Fema and Me

It was 1975, July, a black cloud moved from the east to the west. I was driving north on MN 75 to go home. We lived north of Harwood ND then. I would cross the bridge. The dark wall seemed almost green. It moved inexorably.

I got home in time to beat the storm. It rained, and rained, and rained. Poured really. 10” inches in 5 hours.

When it stopped raining the floods came. It washed over us and all our neighbors up and down the Sheyenne river. Our house was high and dry. My brother lived next door. His was a little wetter.

We had a trailer in the woods for a hired man. Boat was the only way in or out to his place.

Equipment sat in water. Our crops were lost completely. We raised Muskmelon. A lot of muskmelon.

For the next 10 days we drove thru a half mile of water. I ruined the rear axle on my Pontiac. The road repair was expensive. It was actual devastation.

But, never fear, Fema was here. I trotted into the Air Guard armory at Hector to see about what kind of relief I could get. I lost crops, I had damage, I needed to do repairs, I had income problems because of this.

They said, fill out this form, and this, and this and this and this……

I did. They looked at this and told me I was ineligible for any relief because:

• I chose to live where I did and that was my problem

  I had not insured my crop against flood

  I should not have driven thru the water

  The people who were now out of a Job that worked for me could always go on unemployment and welfare.

In the end almost no one got anything from Fema in that flood. Some years later there was a spring flood of the same proportions in Fargo. Fema showed up there.

No one got anything from that either.

I believe Fema is like the process of renewal in Logans Run. People who’s indicator went off participated in a ritual of renewal. The idea was that if you were fortunate you would survive and live on. The people rose up and chanted “Renew, Renew, Renew”. Only later does Logan learn that NO ONE ever renews.

That’s the way Fema is. No one actually gets anything from them. Its all a ritual designed to make us think we might. Fema should be decommissioned along with the depts of Energy, Education, HUD, and Labor. It’s all smoke and mirrors.

The people of New Orleans are about to learn this sad story.

During this same time there were farm grants being made to farmers for crop loss due to the flood. I looked in to that. I didn’t make enough money to qualify.

So, the only people who got hundreds of thousands of dollars from the government were those who had the financial depth to survive the catastrophe and were connected well enough to participate.

Those getting didn’t need it and those giving didn’t have it.

We used to call that being a big shot with someone else’s money. Still is.

That’s why I have a hard time with socialism as practiced among farmers on the Great Plains. Those what has gets from those to whom it doesn’t belong.