FEMA's Dirty Little Secret: A Rare Look Inside the Renaissance Village Trailer Park, Home to Over 2,000 Hurricane Katrina Evacuees

By Amy Goodman
Democracy Now!

Monday 24 April 2006

Earlier this month, Democracy Now went down to Louisiana and had a chance to take a rare look inside Renaissance Village - a trailer park on the outskirts of Baton Rouge that houses over 2,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees. The trailer park has been described in the Louisiana press as "Fema's Dirty Little Secret" in part because of FEMA's tight control over who has access to the park. Prior to being kicked out of the trailer park by private security guards, we managed to speak to Donna Azeez who lives at the trailer park.

* Donna Azeez, resident of Renaissance Village.

Rush Transcript

Amy Goodman: We are going to continue now to look at New Orleans and the problems facing citizens who are displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Earlier this month, Democracy Now! went down to Louisiana. We had a chance to take a rare look inside Renaissance Village, a trailer park on the outskirts of Baton Rouge that houses more than - close to 2,000 Katrina evacuees. The trailer park has been described in Louisiana press as "FEMA's dirty little secret," in part because of FEMA's tight control over who has access to the park. Prior to being kicked out of the trailer park by the private security guards in charge, we managed to speak Donna Azeez, who lives at the trailer park.

Donna Azeez: Couple of my things got flooded. My car got flooded. My refrigerator was gone. And I had a shed in the back with my washing machine, my dryer and a lot of other stuff. All that got destroyed.