1. A man brought in a [fake] machine gun and threatened the Duke Energy workers that he wasn’t leaving until they brought power back on at his house.
2. Here’s a lovely article with the heading “People are Losing It”.
3. The one that really irks me is instructions on how people can get replacement food stamps for spoiled food. People qualify for an ENTIRE MONTHS allotment of food stamps even though they’ve only been out of power for 5 days. That’s up to $1500. Jim and I estimate that we will throw out about $60 in food (and that’s getting rid of a lot). How in God’s name does the county/state justify that for people?!?! Do they not expect that they’ll be flooded with people requesting the absolute full amount for the month, not just the portion that they actually lost? I absolutely HATE the welfare system and how it’s run. It makes me want to go into politics and change it.
7 comments:
Man, I hope you guys get your power back soon - if not, you can always come to Chicago for a visit!
Regarding the food stamps, I wonder if it'll end up costing less overall, or at least be a wash, for those who get them to just get an additional month's worth. Since people have been without power for different numbers of days, it would would probably take more time, effort, and funds to calculate how much each family should get than it would be worth at this point in the game...
I think you would make a good politician!!
Hope you power comes back soon. I estimated I tossed about $10 but as a single person--thats not much. Just milk, eggs, left-overs, sour cream, and mayo.
Hey Karen, sorry to hear about your power situation. Got mine back on Tuesday night... makes you really appreciate the simple things of life.
1. That story made me laugh out loud about the guy with the machine gun.
2. The food stamp story pissed me off too, they're doing it in Dayton as well. I'm tempted to go see if I can get some.
3. I couldn't vote for you unless you ran as an independent...just keep that in mind when you run for Senate. :P
After reading the article about food stamps, I feel compelled to point out - I don't believe the $1500 was specifically for food stamps. It is designated as disaster assistance money under TANF guidelines.
This disaster money may be used for different things for needy families:
1) people who had to miss work due to children not being in school (and not being able to afford or otherwise find daycare) had lost wages and won't be able to pay their rent, utilities, etc by the end of the month.
2) perhaps there were damages that may not be covered by insurance (if they even had it in the first place), including auto insurance if a car was damaged (i.e. a deductible).
3) many, many other ways that needy families are impacted during a disaster that might not be such a big deal to middle class families.
TANF funds (the funding pot that the "up to $1500" comes from) are available throughout the year to people in need, in the form of cash assistance (there is usually a limit of accessing it only once per year, and my understanding is that you have to submit proof that you need this money, and specify what you are using it for - they don't just hand you a check for $1500). They also usually require you to ask for help from other funding sources (usually private charities) first. These funds help families handle emergencies (out of work, illness, car repairs, rising utilities, etc) but there are definitely strict limits on them.
From the article, it looks like there is extra TANF money available after a disaster.
If only I could get up to 1500 dollars for a week without electricity....that'd be a full month's wages for me! (plus my electric bill and water bill- shorter showers without hot water- would be a lot lower for the month...)
Thanks Beth. :-)
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