- Clothilde Mack, 85, says it was a miracle she survived
Katrina. But now claims FEMA is her biggest obstacle in getting back home.
Officials have promised to get her home by Christmas, but FEMA red tape
holding up plans.
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- By Greg Szymanski
- 11-22-5
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- Clothilde Mack looked up to the heavens, made the sign
of the cross and told the Holy Spirit "it won't be long now, I'm a
comin!" As the water gushed in, she had time for one quick prayer,
one last solitary word before boarding the infamous one-way A train to
the Promised Land.
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- Doesn't seem like too bad a place, this 'Promised Land?'
But strangely it's never on anyone's yearly vacation list unless an unexpected
hurricane hits or truly backed into a corner, cornered like Ms. Mack when
the water started rising after the one and only Katrina swept through New
Orleans.
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- In fact, when the water started gushing like Niagra Falls
was falling in her New Orleans home, the 85-year-old, living alone with
her three cats in Orleans Parish, thought she was the proverbial 'gonner'
with only a few minutes to say goodbye.
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- And it was so ugly, so bad and nasty, especially when
the water was up to her neck and running into her mouth, she started reciting
prayers out loud like she did in grade school, even started yelling out
her precious loved ones names as if to try and call them back for one last
earthly meeting.
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- But it just was meant to be. It just wasn't her time
to go, as they say. It just wasn't her time to meet her Maker, to meet
the guy upstairs who always seems to meet everyone under the worst possible
conditions.
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- And although she didn't know it then, her 'Maker and
Promised Land' were a million miles away, as one of those lucky prayers
kicked-in and seemed to ring a bell in the heavens, telling the A train
to get out of town before Ms Mack had a chance to get on.
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- Whether it was a bell from heaven, the prayers or a stroke
of Cajun luck, Ms. Mack swears on a stack of bibles it was "only by
the grace of God" she survived 10 days in her New Orleans home without
food and water in a true living testament that "miracles do exist."
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- The harrowing story of Ms. Mack's ordeal is one for the
survival record books. It's a story about an elderly woman, having the
strength of 100 men, who miraculously lived for 10 days cramped-up in her
tiny attic like a human sardine as she almost was baked alive in the sweltering
New Orleans summer heat.
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- "I broke a window to get some air when the water
was still very high for the first couple of days," said Ms. Mack in
an extended telephone conversation from her room in a half-way house in
Greene County, Tenn. about 500 miles from New Orleans. "I didn't have
anything to eat up in the attic or any water. After calling 911 until my
cell phone gave out and nobody coming to rescue me, I never thought I was
going to make it. I made peace with everyone and everything, really thinking
I was going to die up there in the attic.
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- "But by the grace of God I made it through those
first couple of days and then the water started going down. I kept calling
for my cats but they didn't come as they didn't make it up to the attic.
I haven't seen them for three months and really don't see how they could
have survived. They were really the only family I had left and I miss them
more and more each passing day."
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- After the water receded and still no rescue workers in
sight, on the third day Ms. Mack literally floated on furniture to her
kitchen where she found two cans of string beans and seven small water
bottles in what turned out to be the extent of her rations for the remaining
eight days.
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- The question remains why no help for 10 long days?
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- "I'll tell you why. The only answer I have is that
the government delayed things on purpose," said Wendy Owens of Greene
County, Tenn. , a local resident who has taken on the private responsibility
of trying to help Ms. Mack return to New Orleans despite no help from FEMA.
"First, it was a disgrace and outrage that it took our military and
government so long to get into New Orleans, leaving many people like Ms.
Mack to die.
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- "If our military can get to Baghdad in one day,
why did it take them so long to help people in a major American city? Why?
Maybe the delay was orchestrated."
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- Besides Ms. Mack's ordeal, which Owens claims could have
been avoided, she said her treatment in the last three months by FEMA and
other federal agencies is even a worse disgrace and public embarrassment.
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- After her rescue and being treated at a local New Orleans
emergency center, Ms. Mack was whisked away by airplane to Tennessee without
being told her destination, something she says still makes her angry almost
as much as FEMA's continued lack of proper care and its unwillingness to
help her get back home.
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- "I have been deprived of my medication and nobody
has really helped me get home even though the water is gone and my house
needs repair. I have been lied to by my case worker so many times I can't
even count them all," said Ms. Mack, adding on top of the insensitivity
of her case worker, the FEMA program actually encourages evacuees to stay
out of New Orleans, not return home even in areas that are habitable.
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- "All I ever wanted to do was go back home but they
have been giving me the run-around. My caseworker even lied to me now and
said she never worked on my case. I've gone weeks without my medication
and kept telling them to just send me home."
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- Recently discussing her plight and her attempt to get
back home to New Orleans, Ms. Mack appeared on Greg Szymanski's radio show
called The Investigative Journal, saying she was finally promised by FEMA
and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La), a small travel trailer to put on her property
in order that she could return home.
- "We will just have to wait and see if they live
up to their promises as they haven't in the past," said Ms. Mack on
the radio show, which appeared to spark interest in her case as Mayor Roger
Jones of Greene County also decided to call in and add his two cents about
Ms. Mack's situation.
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- Asked if he'd make sure Ms. Mack could at least get home
by Christmas, knowing the wheels of government turn slow, Mayor Jones said:
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- "We definitely can make it happen. I'll make sure
of it myself. And, as for a car, like you said, I think we can make sure
that happens too so she'll have some transportation when she gets back
home."
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- As for the way FEMA has treated the evacuees, Owens said
it reminded her of the old Woody Guthrie song 'Deportees.'
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- "It seems there is an effort by the government,
or some elements of it, to scatter these people all over the country like
dry leaves," said Owens. "They should have made arrangements
for Ms. Mack to return home, if that's her desire, a long time ago. But
it seems like they are encouraging people to stay here in Tennessee in
order to keep them away from their homes and property."
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- Instead of setting up programs in New Orleans to get
people back home or at least close to the city, a FEMA flyer indicates
its clear intentions are to keep people as far way as possible by offering
out-of-state assistance.
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- The message on the flyer, being passed out in Green County
to evacuees in shelters like Ms. Mack and others, offers a sign-up program
for free housing in a rental apartment or home for up to one year, but
offers no assistance or directions on how an evacuee can return home to
New Orleans.
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- "I really don't want to stay here any longer, don't
want that type of assistance and finally now have been promised a trailer
to return home," said Ms. Mack. "I need to get back to my house,
make repairs and take care of the business. I have lived in that house
for 47 years, it's all bought and paid for and nobody is going to keep
me away from it any longer."
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- When Sen. Landrieu's office was contacted regarding Ms.
Mack's trailer, they were initially unaware of the case in all three of
her offices in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Washington D.C.
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- A return message to the Arctic Beacon from Sen. Landrieu's
office the following day, left assurances Ms. Mack's case would be looked
into and the proper procedures followed in order to acquire the needed
travel trailer from FEMA.
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- Editor's Note: If anyone is interested in following-up
to make sure Ms. Mack gets her FEMA trailer and gets home by Christmas,
contact Sen. Landrieu's office in Baton Rouge at 225-389-0395 or Washington
D.C at 202-224-1949. Also, you can contact Mayor Jones in Greene County
Tenn. at 423-798-1766. If you'd like to assist Ms. Mack financially contact
the Arctic Beacon at arcticbeacon@earthlink.net and arrangements will
be made to put you in touch with Ms Mack.
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- Greg Szymanski is an independent investigative journalist.
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