Disasterology: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis—A Memoir and Expert Analysis of Our World's Growing Vulnerability to Natural Disasters

by Samantha Montano

After the storm, a federal program was developed to give tarps out to homeowners whose roofs had sustained damage. The idea was that installing tarps would prevent further destruction to the home until a new roof could be built. A Pulitzer Prize–winning investigation by the Times-Picayune found that the federal government was paying up to $5,000 to have a blue tarp installed on a house, while the workers who were actually installing it made only a fraction.105 One company received the federal contract and they subcontracted to another company, which then subcontracted to another company, which then subcontracted to another, all the while they each withheld a little bit of money, until the workers who actually did the work earned a pittance. Absent government oversight, this subcontracting scheme would have continued if not for local investigative journalistic efforts. When the federal government cannot effectively facilitate a contract to hand out tarps, it does not bode well for how the rest of recovery will go.