Katrina: Thousands of Victims Without Relief
See CNN story on evacuees:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/13/katrina.poll/index.html?section=cnn_latest
See AP story on evacuees & non-relief: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051013/ap_on_re_us/katrina_housing_5
Then read:
Hurricane Katrina & Hurricane Rita
American Red Cross Disaster Relief
Experience Summary and A Plea for America to Stand Up
September 12 through September 28, and Contacts Up to October 13
Montgomery, Alabama: American Red Cross (ARQ) HQ for Katrina: Hundreds of United Rental Trucks sat in the parking lot, unused. Tons of donated supplies were piled 20-feet high in an area the size of an acre. With nurses, doctors, psychologists, therapists, EMTs, rescue specialists, architects, contractors, former military, plumbers, electricians, construction workers, advocates, college students, retirees from an array of career fields, executives, managers, white and blue collar workers, the Katrina volunteer force in Montgomery was formidable. However, no assessment was conducted of these resources and how best they could be utilized. Instead, the undermanned, management-by-chaos, greathearted ARC workers feverishly assigned folks to whatever ARC needed within policy and procedure. The mantra was, “we’ve never encountered a disaster of this magnitude and so we are developing our system as we go.” That sounded pretty good. However, ARC has been around for 125 years, through Galveston, Camille, Ivan, Andrew, St. Helens, San Francisco, and internationally via WWI, WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, Bosnia, Iraq. You mean to tell me that ARC doesn’t have a scalable disaster plan?
By the way, neither does FEMA, the military, or local, state, or our national systems. There are fantastic, dedicated, incredible people in these organizations. Nonetheless, people have and will die because of this failure, and thousands are suffering beyond all of our comprehension in unimaginable isolation as a result of it. It is in a word, appalling.]
[From Sept 14th, Pre-Deployment]:
I was assigned to go to Tylertown, Mississippi, which lies 10 miles above the Louisiana border, 90-miles north of New Orleans in the poorest region in the United States. Up to now, shelter, food and water have been provided. Tylertown would be "ground zero" for offering small albeit vital and immediate financial assistance along with the distribution of bulk goods (plastic, clothes, take away food and water, cleaning products, diapers, toilet paper, etc). The situation was reportedly volatile. Prison-holding cells were emptied by way of the flooding of New Orleans and dozens of convicts were roaming the area. Recently, National Guard arrived, a curfew was in effect, and ARC determined that the situation could tolerate setting-up this operation. In terms of hardship category, the coordinator explained that this situation was not listed in ARC. After talking with some 30-mental health volunteers, 9 agreed to sign up. We’d now be deployed with the rest of ARC operations heading to Tylertown, Mississippi.
[Tylertown, Mississippi]:
Each day, cars lined-up for miles in both directions on the highway that lead to the "arena" (a rodeo-like facility with bleachers and a large, metal roof). Temperatures soared into the upper 90’s with similar degrees of humidity, making the heat index around 110-degrees. Hurricane victims have at best been living with anyone who’d take them in, homes packed with people, most without electricity. Thousands of victims lived in their cars. People had spent weeks searching for services, other than just food and water, traveling from county-to-county, wandering over north-eastern Louisiana and south-eastern Mississippi. For four weeks there was nothing. ARC has an 800 number; however, in essence it didn’t work. Of course, there’s TV, but no electricity or living in the car.
A group of ARC volunteers formulated a plan that would organize the 500 to 700 “heads of family” members allowed to come-in daily. After folks sat in the metal bleachers, I would manage the crowd, so to speak, i.e., be the primary Lead in the bleachers, and another volunteer coordinated moving victims through the first element, some paperwork, in order to get folks inside the air conditioned center as quickly and orderly as possible.
It was sweltering, with still, hazy air over the dirt where horses and prize bulls are usually shown. Love bugs, disgusting creatures with a foul odor mingled constantly with the victims and volunteers. Then there was the result of not having utilities or running water on people’s hygiene and the diseases that come along on that ride.
