Some should be greatful that money is flowing in, where my family is from, government aid does not exist. I could admit, things could speed up a bit but if people want to see results, they need to get up and move on. Dont use the disaster as an excuse to do nothing. I have noticed that those who get help the quickest are those who take action and attempt to make a change.

It is just too bad about FEMA and their "no pets policy" because for so many, these "pets" are ALL that they truly have left and for so very many, these "pets" are not just pets but family. Hopefully the pets will have the continued care they need and their families will get regular visits with their "pets".

Foreign aid-When tragedy strikes anywhere in the world, the aid seems to get there a LOT more quickly than it does for people here at home in the US. For this family to FINALLY get a trailer to call home is truly a blessing BUT it need not have taken SOOOOO long! And so many more without and just waiting is a shame.

As for people NOT taking the responsibility of having a good supply-an emergency supply-of food items that are non-perishable such as canned soups, can openers, etc...this is for ALL people to get with it and not expect our own government to be there to take care of us for the first few days of a situation, so PLAN people, and get those emergency kits, medical supplies and FOOD and WATER stocked up so you are NOT left without, and at least a five day supply. Date them so that you can rotate those supplies and replenish them as the date nears so you will always have fresh supplies. Do not want to be stuck with out of date food items when that emergency should hit. A supply of campling gear, tents, platic tarps, you name it, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE should have these things...as especially in an area prone to earthquakes there may be no hotels or other buildings that you can rely on. We all need to take initiative to be responsible human beings. Again, for the elderly, inferm (ill) too young or those with NO way to drive or get out of an area, maybe the idea I have mentioned before "Adopt-a-Family" and every neighborhood be as an extended family so when emergency does hit those that are ill, aged, too young and/or with special needs can have a wonderful family within their neighborhood give them a helping hand so they are not stuck alone. Hurricane Katrina and those poverty stricken areas of New Orleans was a sure sign of the worst of America, and how people began pointing the fingers of blame and how "nobody helped me get out...etc., etc." Well, when people are poor it seemed to me that everyone was expecting a handout because they either did not have emergency supplies due to low income and only having the ability to buy food for a day, and no cars (though I know there were people with cars that were just too selfish to help their neighbors) Also, there are so many on drugs or drug dealers, and of course the political situation helped non at all as to how the busses could have been used to evacuate but the politicians sitting there arguing amongst themselves about who would be paing for the gasoline...SO MANY factors led to the tragedies therein.

Again, "Adopt-a-Family" and if just one family on every street, or neighborhood were to set up like a neighborhood watch, and to get to know each and every person and/or family and to ensure the other's safety in an emergency situation then everyone would have an out of the area and an in to a place of safety. We all need to be less self-centered and to develop a compassion for our neighbors. As when tragedy strikes whether it be man made or natural, there is no discrimination. Regardless of color of skin, race, ethnicity, culture, financial status, religion, spirituality-well the tragedy will strike everyone the same.

Again, all of these things that have occurred will only occur again, and we ALL need to take responsibility for ourselves and our food, water and other basic needs until help can arrive. God truly does help those who help themselves. Again, for those elderly, inferm (ill) special needs, they need those that are strong and able to help them. For those without transportation, we with the ability and with transportation should be there to help. Treat others as you would want to be treated and we all need to develop a LOT more compassion towards our fellow human beings. God bless one and all. Assalamu Alaykum (Peace be upon you) one and all.

This is what we supposedly pay taxes for: so the Government can take care of us when we need it. That is what it is for. People need help occasionally. Stop with the pioneering spirit garbage: YOU try and manage when you are dirt-poor and still work. People iN Denmark and Germany would be FLOORED if the government wouldnt help them with childcare, insurance, housing, etc. That's where all their tax dollars are going for! For when they NEED it! Stop whining. We are lucky we are getting ANYTHING with a Republican in the white house. Hey, YOU insisted on voting him in, not me!!!

I'm so happy for the Lusish family; this is the best news I've heard all weekend! What great news! Yeah I know the government isn't there to "wipe our noses" when for goodness sake, when they promise you something....they should make good on those promises. Once again, a good use of our tax dollars!

for the people that make the rude oomments about us survivors not taking responsibilty for ourselves...maybe you should come down to the coast and new orleans and surounding areas and see it all for yourself there is nothing here no home no apts nothing to try and live in and why move away when you are trying to rebuild your home...as for the insurance policies well if you are flooded there is no ale for you to recieve...not to mention the ins will take a long time to recieve and then you still need places to live...if you have ever been in a hurricane like this then you would know the ins is not that simple to work with...we did not want this disaster and we are all well most of us our taxpayers also ....yes it is costing trillions to help us with this but honestly ppl tell us what else is there to do???????? unless you are actually in our shoes dont put us down and degrade us for accepting places to live when there is no where else around here to go!!!!!!!! AND TO ALL OF YOU OTHER PEOPLE OUT THERE THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DONE FOR US!!!

