FEMA'S follies, chapter forty-three.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at windmills - Federal Emergency Management Agency - Brief article

Residents of a FEMA trailer park for Katrina victims were recently shocked by loud knocks on their door from officials who told them they had to pack and be ready to leave in forty-eight hours. Why the sudden rush?

That is the obvious question. But it took the article in the Washington Post describing the event nineteen paragraphs to share the answer with readers: FEMA was reacting to a story by the Daily Star of Hammond, Louisiana, criticizing FEMA for letting the electric bills for the park go unpaid so often that the power was turned off on three separate occasions.

"Quite frankly, we received press earlier that week that pointed the finger at FEMA for not paying the bills. We were getting...