Molly Secours: "The Inequities of a Natural Disaster Are Usually Man-Made"
On Huffington Post yesterday, Nashville muckraker Molly Secours reflects on the inequities in the post-flood response time and attention paid to various neighborhoods of differing demographics. She cites the example of Jenn Garcia and Jonna Laidlaw, two employees Oasis Center employees who are best friends and live next door to each other in a middle-class north Nashville neighborhood. She also discusses the situation in a story in this week’s City Paper.
One segment of Secours’ HuffPo story is particularly eye-catching:
Insurance adjusters informed both Garcia and Laidlaw after the file examiner reviews the claim and are approved they will receive a check within 2-3 weeks for the structural damages. The contractor they were hoping to hire was eager to get started but will not begin repairs until the check is in hand.
According to the contractor (who did not want to be identified) he had just returned from a housing development in Williamson County called “Cottonwood Estates” in Franklin, TN where FEMA set up a temporary site situated next to several Insurance Company Adjusters who where issuing checks to homeowners on the spot.
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I’m really glad to see this getting some attention (though I really had to look for it). I spent the first 34 years of my life in Nashville so am very familiar with the area and it’s problems. The flood story didn’t garner much nationwide news coverage and the plight of the poor and people of color got zero attention. I’m not surprised, just disappointed.