Several black Katrina volunteers came to Tylertown, brave and great folks, into the deepest part of Dixie. Many people of any color were not willing to go to Tylertown, but more so for blacks. A black volunteer, a reverend educated and guided me on why. We were at the core of white-to-black racism, the foundry of the South’s crucible for black people, the heartland of the Jim Crow laws. There were also great local people, black and white, especially the church people, who worked together outside the box, rippling the status quo in Tylertown. Racism was as palpable as the heat in Tylertown.
Given our assessment of the ARC mix, it became my goal was to put a white face with different perspective in front of the eyes of so many black Southerners. As an unrelated aside, I also wanted to present a full set of teeth to backwoods hillbillies who came in droves. I planned to conduct crowd "behavior management," joining, reframing, explaining, providing needed information, problem-solving, encouraging, caring about, working around barriers, diffusing the potential for violence, and somehow, someway reconnecting with people without any. My role in our plan, connection, would prove pivotal at this point within this sociological context. After so many weeks of abject suffering, some brutalization, rampant rejection and isolation, and no response to horrible, horrible circumstances, the potential for something going wrong was very high and we had to try everything we could think of to prevent it from happening.
For 9-days, that’s what I did. I managed and embraced the crowd and the victims saved the ARC operations and me. I had four days of varying degrees of dehydration, one resulting in a time-out on the MD/RN cot. I also caught a sore throat, my voice was ravaged, I lost 10-pounds, and fatigue, stress, and physical elements were difficult. I used "Dr. Phil" as a known metaphor. I’d walk from section to section of the bleachers and say: "Ladies, gentlemen. Good morning. I’m Dr. Bob. I’m from Los Angeles, California and I’m a volunteer with the American Red Cross. Everyone you see here is a volunteer. There are also a few folks who work for the Red Cross. Our volunteers have come from Canada, Ohio, Tennessee, Philadelphia, Florida, Washington, Oregon, and the Carolinas. Most of us were not Red Cross volunteers before Hurricane Katrina. But we signed up after this monster took your homes, your lives, your dreams, and released things beyond your greatest fears. We just want to help. From all of us, I want you to know that no matter what the Red Cross does or does not do, or FEMA, or that 800 number, or the government, or anyone else, I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT PEOPLE, REAL PEOPLE ACROSS THIS COUNTRY AND THE WORLD CARE ABOUT YOU, ARE VERY WORRIED, AND WE WANT TO HELP. YOU’VE HAD NOTHING UP TO NOW, WE KNOW THAT. BUT TODAY, WITH YOUR HELP, TODAY WE WILL GET SOMETHING DONE!!!"
I’d then describe what was going to happen, how long it would take, how we’d do it, what information they needed, giving updates, etc. I’d then walk up and down the bleachers in between various "Dr. Bob" announcements or instruction, answering questions, hearing suggestions, diffusing a phenomenon of tension, and giving psychological first aid.
Throughout the day, the volunteers, including myself, would sit with victims outside, take down their information, then get folks inside to receive financial assistance cards, and then back outside for bulk goods. We set up and took down tables, cleaned the bleachers and picked up the parking lot (which at times had human feces, bloodied clothes, diapers, stuff that was sitting in cars for weeks), work with the local police, sheriff, out-of-area police form Pennsylvania (those folks were great), the ARC managers, and other volunteers. Every evening we spent time trying to figure out how to do it better. Other than a few "incidents," a couple near riots, some hidden weapons, a gun dropped onto the bleachers, problems with how the local sheriff and police handed out tickets and sent people away, it worked. In fact, five other ARC assistance sites, set up over the time we were there (e.g., McComb, Centerville, Beckman), modeled their operations after our system.
The People
The people who’ve been victimized by this natural, human, and inhumane disaster are the most remarkable humans I have ever encountered. The pain, loss, despair, suffering, anguish, and agony they have, are unlike anything any of us can comprehend. Thousands and thousands of people came from New Orleans. Their stories create pain in the listener; they are incredibly powerful.
