We all saw the anchorpeople battling the 120 MPH winds in Galveston, but very little coverage was given during or after Hurricane Ike to Southeast Texas, the area that was the hardest hit by Ike's storm surge.  Ike pushed up 14 feet of water into the Port Arthur/Orange area.  The city of Port Arthur and its suburbs (including Port Neches, my home town) were spared from the surge only because of Port Arthur's 15-foot hurricane protection levee.  This levee, built in the 1960's after Hurricane Carla, had never been tested until Ike (Hurricane Rita, which brought Category 3 winds to the area in 2005, had very little storm surge.)

However, while Port Arthur escaped major damage, areas outside the levee were completely devastated, particularly the town of Bridge City, Texas, in which 3000 homes are still unlivable.  Another 1000 homes are unlivable in the surrounding county, but to date, FEMA has delivered only a handful of trailers to these people despite thousands of requests.  Those who can't find shelter with their relatives are forced to live in tents, because all of the apartments and hotels in the area are completely full.

To make matters worse, Michael Chertoff has proven once again his ineptitude, lack of compassion, and complete lack of ability to organize anything larger than your average church bake sale.  Not only did he blow off a tour of the damage, but his agency was later quoted as saying that anyone who was still living in tents in Orange County was choosing to do so.

This is nuts.  Have we learned nothing from Katrina?  Does it take CNN going down there and filming the devastation for any action to be taken at the federal level?  Everyone is making such a big deal about Joe the Plumber, but at least Joe the Plumber has a house.

Write your state and federal Congresspeople.  Write the governor.  Write CNN.  Write both presidential candidates.  America deserves better than this.