Originally Posted by SPRINGFIELD

As far as cleanup goes-strictly self help. Now as far as keeping people out of "restricted" and "unsafe" areas....the government has got that one covered. There is absolutely no government help for cleanup. FEMA has actually been writing checks left and right though. Not to small business owners, unfortunately. My wife's family has owned a restaurant for 21 years, it sustained heavy damage. No government help there. We were trying to salvage what we could as the waters were rising last week, and the local police were there, not to help us work, but to tell us that we had 5 min to get out of there. Too "unsafe" the waters were coming, and they were loaded with "toxins and bacteria". We left. 2 hours later, the waters reached the restaurant, we could have saved nearly everything in that time! My story is nearly identical to thousands of people's. Shut out way too early, not allowed back in until it was way too late.