A woman, who miscarried during the flooding, yet had her baby still inside her, walked for miles from one hospital to another, and no one treated her. A third hospital brought her in, got her baby out of her, and sent her on her way. She was told, "you can always have another baby."
A police officer and two assistants came up, taking a two-day break from New Orleans. Houses are marked with a red circle and a line through it, like a "no smoking" sign, to indicate that no one remains inside. An inverted triangle means there is a corpse for removal. The officer said there are not 10,000 dead, but there are probably hundreds. Rescue workers and officers tied or chained corpses to streetlight posts, signs, rails, tracks, and fences. One of the assistants said that they keep finding people in their homes. One fellow was holed up in the attic of a home marked as clear. He’d been there with minimal rations for three weeks. There are hundreds of folks still trapped in their homes. The relief and police services are undermanned. I asked how they could possibly handle so much death. The officer said one grows sort of numb to it, like how an MD might become. He said that if I dropped over in front of him, he’d check to see if I was alive and if I wasn’t, he’d just step over me and go on. Later, the assistant said that she cannot get to numb, that she’s been crying for hours in between trying to function, with each corpse is found.
A man clung to his wife as they tried to get to their car when the water poured in from Lake Pontchartrain, but their hands were pulled apart suddenly and she was gone. So was his house, his pictures, all of his records, books, clothes, and he doesn’t know where the rest of his family wound up, if they made it.
[From Sept 25th, Greenville, Mississippi]:
I went from Tylertown to Greenville Mississippi after Hurricane Rita hit landfall yesterday evening. That was quite something in Tylertown, with wind, rain, air pressure, and a moving, counterclockwise eerie mass of Rita over us. Her tropical eye was about 50-miles away from Jackson, Mississippi when a colleague/friend of mine met the ARC courier who drove me up from Tylertown. From there, the rain and wind became so furious that we couldn’t see more that 20-feet beyond the vehicle. We finally had to stop on the highway. My friend has an 8,000-pound Hummer H2, and we hydroplaned sideways while driving 5 to 10 miles per hour. Hurricanes carry tornadoes along as they travel about on land and Rita was no exception. There were several of them around us.
I made my way to Greenville, because my friend has taken matters into his own hands. He’s renovating a large facility, designed to take-in forensic psych patients, dedicating half of the 225,000 square foot facility to house survivors of Katrina, and something much bigger. The goal is to integrate these folks into the community of Greenville (or wherever they so choose) so that they do not return to the abject poverty they lived in before Katrina hit. I design and manage large operations and programs, and my friend wanted to talk with me about the project. We spent two days talking about lessons learned from Tylertown, brainstormed it all into his plan for community, vocational training, medical, mental health, church and educational support for the survivors of Katrina who will come to Greenville for help. This will be real help, and it’s about time someone stepped up to do it.
He’s a staunch Republican and I’m a Democrat. We vehemently disagree on many things, but we are the closest of friends and on what counts, we’re on the same page entirely.
People’s Heart
The most incredible, unbelievable and poignant part of this journey was the hope and faith of these amazing people. Almost to a person, over and over and over again, I heard about their faith in God and their preservation of hope. The unwavering love among those who found or attached themselves to each other was indescribable, and people were so grateful for help, even too little and too late. It was beyond astounding to me to hear such words after these accounts of infinite, ongoing suffering. I have never met people who carried such grace and love in the face of horror, inhumanity, annihilation, anger, despair, and sheer agony. It will change me forever. It was the greatest honor I’ve ever had, to be among them, wading for a time in the waters of courage, integrity, and spirit in purest definition.
May humanity meet the level of integrity, hope, and faith of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
A Plea for America
It will be important going forward to understand what should be improved, to make disaster relief and recovery in our country work the way it should. However, now, right now, thousands and thousands of New Orleans and Mississippi Americans are without power, living in their cars, homes are gone, friends and relative’s whereabouts unknown, food and water doled-out to our citizens, as though they are refugees. I’m just an American and in my view, this situation is intolerable.
