Publisher's Synopsis
"Inside the Jaws of Agnes" describes the hurricane that flooded Elmira, New York, and adjacent towns in mid-June, 1972. Local newspapers praised HUD for successfully setting up trailers for the flood victims, but this was a lie. The ensuing stupidity, waste, and bungling was beyond imagination. HUD hired this writer to help clean-up operations. Arriving for work the first day, he was stunned. Higher-ups had hired what resembled a hillbilly as chief of ground operations because of his supposed maintenance-ability during the recent Rapid City Disaster. Dim-witted, lackadaisical, and lacking leadership awareness, he kept stupidly hiring dozens of men who stood around in the office trailer sipping coffee, joking, and laughing. Soon catching on, they began signing out to play poker in the few trailers that had arrived, golf, or do what they pleased. Some even took second jobs while on HUD's payroll, only to sign back in late at night at taxpayers' expense. This chief hired his eighteen year-old girlfriend as his secretary. She treated contractors, truckers, and employees with contempt and hung up on victims begging to be housed in trailers. Cooped up in schools, churches, and the Armory - some had already committed suicide. More would follow suit, and all this is only a fraction of the incompetence that continued for weeks.
