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Refugee Camps from Hurricane Sandy

Tent Cities?  I think not. 

On the TV, they are called Tent Cities. These are massive compounds supplied with basic necessities of living, commons kitchens, bedding, lavatories, showers, and the like. But they resemble in so many ways nothing less than refugee camps - a far more pejorative term. The original twin spirits of hope and helping from the early days will dissolve. Camps will be ruled by depression and despair for many. Then the bad stuff will begin.  Imagine that, refugee camps in the USA!

Definition. From Wikipedia we read: Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu fashion and designed to meet basic human needs for only a short time. Some refugee camps are dirty and unhygienic. Often they are describe as shelters for those displaced by war, political, or religion. But they also exist for pestilence, and in a wide sense a natural weather disaster could be so considered.

With hundreds of thousands without power and tens of thousands with destroyed homes, these camps will be occupied for many months or maybe years. Here's what could happen down the road,
  • Occupiers will begin new lives within the camps, having no other options. Perhaps FEMA will place more-and-more in hotels. But these are nothing more than local camps with maid service. A little more comfortable, to be sure.  Displaced is still displaced.  No home is still no home. Without it… ? Despair.
  • The indigenous homeless with begin to move in. For them this is true comfort, and easy living. They are quite accustomed to living with little. These facilities offer far more than their usual normal. They will wish to stay indefinitely.
  • Thieves will begin to populate the camps. Camp gangs will spontaneously emerge. Rules of decency and courtesy will be suspended.
'Tis only a matter of time...
So, it is only a matter of time before we hear of common robberies, then will come a murder or two, a rape or two. We will hear stories of misappropriated supplies (i.e. institutional robbery), corruption and inefficiency by governing officials, and unhygienic conditions. Probably more than this will come. Stay tuned to your favorite station.

Sound depressing? It is. Hopefully, the states and feds will anticipate these eventualities and provide sustaining aid quickly. But maintaining the camps is administratively far easier than giving people assistance to help bring back their lives. Restoring a life must be done on an individual basis; it takes more time that most of us think. With winter upon us, it may take much longer.

These disasters should point to how very vulnerable even a wealthy country can be. 
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