No matter whose to blame or what should be done in the future, one thing should be abundantly clear: Bureaucracy is failing. The money is there, and there are phenomenal people in FEMA and the Red Cross doing everything they can to help, within the limits of their respective bureaucratic structures. The need in Mississippi and Louisiana screams, "think outside the box." We cannot wait for the bureaucratic systems, public sector or non-profit, to figure this out. Too many Americans are alone in a Hell few can imagine. If we are moral, if we have values, if we are the great country that we all believe in, we must act.
I know from meeting so many, incredible volunteers who came to the American Red Cross with great heart and a multitude of skills that the necessary workforce is readily available. We’re lined-up to help. I believe many who read this are ready as well, to contribute their time, hands, and hearts to help fellow Americans. To those who have the means, the economic power, and the influence to coordinate something Americans can do that government or agencies thus far can’t, please follow my colleague/friend’s lead.
Americans need our help. There is a great lesson about color that we can all take away from this situation. It’s very clear: Red, White, and Blue.
http://technorati.com/tag/http://www.hrw.org
common cause
www.commoncause.org
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/10/AR2006021000267.html
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/01/AR2006030101731.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/politics/10katrina.html?hp&ex=1139634000&en=914abcf6c2b5fc5a&ei=5094&partner=homepage
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/politics/10katrina.html
http://www.hrw.org/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/28/AR2005112801681.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/10/AR2006021000267.html
Louisiana
New Orleans
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9729481/site/newsweek
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/11/AR2006021101409.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/16/AR2006031601060.html
New
Katrina
Hurricane
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/16/AR2006031601060.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mentalhealth17mar17,0,1919331.story?page=1&coll=la-home-nation
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060410/davis
los angeles times
LA Times
illinois
mississippi
colorado
florida
california
san francisco
human rights
we are not ok
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/13/katrina.poll/index.html?section=cnn_latest
See AP story on evacuees & non-relief: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051013/ap_on_re_us/katrina_housing_5
Then read:
Hurricane Katrina & Hurricane Rita
American Red Cross Disaster Relief
Experience Summary and A Plea for America to Stand Up
September 12 through September 28, and Contacts Up to October 13
Montgomery, Alabama: American Red Cross (ARQ) HQ for Katrina: Hundreds of United Rental Trucks sat in the parking lot, unused. Tons of donated supplies were piled 20-feet high in an area the size of an acre. With nurses, doctors, psychologists, therapists, EMTs, rescue specialists, architects, contractors, former military, plumbers, electricians, construction workers, advocates, college students, retirees from an array of career fields, executives, managers, white and blue collar workers, the Katrina volunteer force in Montgomery was formidable. However, no assessment was conducted of these resources and how best they could be utilized. Instead, the undermanned, management-by-chaos, greathearted ARC workers feverishly assigned folks to whatever ARC needed within policy and procedure. The mantra was, “we’ve never encountered a disaster of this magnitude and so we are developing our system as we go.” That sounded pretty good. However, ARC has been around for 125 years, through Galveston, Camille, Ivan, Andrew, St. Helens, San Francisco, and internationally via WWI, WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, Bosnia, Iraq. You mean to tell me that ARC doesn’t have a scalable disaster plan?
By the way, neither does FEMA, the military, or local, state, or our national systems. There are fantastic, dedicated, incredible people in these organizations. Nonetheless, people have and will die because of this failure, and thousands are suffering beyond all of our comprehension in unimaginable isolation as a result of it. It is in a word, appalling.]
