Dear Editor,
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2018, was the 13th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. We remember so well the day Aug. 29, 2005, when Katrina hit.
Gales started at 10 a.m., which brought down a tree on our den in our rental home at 1302 Willow Drive. An hour later came a large limb through the center of the master bedroom.
I was in a wheelchair then, had been since 1998. We moved from the den to the living room when the tree fell. Others were not so blessed to have a house left. Progress was slow in the beginning but thanks to FEMA after four months of making do in a piece of a house, God left us our ADA, three-bedroom, one-bath trailer that came into Wilkes Trailer Court.
We are so grateful to FEMA. They came through for us, or we would be homeless today. Praise God FEMA let us purchase the trailer at an extremely low price two years ago. FEMA was here to help the ones that would let them help. I have nothing but gratitude and praise for FEMA. They were always good to us.
But I don’t understand why the grants were only for homeowners. We renters deserved a chance to get out of the trailer into a home of our own. It has been 13 years, and we are still basically in a FEMA trailer even though we own it. We have two disabled adults in this trailer. We feel it was unfair for the renters to be left out.
Tony, April and Cathy McDermit
Columbia
