"Those Who Chose Not to Evacuate"

Arthur Silber directs us to this Wapo article which chronicles the stories of some people who couldn't get out of the city:

"Me and my wife, we were living paycheck to paycheck, like most everybody else in New Orleans," Eric Dunbar, 54, said Saturday.

He was standing on wobbly, thin legs in the bowels of the semi-darkened Louis Armstrong Airport, where he had been delivered with many others after having been plucked by rescuers from a roadway.

He offered a mini-tutorial in the economic reality of his life.

"I don't own a car. Me and my wife, we travel by bus, public transportation. The most money I ever have on me is $400. And that goes to pay the rent. And that $400 is between me and my wife." Her name is Dorth Dunbar; she was trying to get some rest after days of peril.

Dunbar estimated his annual income to be about $20,000, which comes from doing graphic design work when he can get it. Before the storm, when he and his wife estimated how much money they needed to flee the city, he was saddened by the reality that he could not come up with anywhere near the several thousand dollars he might need for a rental car and airfare....

The two smooth-faced boys on the floor, sitting on their backpacks, looked more energetic than most. Corey Wise, 17, and Jermaine Wise, 18, were once residents of New Orleans's 17th Ward.

"Our family was already in a financially depressive situation before the hurricane," Jermaine said.

He calculated where the family -- their mother, Marie, is divorced -- stood financially before the wind, water and destruction.

"We had $300 between us," he said, nodding toward his brother. "Mom had about $225 worth of savings. That was our emergency savings for anything. And that was a blessing."

Their home was in a New Orleans neighborhood called Holly Grove.

"A lot of drugs and violence in our neighborhood," Corey said.

"It's hard to just get up and go when you don't have anything," Jermaine said. "Besides, everything we know is in New Orleans."...

A 47-year-old grandmother was rocking a grandchild.

"These people look at us and wonder why we stayed behind," said Carmita Stephens. "Well, would they leave their grandparents and children behind? Look around and say, 'See you later'?" She gave a roll of the eyes behind the raised voice.

"We had one vehicle. A truck. I wanted my family to be together. They all couldn't fit in the truck. We had to decide on leaving family members -- or staying."

She shifted the grandchild in her arms. "I'm living paycheck to paycheck. My mother passed away this year. I was helping take care of her. My real job was as a private-duty caregiver. I had one patient. He died two weeks after my mother passed, on May 6." She calculated that the family made a little more than $2,500 a month -- but that included help from her son Jamel's job. "He's missing now," she added. "So is Eric Stephens, my husband."

They were soon to be Texas-bound. "And I don't even like Texas," she said...

"I got $3.00 on me now," said John West, 39, formerly a resident of the Sixth Ward here. "I'm serious."

He said he has never had a savings account in his life. "I make $340 a month," he said. "I stay with my mother. I give her about $150 of that. His income is from a disability check. His hands got badly burned in a 1993 fire. "I lost a little nephew, but I saved two kids," he said.

West said he has never owned a credit card -- not even before the fire. He said he figures $500 was the most money he could have come up with on such short notice, with the hurricane bearing down...

There were a few lucky souls yesterday sitting at the Shoney's restaurant on State Highway 30 in Gonzales. Karen Lavalais, 37, and a friend, Patricia Jones, 39, and various relatives.

"I only work part time at a janitorial service," Jones said. "I make $6.00 an hour. If I didn't have my mama, I'd be one of those victims still trapped in New Orleans."

She works 17 hours a week.

"I had $80 when I got out of New Orleans," Jones said. "And I wouldn't have had that if payday hadn't been that Friday. Eighty dollars with two children."

Lavalais, who formerly lived in the 10th Ward, said that when the hurricane struck she had a total of $94 in the bank, which constituted her life savings.

"And I couldn't even get to that," she said. "So thank goodness I had some gas in my car."

As Silber notes, these aren't folks on the dole--they all have jobs (technically, John West has a disability pension; however, if "badly burned" hands doesn't qualify for relief, then what does?). This underscores a point I've not been alone in making--that the political establishment simply does not comprehend the day-to-day reality for large numbers of people being governed. Remember, it was FEMA director Michael Brown who announced the talking point that's the title of this post.

I doubt Michael Brown has EVER been in a position where he's say, down to a bit of loose change with with payday some 72 hours off. George W. Bush most certainly never has. If Imeldaleezza Rice was, she's evidently forgotten. They simply don't have the slightest clue.

Which probably explains why FEMA didn't bother to take up Amtrak's offer.