[From Sept 14th, Pre-Deployment]:
I was assigned to go to Tylertown, Mississippi, which lies 10 miles above the Louisiana border, 90-miles north of New Orleans in the poorest region in the United States. Up to now, shelter, food and water have been provided. Tylertown would be "ground zero" for offering small albeit vital and immediate financial assistance along with the distribution of bulk goods (plastic, clothes, take away food and water, cleaning products, diapers, toilet paper, etc). The situation was reportedly volatile. Prison-holding cells were emptied by way of the flooding of New Orleans and dozens of convicts were roaming the area. Recently, National Guard arrived, a curfew was in effect, and ARC determined that the situation could tolerate setting-up this operation. In terms of hardship category, the coordinator explained that this situation was not listed in ARC. After talking with some 30-mental health volunteers, 9 agreed to sign up. We’d now be deployed with the rest of ARC operations heading to Tylertown, Mississippi.
[Tylertown, Mississippi]:
Each day, cars lined-up for miles in both directions on the highway that lead to the "arena" (a rodeo-like facility with bleachers and a large, metal roof). Temperatures soared into the upper 90’s with similar degrees of humidity, making the heat index around 110-degrees. Hurricane victims have at best been living with anyone who’d take them in, homes packed with people, most without electricity. Thousands of victims lived in their cars. People had spent weeks searching for services, other than just food and water, traveling from county-to-county, wandering over north-eastern Louisiana and south-eastern Mississippi. For four weeks there was nothing. ARC has an 800 number; however, in essence it didn’t work. Of course, there’s TV, but no electricity or living in the car.
A group of ARC volunteers formulated a plan that would organize the 500 to 700 “heads of family” members allowed to come-in daily. After folks sat in the metal bleachers, I would manage the crowd, so to speak, i.e., be the primary Lead in the bleachers, and another volunteer coordinated moving victims through the first element, some paperwork, in order to get folks inside the air conditioned center as quickly and orderly as possible.
It was sweltering, with still, hazy air over the dirt where horses and prize bulls are usually shown. Love bugs, disgusting creatures with a foul odor mingled constantly with the victims and volunteers. Then there was the result of not having utilities or running water on people’s hygiene and the diseases that come along on that ride.
Several black Katrina volunteers came to Tylertown, brave and great folks, into the deepest part of Dixie. Many people of any color were not willing to go to Tylertown, but more so for blacks. A black volunteer, a reverend educated and guided me on why. We were at the core of white-to-black racism, the foundry of the South’s crucible for black people, the heartland of the Jim Crow laws. There were also great local people, black and white, especially the church people, who worked together outside the box, rippling the status quo in Tylertown. Racism was as palpable as the heat in Tylertown.
Given our assessment of the ARC mix, it became my goal was to put a white face with different perspective in front of the eyes of so many black Southerners. As an unrelated aside, I also wanted to present a full set of teeth to backwoods hillbillies who came in droves. I planned to conduct crowd "behavior management," joining, reframing, explaining, providing needed information, problem-solving, encouraging, caring about, working around barriers, diffusing the potential for violence, and somehow, someway reconnecting with people without any. My role in our plan, connection, would prove pivotal at this point within this sociological context. After so many weeks of abject suffering, some brutalization, rampant rejection and isolation, and no response to horrible, horrible circumstances, the potential for something going wrong was very high and we had to try everything we could think of to prevent it from happening.
For 9-days, that’s what I did. I managed and embraced the crowd and the victims saved the ARC operations and me. I had four days of varying degrees of dehydration, one resulting in a time-out on the MD/RN cot. I also caught a sore throat, my voice was ravaged, I lost 10-pounds, and fatigue, stress, and physical elements were difficult. I used "Dr. Phil" as a known metaphor. I’d walk from section to section of the bleachers and say: "Ladies, gentlemen. Good morning. I’m Dr. Bob. I’m from Los Angeles, California and I’m a volunteer with the American Red Cross. Everyone you see here is a volunteer. There are also a few folks who work for the Red Cross. Our volunteers have come from Canada, Ohio, Tennessee, Philadelphia, Florida, Washington, Oregon, and the Carolinas. Most of us were not Red Cross volunteers before Hurricane Katrina. But we signed up after this monster took your homes, your lives, your dreams, and released things beyond your greatest fears. We just want to help. From all of us, I want you to know that no matter what the Red Cross does or does not do, or FEMA, or that 800 number, or the government, or anyone else, I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT PEOPLE, REAL PEOPLE ACROSS THIS COUNTRY AND THE WORLD CARE ABOUT YOU, ARE VERY WORRIED, AND WE WANT TO HELP. YOU’VE HAD NOTHING UP TO NOW, WE KNOW THAT. BUT TODAY, WITH YOUR HELP, TODAY WE WILL GET SOMETHING DONE!!!"
