Good morning: This article appeared on Yahoo yesterday. I am so very appalled after reading it, and so incredibly sad for those who have called this little town their HOME, that I want all here to find a way to get the word out to everyone you know.
Is it possible that one many in power can be so very sick in his mind and mean in spirit, and heartless along with self-serving in a time where he could be holding up the spirits of those in a small town with care, compassion and kindness>
From this article it sure does appear the case, and I sure do hope residents of Cordova and those surrounding areas will take their angst, take their heartbreak and their anger, and UNITE: Contact the President, your legislature, contact below the man who wrote this article..l
By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Jay Reeves, Associated Press – Sun May 29, 7:40 pm ET
CORDOVA, Ala. – James Ruston's house was knocked off its foundation by tornadoes that barreled through town last month and is still uninhabitable. He thought help had finally arrived when a truck pulled up to his property with a mobile home from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Then he got the call: Single-wide mobile homes, like the FEMA one, are illegal in the city of Cordova.
THE MAYOR HAS BANNED FEMA SINGLE WIDE MOBILE HOMES FROM HIS TOWN FOR TEMPORARY HOUSING OF THOSE WHOSE HOMES HAVE BEEN DEVASTATED BY TORNADOES and homeless as a result of them.
THE MAYOR HUNG UP ON A REPORTER.
THE MAYER SAYS "I CAN LOOK ANYONE IN THE EYE, I HAVE NO GUILT" [must not have a soul either if it's that easy for him as he lays in his bed in his nice brick home]
The city's [Mayor's]refusal to let homeless residents occupy temporary housing provided by FEMA has sparked outrage in this central Alabama town of 2,000, with angry citizens filling a meeting last week and circulating petitions to remove the man many blame for the decision, Mayor Jack Scott.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dqsQRe2X0M
Ruston and many others view the city's decision as heartless, a sign that leaders don't care that some people are barely surviving in the rubble of a blue-collar town.
"People have to live somewhere. What's it matter if it's in a trailer?" asked Felicia Boston, standing on the debris-strewn lot where a friend has lived in a tent since a tornado destroyed his home on April 27.
Scott has heard all the complaints, and he isn't apologizing. He said he doesn't want run-down mobile homes parked all over town years from now.
"I don't feel guilty," he said. "I can look anyone in the eye."
Located about 35 miles northwest of Birmingham, Cordova was hit by a pair of powerful tornadoes on April 27, the day twisters killed more than 300 people across the Southeast. Officials say 238 died in Alabama, the highest death toll for any state in a spring of violent weather.
An EF-3 twister with winds of at least 140 mph slammed into the town around 5:30 a.m., knocking out power and damaging numerous buildings. An EF-4 with winds around 170 mph struck about 12 hours later, killing four people and cutting a path of destruction a half-mile wide through town.
Scores of homes, businesses and city buildings were destroyed or damaged by the time the winds died down. Nearly every red-brick storefront was whacked along Main Street, which is now deserted and blocked by a chain-link fence.
Residents whose homes were destroyed assumed they would be able to live in one of the hundreds of long, skinny mobile homes that FEMA is providing as temporary housing for tornado victims. After all, the Cordova Police Department, a pharmacy, a bank and City Hall all have moved into similar trailers since the storm.
But the city enacted a law three years ago that bans the type of mobile homes provided by FEMA, called single-wide trailers. Older single-wide mobile homes were grandfathered in under the law and double-wide mobile homes are still allowed, Scott said, but new single-wides aren't allowed and a tornado isn't any reason to change the law, even temporarily.
The city's stance prompted an outcry that's not getting any quieter, especially with other cities with similar laws granting waivers. About 200 people attended a community meeting last night where some tried to shout down Scott.
"There are trailers all over here but (Scott) wants to clean all the trash out. He doesn't like lower-class people," said Harvey Hastings.
The cotton mill, brick plant and coal mine that once made Cordova prosperous shut down years ago, but native Tony Tidwell said leaders seem to believe residents are flush with cash and can afford to build big, new houses to replace the mobile homes and small frame homes that twisters blew away.
"Let the people have a place to live," he said. To make matters worse, he said, the city is imposing a mean double standard when it refuses to let residents live in FEMA trailers but is using a nearly identical structure for police headquarters and for people to go and pay THEIR WATER BILLS!!!
Scott said the city can use small trailers because it's for the common good.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ARE YOU KIDDING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE???
Maybe he needs to sit in a room with folks who are hungry, folks who lost their relations from this act of nature, folks who have no where to go, no bed, no brick home like the Mayor has... Oh boy bet our President might just have a few words for ole' Jack if the residents of Cordova and surrounding communities and FEMA don't say them all first.
We in the USA come together in the face of crisis, we united hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder>>> We take a stand TOGETHER,
we do not care how much money a person has or if their living conditions are brick, mortar or one or two wide.
