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Later tonight my husband and I are trying again to host a small party for our sixteenth wedding anniversary since last year we spent our anniversary scooping mud from our first floor. It also doubles as a little get together with neighbors who went through the 2006 flood along side us.

It’s nothing fancy. We’re making the hamburgers, hot dogs and chips, while our guests all bring a dish. While we’re at it, we can watch some of the airplanes that fly over our homes during this weekend’s airshow. We’re also setting up a badmidden net and horseshoes brought by family members.

We plan to have fun and we need it.

At this time last year we waited away from our homes at shelters, motels, or friends and families for the rivers to recede. Fearing how much damage our homes sustained and how on Earth we could ever afford to recover. The damage took its toll on physical property and emotions. It even took lives after the water left when a neighbor saw her home in shambles, suffered a heart attack and died. Another neighbor went through a stroke from working too hard. Luckily, he survived and now has help from other neighbors.

My husband and I have grown closer to some of our neighbors since the disaster. Every other Saturday we get together to just talk. It makes the long road to repairs and recovery seem better to know we’re not the only ones going through it. We help each other when we can. We’re happy to see what the other has been able to accomplish with what little money we received and how we’re all moving forward.

As I said, we need this chance to relax and have fun. We’ve been looking forward to it since my husband suggested it a few weeks ago.

So, imagine my surprise and frustration to read the top article in today’s local paper about how FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is sending out letters to flood victims telling them to pay back the federal aid money they paid us after the 2006 and even the 2005 year floods. When most of, or an entire home has been destroyed, that $5,400 is barely enough to get some necessities plus have the electric fixed and turned back on. Let alone anything else.

FEMA says they overpaid many people by giving them the maximum payment of $5,400. Ok. I understand if they want money back from those who lied and said the property that was damaged was their primary residence, or those who said they had more damage than they did, especially the few people who were accidentally paid double the amount. That makes sense. But no, they’re taking it back from people who also took loans out months later and so forth.

Our homes were destroyed. Everything – furniture, clothing, appliances, floors and even walls – gone. Many had to have their houses torn down. And FEMA says they overpaid victims?

I read FEMA also wants the federal aid money back from many Katrina victims, especially those who decided to relocate. Doesn’t matter if they lost everything with no hope of recovery. I don’t understand.

So far, we haven’t received a letter. I hope we won’t and neither will anyone near us. Regardless if we took out an SBA loan (which we have to pay back so won’t have extra money) or a neighbor is finally getting some insurance money after a year of red tape, the money FEMA gave was federal aid at a time it was desperately needed. Many of us are still repairing and will be at it for a long time. Others have nothing left but an empty lot where their home used to stand. The nightmare of the flood and our losses is still fresh in our memory one year later. What sort of people would even consider demanding flood victims to pay back money given as aid that they couldn’t afford not to have then and can’t even afford to pay back now?

So yes, I look forward to today’s get together even though I know that this subject will come up. I really do plan to have fun. And I know that what ever happens none of us will go through it alone.