I’d then describe what was going to happen, how long it would take, how we’d do it, what information they needed, giving updates, etc. I’d then walk up and down the bleachers in between various "Dr. Bob" announcements or instruction, answering questions, hearing suggestions, diffusing a phenomenon of tension, and giving psychological first aid.
Throughout the day, the volunteers, including myself, would sit with victims outside, take down their information, then get folks inside to receive financial assistance cards, and then back outside for bulk goods. We set up and took down tables, cleaned the bleachers and picked up the parking lot (which at times had human feces, bloodied clothes, diapers, stuff that was sitting in cars for weeks), work with the local police, sheriff, out-of-area police form Pennsylvania (those folks were great), the ARC managers, and other volunteers. Every evening we spent time trying to figure out how to do it better. Other than a few "incidents," a couple near riots, some hidden weapons, a gun dropped onto the bleachers, problems with how the local sheriff and police handed out tickets and sent people away, it worked. In fact, five other ARC assistance sites, set up over the time we were there (e.g., McComb, Centerville, Beckman), modeled their operations after our system.
The People
The people who’ve been victimized by this natural, human, and inhumane disaster are the most remarkable humans I have ever encountered. The pain, loss, despair, suffering, anguish, and agony they have, are unlike anything any of us can comprehend. Thousands and thousands of people came from New Orleans. Their stories create pain in the listener; they are incredibly powerful.
A woman, who miscarried during the flooding, yet had her baby still inside her, walked for miles from one hospital to another, and no one treated her. A third hospital brought her in, got her baby out of her, and sent her on her way. She was told, "you can always have another baby."
A police officer and two assistants came up, taking a two-day break from New Orleans. Houses are marked with a red circle and a line through it, like a "no smoking" sign, to indicate that no one remains inside. An inverted triangle means there is a corpse for removal. The officer said there are not 10,000 dead, but there are probably hundreds. Rescue workers and officers tied or chained corpses to streetlight posts, signs, rails, tracks, and fences. One of the assistants said that they keep finding people in their homes. One fellow was holed up in the attic of a home marked as clear. He’d been there with minimal rations for three weeks. There are hundreds of folks still trapped in their homes. The relief and police services are undermanned. I asked how they could possibly handle so much death. The officer said one grows sort of numb to it, like how an MD might become. He said that if I dropped over in front of him, he’d check to see if I was alive and if I wasn’t, he’d just step over me and go on. Later, the assistant said that she cannot get to numb, that she’s been crying for hours in between trying to function, with each corpse is found.
A man clung to his wife as they tried to get to their car when the water poured in from Lake Pontchartrain, but their hands were pulled apart suddenly and she was gone. So was his house, his pictures, all of his records, books, clothes, and he doesn’t know where the rest of his family wound up, if they made it.
[From Sept 25th, Greenville, Mississippi]:
I went from Tylertown to Greenville Mississippi after Hurricane Rita hit landfall yesterday evening. That was quite something in Tylertown, with wind, rain, air pressure, and a moving, counterclockwise eerie mass of Rita over us. Her tropical eye was about 50-miles away from Jackson, Mississippi when a colleague/friend of mine met the ARC courier who drove me up from Tylertown. From there, the rain and wind became so furious that we couldn’t see more that 20-feet beyond the vehicle. We finally had to stop on the highway. My friend has an 8,000-pound Hummer H2, and we hydroplaned sideways while driving 5 to 10 miles per hour. Hurricanes carry tornadoes along as they travel about on land and Rita was no exception. There were several of them around us.