We want them safe and out of harms way, able to shower, able to stabilize their shock and trauma, able to feed their children.
Mr Scott, who did put you in a position of power? Enjoy it, I believe it is about run its course... Jack Scott, SHAME ON YOU.
Friends, hug each other, be grateful for the many things that are yours, and let your voices be heard, your heart beat a few times for those in small towns affected and now directed by mayors and local leaders. Every boss has a boss, let's get our voices heard for those walking in shock in Alabama, as we have just entered Hurricane Season ...
This is beyond sad and ridiculous. It is absurd and the expensive of people who are walking about in complete dismay of what used to be their homes.
STOMP
Walk in Beauty
DRSES
"It's temporary and we know it's temporary," said the mayor. "We're trying to provide services for everyone."
Storm victims are supposed to live in FEMA housing for no longer than 18 months after a disaster, yet about 260 campers are still occupied by survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Gulf Coast last more than five years after those storms. The same thing could happen in Cordova if the city bends it rules to help tornado victims, Scott said.
Officials with FEMA have said it's a local issue and they remain ready to offer help to storm victims.
"We have several options available, and work with each community, to provide the best alternative possible for those who need housing assistance," Michael Byrne, FEMA's federal coordinating officer for Alabama, said in a statement. "We stand ready to help.
" Mr. Byrne, please call our President and inform him of what is happening to these innocent and tramatized people in Cordova, the Elders and the children at the hands of one man, one very sick and twisted man.
><
Ruston said he doesn't want to live in a mobile home forever, and he didn't want to leave Cordova to move in with a relative after his FEMA trailer was turned away.
Now, he said, it might not be worth going back.
"If we're going to have a mayor like that I'll just go elsewhere," he said. Good Idea Mr Ruston, and I think you might want to start a new community in another town, perhaps call it Survivortown AL. with a mayor that will stand for and with the people in time of need and times of rebuilding structures, hearts, and faith together with one voice, and leaning into each other in the process of compassion and care.
Is it possible that one many in power can be so very sick in his mind and mean in spirit, and heartless along with self-serving in a time where he could be holding up the spirits of those in a small town with care, compassion and kindness>
From this article it sure does appear the case, and I sure do hope residents of Cordova and those surrounding areas will take their angst, take their heartbreak and their anger, and UNITE: Contact the President, your legislature, contact below the man who wrote this article..l
By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Jay Reeves, Associated Press – Sun May 29, 7:40 pm ET
CORDOVA, Ala. – James Ruston's house was knocked off its foundation by tornadoes that barreled through town last month and is still uninhabitable. He thought help had finally arrived when a truck pulled up to his property with a mobile home from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Then he got the call: Single-wide mobile homes, like the FEMA one, are illegal in the city of Cordova.
THE MAYOR HAS BANNED FEMA SINGLE WIDE MOBILE HOMES FROM HIS TOWN FOR TEMPORARY HOUSING OF THOSE WHOSE HOMES HAVE BEEN DEVASTATED BY TORNADOES and homeless as a result of them.
THE MAYOR HUNG UP ON A REPORTER.
THE MAYER SAYS "I CAN LOOK ANYONE IN THE EYE, I HAVE NO GUILT" [must not have a soul either if it's that easy for him as he lays in his bed in his nice brick home]
The city's [Mayor's]refusal to let homeless residents occupy temporary housing provided by FEMA has sparked outrage in this central Alabama town of 2,000, with angry citizens filling a meeting last week and circulating petitions to remove the man many blame for the decision, Mayor Jack Scott.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dqsQRe2X0M
Ruston and many others view the city's decision as heartless, a sign that leaders don't care that some people are barely surviving in the rubble of a blue-collar town.
"People have to live somewhere. What's it matter if it's in a trailer?" asked Felicia Boston, standing on the debris-strewn lot where a friend has lived in a tent since a tornado destroyed his home on April 27.
Scott has heard all the complaints, and he isn't apologizing. He said he doesn't want run-down mobile homes parked all over town years from now.
"I don't feel guilty," he said. "I can look anyone in the eye."
Located about 35 miles northwest of Birmingham, Cordova was hit by a pair of powerful tornadoes on April 27, the day twisters killed more than 300 people across the Southeast. Officials say 238 died in Alabama, the highest death toll for any state in a spring of violent weather.
An EF-3 twister with winds of at least 140 mph slammed into the town around 5:30 a.m., knocking out power and damaging numerous buildings. An EF-4 with winds around 170 mph struck about 12 hours later, killing four people and cutting a path of destruction a half-mile wide through town.
Scores of homes, businesses and city buildings were destroyed or damaged by the time the winds died down. Nearly every red-brick storefront was whacked along Main Street, which is now deserted and blocked by a chain-link fence.
