Volunteer Radio Effort Scuttled By Relief Officials

One of the more frequent complaints from survivors of Hurricane Katrina has been the government’s utter failure to coordinate and distribute the information they need in order to begin rebuilding their lives. So when a group of well-meaning Houston residents decided to set up a low-power FM radio station aimed at the refugee-choked AstroDome and dedicated to repeating crucial information 24 hours a day, public officials at all levels were excited. But it didn’t take long for the tangled bureaucracy governing relief efforts to first delay, and then completely shut down the volunteers’ efforts, for reasons passing understanding.