I made my way to Greenville, because my friend has taken matters into his own hands. He’s renovating a large facility, designed to take-in forensic psych patients, dedicating half of the 225,000 square foot facility to house survivors of Katrina, and something much bigger. The goal is to integrate these folks into the community of Greenville (or wherever they so choose) so that they do not return to the abject poverty they lived in before Katrina hit. I design and manage large operations and programs, and my friend wanted to talk with me about the project. We spent two days talking about lessons learned from Tylertown, brainstormed it all into his plan for community, vocational training, medical, mental health, church and educational support for the survivors of Katrina who will come to Greenville for help. This will be real help, and it’s about time someone stepped up to do it.
He’s a staunch Republican and I’m a Democrat. We vehemently disagree on many things, but we are the closest of friends and on what counts, we’re on the same page entirely.
People’s Heart
The most incredible, unbelievable and poignant part of this journey was the hope and faith of these amazing people. Almost to a person, over and over and over again, I heard about their faith in God and their preservation of hope. The unwavering love among those who found or attached themselves to each other was indescribable, and people were so grateful for help, even too little and too late. It was beyond astounding to me to hear such words after these accounts of infinite, ongoing suffering. I have never met people who carried such grace and love in the face of horror, inhumanity, annihilation, anger, despair, and sheer agony. It will change me forever. It was the greatest honor I’ve ever had, to be among them, wading for a time in the waters of courage, integrity, and spirit in purest definition.
May humanity meet the level of integrity, hope, and faith of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
A Plea for America
It will be important going forward to understand what should be improved, to make disaster relief and recovery in our country work the way it should. However, now, right now, thousands and thousands of New Orleans and Mississippi Americans are without power, living in their cars, homes are gone, friends and relative’s whereabouts unknown, food and water doled-out to our citizens, as though they are refugees. I’m just an American and in my view, this situation is intolerable.
No matter whose to blame or what should be done in the future, one thing should be abundantly clear: Bureaucracy is failing. The money is there, and there are phenomenal people in FEMA and the Red Cross doing everything they can to help, within the limits of their respective bureaucratic structures. The need in Mississippi and Louisiana screams, "think outside the box." We cannot wait for the bureaucratic systems, public sector or non-profit, to figure this out. Too many Americans are alone in a Hell few can imagine. If we are moral, if we have values, if we are the great country that we all believe in, we must act.
I know from meeting so many, incredible volunteers who came to the American Red Cross with great heart and a multitude of skills that the necessary workforce is readily available. We’re lined-up to help. I believe many who read this are ready as well, to contribute their time, hands, and hearts to help fellow Americans. To those who have the means, the economic power, and the influence to coordinate something Americans can do that government or agencies thus far can’t, please follow my colleague/friend’s lead.
Americans need our help. There is a great lesson about color that we can all take away from this situation. It’s very clear: Red, White, and Blue.
http://technorati.com/tag/http://www.hrw.org
common cause
www.commoncause.org
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/10/AR2006021000267.html
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/01/AR2006030101731.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/politics/10katrina.html?hp&ex=1139634000&en=914abcf6c2b5fc5a&ei=5094&partner=homepage
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/politics/10katrina.html
http://www.hrw.org/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/28/AR2005112801681.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/10/AR2006021000267.html
Louisiana
New Orleans
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9729481/site/newsweek
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/11/AR2006021101409.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/16/AR2006031601060.html
New
Katrina
Hurricane
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/16/AR2006031601060.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mentalhealth17mar17,0,1919331.story?page=1&coll=la-home-nation
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060410/davis
los angeles times
LA Times
illinois
mississippi
colorado
florida
california
san francisco
human rights
we are not ok
posted by Katrina RRMs | 7:41 PM