Residents whose homes were destroyed assumed they would be able to live in one of the hundreds of long, skinny mobile homes that FEMA is providing as temporary housing for tornado victims. After all, the Cordova Police Department, a pharmacy, a bank and City Hall all have moved into similar trailers since the storm.
But the city enacted a law three years ago that bans the type of mobile homes provided by FEMA, called single-wide trailers. Older single-wide mobile homes were grandfathered in under the law and double-wide mobile homes are still allowed, Scott said, but new single-wides aren't allowed and a tornado isn't any reason to change the law, even temporarily.
The city's stance prompted an outcry that's not getting any quieter, especially with other cities with similar laws granting waivers. About 200 people attended a community meeting last night where some tried to shout down Scott.
"There are trailers all over here but (Scott) wants to clean all the trash out. He doesn't like lower-class people," said Harvey Hastings.
The cotton mill, brick plant and coal mine that once made Cordova prosperous shut down years ago, but native Tony Tidwell said leaders seem to believe residents are flush with cash and can afford to build big, new houses to replace the mobile homes and small frame homes that twisters blew away.
"Let the people have a place to live," he said. To make matters worse, he said, the city is imposing a mean double standard when it refuses to let residents live in FEMA trailers but is using a nearly identical structure for police headquarters and for people to go and pay THEIR WATER BILLS!!!
Scott said the city can use small trailers because it's for the common good.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ARE YOU KIDDING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE???
Maybe he needs to sit in a room with folks who are hungry, folks who lost their relations from this act of nature, folks who have no where to go, no bed, no brick home like the Mayor has... Oh boy bet our President might just have a few words for ole' Jack if the residents of Cordova and surrounding communities and FEMA don't say them all first.
We in the USA come together in the face of crisis, we united hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder>>> We take a stand TOGETHER,
we do not care how much money a person has or if their living conditions are brick, mortar or one or two wide.
We want them safe and out of harms way, able to shower, able to stabilize their shock and trauma, able to feed their children.
Mr Scott, who did put you in a position of power? Enjoy it, I believe it is about run its course... Jack Scott, SHAME ON YOU.
Friends, hug each other, be grateful for the many things that are yours, and let your voices be heard, your heart beat a few times for those in small towns affected and now directed by mayors and local leaders. Every boss has a boss, let's get our voices heard for those walking in shock in Alabama, as we have just entered Hurricane Season ...
This is beyond sad and ridiculous. It is absurd and the expensive of people who are walking about in complete dismay of what used to be their homes.
STOMP
Walk in Beauty
DRSES
"It's temporary and we know it's temporary," said the mayor. "We're trying to provide services for everyone."
Storm victims are supposed to live in FEMA housing for no longer than 18 months after a disaster, yet about 260 campers are still occupied by survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Gulf Coast last more than five years after those storms. The same thing could happen in Cordova if the city bends it rules to help tornado victims, Scott said.
Officials with FEMA have said it's a local issue and they remain ready to offer help to storm victims.
"We have several options available, and work with each community, to provide the best alternative possible for those who need housing assistance," Michael Byrne, FEMA's federal coordinating officer for Alabama, said in a statement. "We stand ready to help.
" Mr. Byrne, please call our President and inform him of what is happening to these innocent and tramatized people in Cordova, the Elders and the children at the hands of one man, one very sick and twisted man.
><
Ruston said he doesn't want to live in a mobile home forever, and he didn't want to leave Cordova to move in with a relative after his FEMA trailer was turned away.
Now, he said, it might not be worth going back.
"If we're going to have a mayor like that I'll just go elsewhere," he said. Good Idea Mr Ruston, and I think you might want to start a new community in another town, perhaps call it Survivortown AL. with a mayor that will stand for and with the people in time of need and times of rebuilding structures, hearts, and faith together with one voice, and leaning into each other in the process of compassion and care.
4 comments:
I have NO WORDS for the insensitivity mentioned above. Foot in mouth, throw him out
Outrageous! Is there no city council that can overturn this idiot's decision? Cna't the Feds step in and sue the state for making safe temporairy housing unavailable? Regular working people have NO voice. Politicians SUCK! They are living a life that is no reflection of the struggles endured by the common folk. We need to get back to representation of the people by the people. I object to wealthy bullies dictating our lives and raping our freedom to live in our own communities as we see fit. This guy is disgusting, ignorant and needs an uprising in his town. Beat back the POWER HACKS! STOMP.
My mind can not comprehend the way this politician could be this way. When they are of that power over a town there should be some concern and compassion and a solution. Terrible, just terrible. Prayers go out to those who have suffered such loss from devestating weather. Prayers continue for your back Dr. SES and for Sandy and Stuart as they work so hard and all those who are helping them to get their home and life back together. Blessings and hugs to all here today. Sandy
2 days of reading this post and reading articles related to this story and I STILL can't get my head to comprehend this.
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