Hey, short waivers. Rebecca Hirscher here. Hurricane Ian left entire neighborhoods in

ruin, which means hundreds of thousands of people are now turning to the federal government

for help. Last year, my colleague Ryan Kelman and I investigated why some of the people

who need help the most don't get it. Our reporting brought us to another part of the country

that suffered from hurricanes in recent years. Louisiana.

And today we bring you that story, which originally aired in July 2021.

You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

Oh, we're shooting. Do we bring the cookies?

Yeah.

Oh, that's cool.

In May, producer Ryan Kelman and I drove out to Dukwinsi, Louisiana. This is Southwest

Louisiana. It's really flat and marshy. The roads are in rough shape. This area got hit

by two hurricanes last year. So this must be the person we're going to meet is named Donnie

Spite. She lives in a gray mobile home a couple miles off the main road. It's surrounded

by tall pine trees. So it's pretty quiet, except for her Chihuahua's. Elias and

covacus. Elias is really small. Donnie's husband Steve chose him because Elias was the

littlest one in the litter. Steve worked as a pipe fitter in the petrochemical plants nearby.

And his nickname was termite. They got on that because he could crawl through the pipes.

They were short as I am. That's smaller. By the time they brought Goliath home, Steve was

retired and he used a wheelchair to get around. And Goliath was always on his lap.

That puppy had been in a wheelchair up until two months ago. Or two months in one day.

It's so fresh now. I knew it was coming. I've been taking care of him for so long.

...