Not Part of the 1.4 Billion Ripoff

And neither are the other poor people who have lost everything. The fraud was perpetrated mostly by people with knowledge of the system and the ability to contact the right people, don't let yourself be convinced that the people who currently have nothing and are spread out across the U.S instead of at home had much to do with the fraud. Remember the ice trucks driving around aimlessly and the no-bid contracts? Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater as the saying goes.

Lives Suspended on Gulf Coast, Crammed Into 240 Square Feet - New York Times: "To keep from tracking mud into the trailer, the Shiyous have placed a recovered piece of their old deck on the ground. 'This was the color of my house,' Ms. Shiyou says, walking on it. 'A country blue.'

She takes one step into the trailer, and the initial urge is to hunch. Mr. Shiyou, a gangly 6-foot-2, stretches out his arms to demonstrate how he can simultaneously touch the ceiling with one hand and the floor with the other.

His wife slides open a door to her immediate right, revealing a room taken up almost entirely by the master bed. 'You just crawl in from the foot and pull the blankets up as you go,' she says.

The hangers in the small closet have to be tilted sideways to fit, and the space-eating fan is necessary because you lose the air-conditioning if you slide the door shut for privacy. Mr. Shiyou says he sleeps less than five hours a night because that is all he can take of this confinement.

Moving left, the kitchen, with the bread and cookies stored in the microwave, paper plates and plastic cups from Wal-Mart in the cabinet and a couple of Reed & Barton silver coffeepots the family found in the woods after the waters receded.

'I'm going to put them in my china closet when I get one,' Ms. Shiyou says, talking over the television set, which is blaring MTV beside her. 'He usually always watches cartoons,' she says of Cody. 'And it drives me crazy.'

Take one step off the small stretch of tan linoleum, which she keeps clean with the mop at the door, and onto the patch of worn dun-colored carpet, which she keeps clean with the carpet sweeper beside the mop, and you are now in the dining room, living room, and practically into Cody's bed.

A small, hard couch. A small booth with a small table, under which are stored a blue suitcase, Cody's book bag, Cody's suddenly massive sneakers and shoes and his father's even larger shoes. Cody's bed, where he stashes Doritos, and the bed above, used for storing blankets and winter clothes.

Finally, the bathroom, whose door, when opened, blocks Cody's bed. You have to lean over the toilet to see yourself in the mirror. Mr. Shiyou practically kneels to fit into the shower."

Oh yeah, they're living large. 240 sq. feet, that's smaller than most kid's bedroom. Don't let the government get away with avoiding its responsibilities to its citizens. The rich got their help, it is time for the little people.

Tags: Katrina, fraud, FEMA trailers,