It's wonderful to hear that people are FINALLY getting the help they deserve from Katrina. It makes no sense to me why it takes so long to help OUR people and only hours to help other countries who don't deserve anything from us!! Where are they when we need help--laughing I suppose and plotting their next terroist attack. I say pull our troops out of Iraq and stop helping all these third world countries and focus on the problems in our own country!!!

Having to live out of the trunk of my car & with extended family/friends for a 10 month time frame I can truly understand the Leslie's appreciation of a 32 foot 'new home'. What I can't understand is all the complaining about the Gov't 'taking so long to help'. We still have the greatest and 'most helpful' Gov't in the world. Try getting a 'new home' from any other gov't, much less getting it in 68 days. Shame on those Americans who complain about the gov't being slow to respond. How 'quick' did you dig into your own personal pockets and help? I believe that those with 'young' children, not almost grown young adults, should be helped first.

Some of these people that post messages that the government shouldn't have to help those who lost their homes, needs to experience a disaster of their own and then see how ungenerous they are. Someone always seems to be better than everyone else. Hope they get to have their homes blown up some day so they can take care of themselves!

Maybe if we were to stop helping our "neighboring countries" every time they need their nose wiped, then we would have the ability to help our own. Bring our soldiers home from Iraq to help where they would be appreciated. Not have them somewhere where they aren't wanted. All the money spent on Iraq would have come in very handy right now. God Bless all of you and may the opportunity to build a new life, bring you many rewards.

I need a new 32' trailer.. Do I need to move to a hurricane ridden location to get it for free?

Here is a news flash for all you self-righteous hypoocrites out there: None of us has any real control over where our tax dollars go. I for one am tickled plum to death to see my taxes being spent here, in my country, to help my people. You gripe because our taxes are being spent to help folks caught in a disaster of unimaginable proportions, who have lost everything down to their coffee cups and toothbrushes--including their jobs. Think about it this way: We are providing the necessities of life to our fellow Americans. They are not demanding human sacrifices from among our family members and neighbors, as the Bush administration is doing with its expensive, immoral, and downright creepy invasion of Iraq. How many kajillion of our tax dollars will be appropriated for THAT loony cause? Why is it o.k. for you to pay for tanks and bombs and the cost of shipping your neighbor's children over there to be blown up, but not o.k. to pay for a bunk with a tin roof and a few weeks of food for kids here at home? Hey, call me cynical, but these folks have two sons. How long will it be before they are called upon to pay the ultimate price for that FEMA loaner: The lives of those sons, for some other imperialistic, oil-driven and lubricated cause? And why do you not mention the corporate welfare that allows the major oil companies to reap a mind-boggling all-time record quarterly profit of some 9 billion dollars from the aftermath of this tragedy? Do you not buy gas, or heating oil? Natural gas? Electricity? Every dollar spent here at home is one less dollar wasted on atrocities committed in the name of the wealthy elite against other countries. I would rather see my tax dollars spent on homeless families. It appears, given a choice, you would rather spend your tax dollars to blow things up than to rebuild them.

Excuse me, but this lady is happy to have a roof! She is grateful and so am I that she is finally getting some help. Yes, Fema has been far more wrong than right, but this is right. How can you expect the government to provide luxurious accomidations for the tens of thousands of people displaced? This is a safe, secure, temporary solution for people who have lost everything. There is power, water, and sanitation. Give a thought to the people in Pakistan, Aphganistan, India, who fight for a blanket, who's children are dying as they watch helpless. I'm embarassed by the whining, selfish attitude of entitlement that so many Americans exhibit. This rich, generous, compassionate country is made poorer by these people, who probably either didn't vote, or helped elect our present government in the last election. Get a grip, register to vote, then vote, volunteer to help, then show up, and quit complaining.

We all seem to be missing the point here. We are the government! "By the people, of the people and for the people" We have a tendency to get what we elect. This time "we" screwed up, and got screwed. Maybe we can elect someone better next time. We should all be doing more to help these people. Why? Because it is the morally right thing to do. We would want and expect the same. My entire family are hard working tax paying Americans. I am proud to see my tax dollars going to help pay for some of these peoples needs. I would be ashamed of us if they weren't. My father, God rest his soul and mother, would never dream of accepting a hand out, like a good portion of the good folks all along the gulf coast, but when something as horrible as this hits, you are not given much of a choice. This woman didn't ask for this to happen to her and her family, but it has and now she is gracious and thankful to have an actual roof over her head. May God bless her and her family. May we as Americans continue to help those in need in any way we can.

