Triple whammies in the South

Businesses hurt by hurricane Katrina, especially minority businesses, are facing triple whammies:

• Contracts for repair and reconstruction have been given almost exclusively to large companies that are not minority owned.
• Relief business loans have been very slow in coming. Of the 950,000 applications for disaster loans handed out and over 26,000 applications returned to the SBA, only 142 checks have been written so far.
• Even those companies that do get loans are going to have a miserable time paying them back. These are not grants. They are loans.

And to all of that, add the fact that the government has so many contractors busy with "government" work that individual businesses are finding it very difficult to find workers, at any price.

There has to be a better way.

Shame on you, President Bush.

Shame on FEMA and the SBA.

And shame on us for not causing enough of a fuss to make it right.