Could the Feds Possibly Screw Up Any More?
The answer is . . . yes.
If you managed to survive Hurricane Katrina and you are in need, you have to register with FEMA to get government help. To register with FEMA, you have to have either a computer (to register at their site) or a phone. Yeah, I'm sure all those people in the Astrodome are surfing the internet to kill time. And the people in the small towns that were being ignored (until today, when New Orleans apparently ceased to be dramatic enough, and World News Tonight and NPR and probably plenty of others discovered the rest of the disaster zone)--yeah, I'm sure they all have intact computer and telephone connections. No food, no water, no help (on Marketplace on public radio, I heard a report on one town in which the only contact they had with FEMA was when a FEMA contractor pulled in to check his map en route to somewhere else)--and the feds' answer is to pick up your nonfunctional phone or your nonexistent internet connection if you want their aid.
But wait, it's not even that simple.
As BoingBoing points out, if you do have the good fortune to have access to a computer, that isn't enough to register through FEMA's web site. You have to be using Internet Explorer 6 on Windows with Javascript enabled. All others need not apply.
Virtually every other web site on earth can be accessed with a wide variety of browsers and systems--that's sort of the point of the web. Once again, the feds missed the point.
Okay, maybe you're lucky enough to have the chosen browser on the annointed operating system (in addition to being lucky enough to have a computer, power to operate it, and working internet access). You better not be visually impaired, because it's one of those sites that shows you a squiggly word and makes you key it in to prove you're a human. What, are robots crying out for disaster assistance all of a sudden?
All right, you're saying, just use the darned phone number if the computer is a problem! Ha. No such luck. Calling the phone number just causes them to send you the forms that you would have filled out online. By mail. You are getting your mail during this disaster, right?
Once again, the hurricane isn't the only disaster.
If you managed to survive Hurricane Katrina and you are in need, you have to register with FEMA to get government help. To register with FEMA, you have to have either a computer (to register at their site) or a phone. Yeah, I'm sure all those people in the Astrodome are surfing the internet to kill time. And the people in the small towns that were being ignored (until today, when New Orleans apparently ceased to be dramatic enough, and World News Tonight and NPR and probably plenty of others discovered the rest of the disaster zone)--yeah, I'm sure they all have intact computer and telephone connections. No food, no water, no help (on Marketplace on public radio, I heard a report on one town in which the only contact they had with FEMA was when a FEMA contractor pulled in to check his map en route to somewhere else)--and the feds' answer is to pick up your nonfunctional phone or your nonexistent internet connection if you want their aid.
But wait, it's not even that simple.
As BoingBoing points out, if you do have the good fortune to have access to a computer, that isn't enough to register through FEMA's web site. You have to be using Internet Explorer 6 on Windows with Javascript enabled. All others need not apply.
Virtually every other web site on earth can be accessed with a wide variety of browsers and systems--that's sort of the point of the web. Once again, the feds missed the point.
Okay, maybe you're lucky enough to have the chosen browser on the annointed operating system (in addition to being lucky enough to have a computer, power to operate it, and working internet access). You better not be visually impaired, because it's one of those sites that shows you a squiggly word and makes you key it in to prove you're a human. What, are robots crying out for disaster assistance all of a sudden?
All right, you're saying, just use the darned phone number if the computer is a problem! Ha. No such luck. Calling the phone number just causes them to send you the forms that you would have filled out online. By mail. You are getting your mail during this disaster, right?
Once again, the hurricane isn't the only disaster.
posted by Maines at 10:28 PM
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