I still can't believe the people who say "just buck up and go get a job." Excuse me, these people lost EVERYTHING...whole communities wiped out. There ARE no jobs, there IS no place to go for thousands of them. What do you want the government to do? Send the money overseas to strangers rather than take care of our own? Insurance companies are the scammers of the century, and having insurance is--as we've seen--no guarantee of getting any help. Just padding the insurance companies' pockets, that's it. These people are our own--they need help, they need help at a survival level. To chastise them for being victims of a natural disaster on a scope more than most anybody in this country has ever had to face is the most childish, selfish, behavior that I've seen. Grow up...maybe next time the disaster will be in your area, and when you're standing knee deep in ruins, maybe then you'll begin to grasp just what has gone on.

I'm disgusted by some of the posts here saying that Katrina victims just need to take responsibility and stop waiting for the government to take care of them. The judgmental, patronizing tone of those comments is offensive to me as an American who thinks that we pay taxes precisely to be able to help other Americans when they need it. As another poster said, Gulf Coast residents pay taxes too, and I’m sure that at various points in time, Katrina victim’s taxes paid for help to other regions.

An entire section of our country was devastated by Katrina, and when a region suffers such catastrophic loss that it can’t pick itself up, it is up to the federal government to help. The United States is strongest when its states are strong.

I’m not at all upset that my tax dollars are going to support efforts to get these folks back on their feet, and I would hope that the same would be done for me in the same situation. It’s too easy to sit around saying, “If you had been responsible enough to buy insurance, you would be fine,” or “If it was me, I could take care of myself.” Fortunately, most of us do not know how or if we would be able to cope in a situation where our homes and communities were destroyed, leaving no local safety net. Most of us haven’t been there, and I would bet that the focus on rugged individualism taken by some of these posters would fall apart if they were caught in such circumstances, giving way to a need for help.

Thank you to FEMA and the rest of Corporate America for helping those in need. It is almost impossible to find appropriate housing for millions of homeless Americans, and I think you guys are doing a fantastic job. Don't let the pesamistic americans of this country bring you down.

I'm sure (at least I hope) that the negative people thinking we are just looking for hand-outs truly have no personal idea of the devastation. I believe if any one of you went through what the residents of our area did you would be at the mercy of FEMA too. The insurance companies are VERY slow - and they are really NOT paying out what is due. Hurricane insurance should cover a hurricane - I know that is a whole other discussion.
To those of you that are complaining - just stop - you must not have empathy for others. One day you have your life, the next day everything around you is GONE - think about it (if you can).
I'm glad to see that people are finally getting their trailers - it is just one step on the road to recovery.
My best wishes to all my neighbors

Congrats on receiving your trailer. You deserve it, and your tax dollars go to help just like the tax dollare of those who complain because they think their tax dollars should not be spent on people who need help. It shouldnt be considered a handout. The people in the south pay taxes just like anyone else and deserve a helping hand.

I am one of the thousands of drivers who are hitching up a FEMA trailer to my truck from Indiana, and hauling it down to Baton Rouge Louisiana or Pervus Mississippi. We use our own trucks, hook up at all hours of the day and night, and head south. It takes 24 hours of solid driving to get there, about $530 in gas and a big truck to make it up the hills between here and there. Take a ride down I55 or I65, and count trailer after trailer, all driven by one or two people who have given up free time to drive 24 hours ONE WAY, just to deliver a trailer to the folks who lost it all. It takes another 24 hours to get home, and thats with sleeping in the front seat of a truck, or if you are really lucky, the back bench seat of a crew cab truck. When we get to the drop sites, there is yet another army of drivers waiting to pull the trailers to the new owners. Yes, we get paid to do this job. I want to thank MSNBC for showing us at least one happy new resident of just one of these trailers. No, they are not fancy, they are very basic, so if you are jealous that these folks are getting a nice new trailer, you need only peek your head inside one to know these have the bare necessities for life, a very simple bed, a tiny bathroom, a small kitchenette and a few small closets. Some sleep 6, some sleep 2. They have a heater and A/C, 3 or 4 small windows and one door, they are a mere 30 feet long. Hauling over 100,000 trailers, 900 miles one way, over large hills, past semi trucks and soon ice and snow, one at a time, is a monumental feat. Its absolutley overwhelming to see this operation "trailer" in person, my hats off to FEMA for being able to organize it, my respect to my fellow drivers for pulling all these trailers all night long and still arriving in one piece, and best of luck to the folks who must now call this little trailer "Home".

