Before thousands of Cuban immigrants in New Orleans worried about Hurricane Ike hitting here, many watched it ravage their former home.

The Cuban government reported that at least 27,000 homes and counting in eastern Cuba were damaged. The immigrants in the New Orleans metro area know that recovering from a Category-3 and Category-4 storm is very different when you are in a country with Category-5 political problems.

Elena Pagonis makes sandwiches in her new restaurant that she opened four months ago, and part of her profit stays here and the other part she hopes will make it to hurricane-ravaged Cuba.  

“Nobody do anything,” said Pagonis. “And here you have people like FEMA to help you, and now I hear people go get food stamps, you have everything here, everything.”

Hurricane Gustav -- and now Hurricane Ike -- hit fast on a Cuba's already collapsing buildings.

Pagonis said she just sent a $100 through Western Union yesterday to her mother who lives in Camaguey, the city that looked Hurricane Ike in the eye. The money also went to her brother and two children.

It is barely enough for them to make it -- and Elena can afford much more – it is just United States law doesn't allow for her to send more than a $100 a month.

“If you just sent money to a relative, then you have no other options,” said Elizabeth Hernandez, also a Cuban refugee living in the New Orleans metro area.

At a Western Union location in a Spanish supermarket in Kenner, Hernandez was one of thousands of Cubans in New Orleans trying to send large amounts of money to their families.

“If relatives here have sufficient money to send, they should have that ability to do so,” she said.

George Fowler who is the director of the New Orleans Chapter of the Cuban American Foundation has stepped in to help the money get to people faster by applying for a special permit that humanitarian aid workers can get.

“Cuba's got the added problem that the government refuses to get any help from the United States and its people,” said Fowler.  "He's (Fidel Castro) publicly said that he doesn’t need any help from the United States; he’s got this 50-year-old hatred of this country and it's people.”

So now Fowler says those who have family there should use the assistance of the Cuban association to get money to their relatives.

“The law allows for money to be sent to certain family members,” he said. “Our organization has been trying to change this law so that we can provide help for the people of Cuba.”

“The law allows for money to be sent to certain family members through our organization,” he said.

Pagonis already did this herself, and now she will just wait and see, if once again, if politics will get in the way of it's progress.