It pains me to read . . .

It pains me to read today in the NEW YORK TIMES that the trailer project in which I was frustratingly engaged during September in Louisiana is still a frustrating mess for many. A few excerpts, and a link: February 9, 2006 Storm Victims Face Big Delay to Get Trailers By JENNIFER STEINHAUER and ERIC LIPTON SLIDELL, La., Feb. 6 — Nearly six months after two hurricanes ripped apart communities across the Gulf Coast, tens of thousands of residents remain without trailers promised by the federal government for use as temporary shelter while they rebuild. Of the 135,000 requests for trailers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has received from families, slightly more than half have been filled. The delays have left families holed up with relatives or stranded out of state, stalled local economies and infuriated state and local officials, who criticize how the program has been managed. Further, officials and residents complain about problems with quality, like poor plumbing and electrical shorts, with the trailers they have received. "The trailer problem is an individual human tragedy," said Reinhard J. Dearing, the chief administrative officer of Slidell, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. . . . On Monday, frustrated by the delays, four members of the St. Bernard Parish Council performed what they called a symbolic act, taking three trailers from a local stockpile of about 275 and delivering them to residents. . . . "If this happened with any other business, you would find another purveyor," said Councilman Mark Madary, who represents a parish where 6,000 families are waiting for trailers and about 2,000 have received them. The problems in administering the $4 billion trailer program mirror those of other major recovery efforts undertaken since the hurricanes crippled the region, and appear to be a result of failures at all levels of government. . . . http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/09/national/nationalspecial/09trailers.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print