FEMA- Tornado Recovery Assistance

Dear Mr. President,   My name is Becky Kalucki and I reside in Lake Township, OH.   I know that you know who we are; our community and our high school were destroyed by a tornado on June 5th; 12 hours before our graduation ceremony.  I have a daughter who will be the Vice President of the Lake High School junior class in the fall.  I need you to explain to me, so I can explain it to her, FEMA’s denial of our community’s request for federal aid?    Have you seen Lake Township?  Not just in videos, not just in pictures, but have you been here?  You were in Ohio just shortly after the tornado hit; did you fly over?  Did you see the broken foundations where homes used to stand?  Did you see the empty lots filled with twisted metal and debris, where children used to play?  Did you see the high school, whose halls once rang with laughter and learning, now split open at its heart?  The utter destruction is gut wrenching from up above and beyond words from down below.  I don’t understand how or why federal aid was denied.  How is it that any reasonable person could chose NOT to declare this a disaster area?  We are a working class, farming community... we pay our taxes and support our troops and give generously to other victims of disaster who someone in some office deems eligible for federal aid, and yet, when we need you, when we bow our heads in humility and extend our hand for help; the government instead, slaps it?  Where is the compassion?  More so, where is our duty to help our fellow neighbor?  Millions and millions of aid is funneled to other disaster zones, both domestic and foreign, and yet there is nothing for us?  How does that happen?  How dare anyone say our loss is not BIG enough?  How dare anyone say that the damage isn't wide-spread enough?  How dare anyone say our tragedy just doesn't rate high enough?  If it were your hometown, my bet is you would ensure federal aid was granted.  Your FEMA directors would jump through hoops, circumvent minimum requirements and issue a check.  But because you have never lived here, because you did not walk the halls of Lake high school or have personal ties to this community, we become insignificant?  I guess it is about who you know.  The disappointment in finding out that my belief in you and your administration may have been over-rated, makes me sad.  Someone with more conscious or clout needs to revisit this area and reverse the denial of federal aid.  Just because the hard working members of this community came together immediately and quickly began the clean-up process, we are now being penalized?  Perhaps we should have just sat on the curb in front of where our houses used to be, waiting to be rescued and then you would have seen the totality of the devastation the tornado on June 5th left in its wake.  Instead, we got right to taking care of business, because that's what hard working communities and farmers do.  For FEMA not to lend a helping hand is a travesty.  We're not asking for favors, we are asking for what should be given without argument or hesitation.   You make important decisions every day… this is one of those decisions.  It may be little to you, but to us, it’s our whole world.  Please help.   Sincerely, Becky Kalucki Lake High School - Class of 1987