11-11-2012
A few hundred refugees from the chaotic desolation caused by "Frankenstorm" Sandy, have been sleeping inside a "tent city" in Ocean Port, New Jersey since Wednesday. The air is loud with the buzz of generators pumping out power. The post-storm housing — a refugee camp on the grounds of the Monmouth Park racetrack - is in lock down, with security guards at every door, including the showers. No one is allowed to go anywhere without showing their I.D. Even to use the bathroom, "you have to show your badge," said Amber Decamp, a 22-year-old whose rental was washed away in Seaside Heights, New Jersey.
This is absolutely crazy. Aren't we supposed to be helping these people survive? We aren't running a prison with maximum security. We are attempting to help these refugees from a storm - I see absolutely no point in this lock down. These people have done nothing wrong, they are merely fending for their lives and their next meal. These people have family's they need to get back to and communicate with. They are normal American citizens caught in the middle of this crisis. I fail to see the point in making them feel even more isolated and afraid by having so many rules that would not otherwise apply if they had not just experience a natural disaster.
The mini city has no cigarettes, no books, no magazines, no board games, no TVs, and no newspapers or radios. On Friday night, in front of the mess hall, which was serving fried chicken and out-of-the-box, just-add-water potatoes, a child was dancing and dancing — to nothing. "We're starting to lose it," said Decamp. "But we have nowhere else to go." Inside the tent city, which has room for thousands but was only sheltering a couple of hundred on Friday, no one had heard anything about a move - or about anything else. "They treat us like we're prisoners," says Ashley Sabol, 21, of Seaside Heights, New Jersey. "It's bad to say, but we honestly feel like we're in a concentration camp."
"This is an incredibly tough situation trying to find housing for these people," said Federal Emergency Management Agency Public Affairs Manager Scott Sanders. "With winter coming, they obviously can't stay there."
Well, where are they going to stay when winter comes? These people are without shelter or food, they have no homes to go back to, and we are just going to leave them to fend for themselves when winter comes? I commend the efforts already made to save these people - to cloth them and give them shelter - but what good will that do if they all die in the winter? Basically, we just wasted all those resources so they could die a little later. This isn't good enough. Either we shouldn't have helped them in the first place, or we need to make sure they have the resources to survive, but acting like "we did our best" is not acceptable. All we will do, is prolong their death while we have wasted our resources. What good did that do?
Sandy refugees: Safe and secure, or too much like a prison?
This is absolutely crazy. Aren't we supposed to be helping these people survive? We aren't running a prison with maximum security. We are attempting to help these refugees from a storm - I see absolutely no point in this lock down. These people have done nothing wrong, they are merely fending for their lives and their next meal. These people have family's they need to get back to and communicate with. They are normal American citizens caught in the middle of this crisis. I fail to see the point in making them feel even more isolated and afraid by having so many rules that would not otherwise apply if they had not just experience a natural disaster.
The mini city has no cigarettes, no books, no magazines, no board games, no TVs, and no newspapers or radios. On Friday night, in front of the mess hall, which was serving fried chicken and out-of-the-box, just-add-water potatoes, a child was dancing and dancing — to nothing. "We're starting to lose it," said Decamp. "But we have nowhere else to go." Inside the tent city, which has room for thousands but was only sheltering a couple of hundred on Friday, no one had heard anything about a move - or about anything else. "They treat us like we're prisoners," says Ashley Sabol, 21, of Seaside Heights, New Jersey. "It's bad to say, but we honestly feel like we're in a concentration camp."
"This is an incredibly tough situation trying to find housing for these people," said Federal Emergency Management Agency Public Affairs Manager Scott Sanders. "With winter coming, they obviously can't stay there."
Well, where are they going to stay when winter comes? These people are without shelter or food, they have no homes to go back to, and we are just going to leave them to fend for themselves when winter comes? I commend the efforts already made to save these people - to cloth them and give them shelter - but what good will that do if they all die in the winter? Basically, we just wasted all those resources so they could die a little later. This isn't good enough. Either we shouldn't have helped them in the first place, or we need to make sure they have the resources to survive, but acting like "we did our best" is not acceptable. All we will do, is prolong their death while we have wasted our resources. What good did that do?
Source:http://news.yahoo.com/sandy-refugees-life-tent-city-feels-prison-162419452.html
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