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Letters to the Editor
November 5, 2008
Here’s a sampling of what readers have to say about Hurricane Ike.
Unfair Holdups For Elevated Home Repairs
I live on a street that hadn’t flooded until Hurricane Ike came. My house was built in 1929 and is elevated.
There was no structural damage inside, but yet I’ve been placed in the yellow zone.
I’m spending $1,500 a month to rent a town home in Dickinson, and FEMA is saying I’m above its income allowance to receive any additional living expenses.
Of course, my flood insurance isn’t paying any ALE.
I have a contractor ready to get me back in my house, but the city is holding that up.
I’m sure there are others in the same boat, so is there any recourse for those of us whose houses are already elevated?
Avis Reynolds
Galveston
Get Out Of The Way Of Rebuilders, FEMA
As a BOI and a businessman who travels all across the country and outside the United States, I can tell Galvestonians they’ve been virtually forgotten by the outside world.
To folks in Vancouver, British Columbia and the western states like California and Nevada, the island is back to normal and everyone has lights. I set them straight wherever I go.
As for FEMA and its band of bozos, I can only say you get what you pay for. Evidently, it isn’t up to the task at hand.
We’ve been waiting to rebuild my mom and dad’s home on South Shore Drive (Bayou Shore and 61st Street) since the first weekend back.
We don’t need FEMA’s money; the strings are too tight around the neck. We just want it to give us the OK to start rebuilding or tell us no, so we can change a 5,000 sq. ft. home into a raised 1,500 sq. ft. home.
So the city loses tax money — tough. Mom and dad can end their days at the same address, if not the same home, that they built back in 1969!
Get out of the way, FEMA, and give us the island back!
John Williams
Deer Park
Island City Needs To Adjust Its Priorities
What is wrong with Galveston’s government? Why is the city of Galveston so worried to get The Strand up and running for Dickens on The Strand? Isn’t getting people back into their houses more important?
People displaced by Hurricane Ike should be told whether they can or cannot rebuild so they can get their lives back together. The Strand shouldn’t take precedence over the city’s residents.
The city should be more worried about cleaning up the entrance into Galveston by clearing the sides of the roads that lead into Galveston so that, when tourists do come here, they don’t have to see all the mess left by Ike.
It must get its priorities in order!
Linette Devoe
Galveston
Shane Williams, 33, of Port Bolivar, died during Hurricane Ike.
Wonderful Employee We Will Never Forget
Shane Williams, whose remains were identified Oct. 22, was a part-time employee of the Galveston Bookshop from 1999 through January 2005. He was a wonderful employee and our customers sought his advice on science fiction and history books.
It was always a pleasure to be around Shane, and we were dismayed to learn of his and his family’s fate during Hurricane Ike. They had lived in Galveston and Bolivar for many years.
When we open again, we will start a memorial fund for an appropriate charity in their honor.
Sharan Zwick and Paul Randall
The Galveston Bookshop
Galveston
EMS Volunteers All Set To Give At Christmas
The Volunteer Mobile Emergency Response Unit and members of the Longhorn student EMS Association plan to spend this Christmas in Galveston.
We plan to bring gifts for the firefighters, paramedics and police officers who have been helping the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Ike.
We hope and pray each day that, soon, all of these areas’ residents can restore their lives and begin to have some sense of peace.
Our EMS professionals who have been on the front lines from day one will be treated to food and Christmas for themselves and their family members.
Our crews will offer to help do any work, including EMS 911 calls, to allow other crews to rest and enjoy Christmas too.
Our hands are extended in friendship and as neighbors saddened to see poeple hurting.
We will be in Galveston from Dec. 20 through Dec. 27. If anyone would like to help, please e-mail me at director@rehab sector.org or visit our Web site at www.rehab sector.org.
Cheryl Lassiter
director, Volunteer Mobile Emergency Response Unit
Austin
State officials were investigating how 10 death-row inmates made nearly 2,800 calls from a cell phone.
Correctional Officers Urgently Need A Raise
Texas correctional officers’ so-called 20 percent raise was still up in the air a week ago. Now, no telling.
Why? Some clown brought a cell phone into our death-row unit.
Can people imagine a death-row inmate calling a U.S. senator from his cell?
Of course, this crook let his cell mates use it, too.
I scratch my head, knowing heads will roll over this one. If it’s not a handcuff key being spit out while on the death chamber’s gurney, it may as well be a cell phone to make final calls, huh?
Each year, we “good” officers have to face a statewide smear of some sort.
I just ask “Joe Public” not to smear us too badly on this one. We need our raise.
We rank 20 percent below the national average for correctional officers’ pay and 48th in the nation.
Unlike Texas teachers and Department of Public Safety folks, we have very little voice in Austin.
I urge Daily News readers to help by callig or writing their state representative.
Ed Matthews
Hitchcock
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