits.

“Here go the president… He could do something. He did the most to try to build a wall.” In 2017 after Hurricane Maria took the lives of more than 5,000 people in Puerto Rico, Trump announced he was diverting $155 million from FEMA’s disaster relief fund to pay off his goons in the fascist Border Patrol as well as the companies that run for-profit concentration camps for ICE.

The U.S. government spends more than $1.2 trillion ($1,200,000,000,000) in tax dollars every year on war and repression. This money could be used to provide emergency relief to everyone affected by capitalist caused climate disasters.

Louisiana needs emergency funds NOW! Fund disaster recovery, not disastrous wars!

The New Orleans Workers Group demands:

  • Immediate federal relief funds to guarantee housing, food, and security to everyone affected by Hurricane Laura, regardless of documentation or citizenship status.
  • Expand hotel vouchers to include all evacuees and extend them indefinitely.
  • Federal home repair funds to cover what insurance doesn’t pay.
  • Living wage jobs program to assist with disaster recovery.
  • Bus and parking vouchers for all evacuees.
  • A moratorium on rent and mortgage payments for all evacuees.
  • Free healthcare services for all evacuees.

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Only the Organized Working Class Can Stop Climate Change

By Casey Resto

In early October, the UN issued a special report updating specific aspects of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment of 2014. The results suggest a centuries-long expansion in detrimental economic and environmental effects on humanity. Lower income individuals will be the most severely impacted as we’re the ones least able to afford what insurance companies deem “Acts of God.”

While international agreements require governments to pledge a reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases, only an organization of the workers of the world will have the power to meet the severity of the crisis.

The United States’ decision not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and recently, to withdraw from the Paris Agreement show that a government will ignore eventual and irreversible consequences for humanity if it’s set up to maintain the rule of the rich over everyone else. We, the majority, will be the ones working in hotter and nastier weather.

Natural disasters have occurred at alarming rates: in 2018 alone, the U.S. was battered by Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Michael, floods displaced more than a million people in Kerala, India and Typhoon Mangkhut destroyed more than 10,000 homes in the Philippines and China, to name just a few examples.

These catastrophes destroy the environment and its inhabitants, but the effects of these losses are experienced unevenly depending on how a society is organized. Under capitalism, we workers and oppressed take the brunt of the hit. In capitalist society we see incarcerated workers in California fighting deadly wildfires for less than $2 a day. We see North Carolina’s state government refuse to evacuate prisoners in the midst of Hurricane Florence (a category 4 at the time). Over and over we see the cruelty of capitalism.

Low income communities are affected as city boards refuse to update their infrastructure to deal with the worsening effects of climate change. New Orleans residents are still feeling the costs of the August 2017 floods. The Sewerage and Water Board’s failure to do their job caused many damages to homes and cars.

These are not unique cases. As the environment worsens, so do our working conditions, our wages and our ability to afford stable living situations that can withstand the drastic changes to our climate. The destruction of the environment and its irreversible effects are an inevitable consequence of imperialism, materialism, and militarism. Capitalism’s persistent and eager need to consume, colonize and destroy in the name of money will only continue to devastate and ravage the world we live in, all for the pleasure of the bourgeoisie. 

We cannot take a passive approach to climate change. Laws take years to enact, and the 2014 IPCC assessment claims that even if global emissions were to stop within the next 24 hours, damages are already locked in for centuries. Those at the top won’t give up their greed. Our only option is to organize and make revolution.