".....when some cars containing multiple families finally arrived at the head of the line, only then did they learn that each vehicle was limited to two bags of ice, one case of bottled water and a single 12-pack of ready-to-eat meals.

"The rules are in place to make sure everybody gets at least something," said church pastor Sean Mooney. "It's not the church's limit; it's the FEMA rule. They don't want people hoarding up and then taking it out and selling it. This makes the distribution more equal."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff pledged on Sunday that his team was "working feverishly" to get the centers open, even as Mayor Bill White expressed concern over how long the process was taking.

FEMA officials responded that setting up the centers was contingent on assurances that workers would be on hand to staff them.

This morning, Houstonians Carlos Torres, 62, and his wife, Zenaida Carrizales, waited in the Greenspoint line for 90 minutes the thought of the wilting food in their powerless refrigerator foremost in their minds.

Torres said the couple had searched the city in vain for a bag of ice."

HEADS UP. FEMA doesn't get it, even now. The Red Cross, which does get it, is low on donations of funds. 

This is not academic debate. People are hungry, thirsty, lonely and tired. And it's just beginning. What about tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow????

Give what you can to the Red Cross, which unlike FEMA, knows how to distribute timely emergency aid. And save something for permanent relocation funds, because people get caught between a rock and a hard place, with no place to go because they do not have the money to get there.

Do you think that the tidal surge that flooded a house knew enough to spare the lay firm, the office building that housed the homeowner's source of income????

Connect the dots, please, and picture yourself with a flooded house and place of employment. 

Thank you.