FEMA reaches out to the whole community. Today we are in the Haitian community to provide them information on  how to register and get through the application process. Hurricane Irene hit me hard.  I didn’t have a lot of damage to the roof but I had a lot of water that came into the house.  The damage that we have here is, as you can see this was a serviceable bathroom and when Hurricane Irene hit there was a lot of water that came in from the street through here in the wall and over there as well.  All of the water came here and it was a lot, then traveled over beyond this point and that is why after it began to give a strong odor we cut the sheetrock that was here and the wood to allow the area to dry, then make the repairs to the way  it was before.  FEMA helped me so well I still can’t believe it because it happened so fast.  From the time I left their office on 2109 Chew Avenue, when I arrived home, FEMA already sent an inspector named Jerry and he conducted the inspection and collected all the information to send in and after three days I already received a check from FEMA to start the repairs on the house. It is very very important, when you have damages such as this to have people that speak the Creole language where there are Haitian people.  Why?   For several reasons, they are afraid when they hear Federal Agency, they don’t know what it is… when they hear FEMA, they  don’t know what FEMA means.  Even myself, I had the same problem, if I didn’t meet with Michel and JJ, so it is always important, in situations like this, that FEMA has people has people that speak Creole in the various Haitian communities. Well, one of the things that is important for them to provide services in the Haitian community, they have to find people that speak their language.  Because when you have someone who speaks the same language, you have a greater chance to hear them better, understand them better, and to follow them better.  When it’s an American or someone who is speaking another language with you, your afraid because there is so much you don’t know.