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Hurricane Katrina exploded into New Orleans and the southeast coast on August 23, 2005, leaving in its wake a deep scar on the American psyche. The human and financial toll made Katrina one the worst natural disasters to strike the USA, with the historic and revered city of New Orleans taking the blunt of the storm. 1,577 died, and half the city was left in ruin creating a mass of refugees never before seen in modern America.

With images of US citizens wading through diseased water infested by snakes and alligators, and dead bodies laying in the streets for days in the 90+ degree heat, this was truly a world turned upside down. While the people of New Orleans were dying in the streets, a bloated bureaucratic government weighed down by red tape led many US citizens to their deaths.

Yet again another government smoke and mirrors parlor trick was used to dumb down the public to the true horror of this disaster, and the outright lies and corporate media fueled propaganda buried the truth of what really happened in the weeks following the disaster.

To this day, the once great landscape of the south gulf coast still remains devastated, and the low income population has been reduced to living primarily in FEMA trailers, stuck in a limbo of promises and hope never delivered by government bureaucrats. Instead, whole neighborhoods are herded into FEMA camp trailer parks, where a new disaster has emerged.

Once again the people of the gulf coast are in danger from an unseen nightmare, of which the deadly effects may not be known for years. Most FEMA trailers are constructed of cheap plywood which is treated in construction with the deadly chemical formaldehyde. Humid tropical climates (such as the Gulf Coast) cause the chemical to evaporate into a gaseous state, which in turn is breathed in by occupants. Present air tests have shown occupants of these homes could be exposed to amounts of formaldehyde gas equal to amounts an embalmer is exposed to during a single work day. Embalmers are required by OSHA to wear a ventilation mask during embalming, yet the poor of the gulf coast are not afforded such luxury. During a recent live news broadcast on this subject, children in the background could be heard coughing similar to asthmatics, a symptom of formaldehyde exposure. Louisiana doctors are being flooded by patients with similar symptoms, most if not all are residents of the shanty town FEMA camps, which house the most poor and desperate. Most trailers lack even the most basic ventilation or air conditioning, so the occupants remain in a toxic atmosphere for hours at a time. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen, and its effects on respiration and liver damage are well documented by the medical field. An almost cruel government solution for this problem is to simply open the window of the trailer to vent the gas, exposing the occupants to new dangers such as mosquitoes, who are known carriers of the West Nile virus.

One could imagine the hellish outcome of trailer living in a tropical environment. In the searing humidity of the gulf coast, this option is not the easiest to abide by. How can a country rebuild a foreign nation such as Iraq yet fail to provide for its own? This example should be held to the highest peaks for the world to see that bloated decadent big government does not work. The dependence of this government must stop now.

Learn more about this author, Sean Winkelmann.
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