Wow, she has a new home and so quickly !!
Could this have anything to do with the fact that she is white??? The best we could manage was to move these poor, sick, frightened and defeated people from one delapitated football stadium to another after denying them our assistance emmediately. We sure could be there to film the devistation and looting,the elderly sitting out there frying in the hot sun and rancid waters starving to death, but we certainly could not arrive with food, medicine, drinking water, transportation and financial aid. Blessed are those who have a life that can be hauled back into a brand spanking new trailer. For some the WATER came and hauled it ALL away, including loved ones. For some that are still transposed and homeless,seperated from family and friends, the memory of our abandonment and our shameless President will never EVER be washed away.
" What a proud day America!! "

I think we have been paying taxes for decades which are then allotted to FEMA and other government agencies to, yes, help out in natural disasters. What is wrong with some of us getting a little of the tax money back, if it is what it was allotted for in the first place! People can be so heartless...

People dissin survivors need to get on a plane and go to Southern Mississippi. Seriously. Or at least look at the pictures of the devastation. There is NOTHING left in Waveland. NOTHING except debris 15 ft high all around you, devastation for miles, houses now piles of matchsticks. How can anyone look at this everyday? There is no civilian traffic (no cars left), only military, police, rescue, construction, utility trucks and countless other agencies. Residents do not have running water or electricity. They are unable to survive daily life in this toxic environment without the help of countless agencies.

If you don't think the goverment should help them recover from the worst disaster this country as ever seen who should? When are YOU leaving for Mississippi to help?

While in Waveland, I was standing in line at a relief center for food when an elderly man and woman told me they had worked all their lives, retired from New Orleans in Waveland, built their retirement home and planned on spending their golden years in Waveland. Now, they have nothing to show for years of hard work. Nothing. Tears streaming down his face, he said "I never thought I'd be standing in line for a free meal." He was devastated, his wife, eyes glazed over, was clearly suffering trauma.

Everyone we spoke to was traumatized !

For those without a clue, get your butts down there, see the devastation, the trauma survivors are suffering, the faces of the children and elderly. The face of a father of four children under age 5 whose business floated down Rt. 90 and can no longer care for his family. They have no house, no clothes, no toys....nothing!

FIRST get a clue as to life on the ground in a post-disaster zone, THEN post your thoughts.

To all on the Gulf Coast, hang in there.....tomorrow will be better than today.

The important point that Wendyl misses is that Lyn is happy in her new home. She seems to have no problem with FEMA. They may not be perfect but they are doing what they can. Either step up and help or keep quiet.

Last night I came to the realization that I finally understand the devastation that occurred on the Gulf coast. As I pondered the thought of deciding on which plumber I should call because of a backed up sewage drain, I realized that most if not all of the people affected by this catastrophe would give anything to be in my situation.
Even though I have not been there to actually see the devastation, I can only imagine what these people must go through everyday to make even the most elementary of tasks possible.
As I go to work each day I think of the countless people who each got a new job, a job that pays nothing, offers no paid vacations or holidays and no fringe benefits. It is a job that noone in their right mind would want to accept but be forced into. That job is survival, 168 hours a week.
People say that time heals all wounds. That is especially true in this time of need. We can't expect the government to help ALL of these people in such a short period of time givin the amount of damage, even though they should've responded a lot better in the onslaught. It will take a long, long time before we see anything that even resembles something of what we (you) once knew. I can only hope that they offer continued support for those in need.
I pray for those who are trying to pick up the pieces, both figuratively and physically, as each day passes. Stay strong, persevere, and you will make it through. Time will make sure of that.
May we all support one another in times like these. God knows, we'll all need it at one time or another, maybe not as severe but none the less. And need I remind anyone that we still live in the best country in the world.

What I find amazing is the heartlessness of many people - saying that people shouldn't live in risky areas unless they can't afford private insurance, have immediate access to reconstruction materials, goods, and services, and have careers that will keep them in money (and able to afford interim housing) until their original homesites are rebuilt.

Americans would have never developed the Gulf Coast as much as we have done, had we taken a purely libertarian approach to development. How much more would these hidden costs have added to the prices we pay for food, fuel, and other things, had we not subsidized the development of the Gulf Coast?

Mind you, development comes with a price - something that politicans do not adequately account for. We should have a ready supply of pre-manufactured emergency housing (available via the Federal Government)to replace much of the stick-built homes. But we should make sure that each homeowner is required to maintain disaster insurance to cover its cost.

The basic idea of insurance is to pool resources, so that the small numbers of people who suffer individual disasters (illness, home damage, theft, etc.) can be restored to a sembalance of normalcy. Insurance companies "reinsure" themselves against large disasters via reinsurance companies. Why not have the Federal government as the reinsurer of reinsurance companies if we charge properly for the service? In theory, we could have an arm of the US Govt. making money during most years - and provide jobs during lean years by requiring that disaster homes be 100% domestic content.....

Just a germ of an idea....