Katrina relief - news from friends

Some are now saying that the hurricane relief effort may be bigger in terms of money and donations than the 9/11 relief effort. I would venture a guess that it's going to end up being FAR bigger. It's only been a couple of weeks since the disaster transpired, but it seems that private citizens are organizing donation drives and even taking it upon themselves to caravan down to the Gulf to help rebuild and offer assistance in any way they can. Ham radio operators, cooks, communications technicians, you name it, they're volunteering their time and treasure, going down there and making personal sacrifices to get and stay in the thick of things and do what they can. I don't recall anything on a scale like this after 9/11. I remember a lot of people sending stuff, but I don't remember people actually going to NYC in droves to personally help out and bring supplies with them. Do you?

Two people I know have become directly involved in the efforts. One hosted a donations drive/pool party at his apartment complex this past Saturday, and although he expected it to be a bust, 200 people showed up with all kinds of items to donate, more than he and his friends literally know what to do with. The second fellow actually went along with family and friends on a caravan down to Bayou La Batre, AL.

From his email sent to me last Sunday:

"Family, friends and people in the community donated canned goods, sodas, bags of rice, diapers, baby wipes, pet food, gallons upon gallons of Clorox, cleaning products and a host of other items. We had literally around a ton of food for our three car caravan. We headed to small city called Bayou La Batre on the Gulf Coast of AL. People may remember this area from the movie Forrest Gump, where some of the movie was filmed and the home of Pvt. Benjamin Buford 'Bubba' Blue played by Mykelti Williamson. Condoleezza Rice made a stop there as part of her visit to hurricane-stricken areas.

On our way down we passed others who were heading down to the gulf to help. We passed other caravans, Red Cross officials, military caravans, electrical trucks, campers, RVs, and a host of people just heading down to help. From our ham radio to handheld radios, most of what was talked about was where people were going and what areas they were headed to. We talked to people from as far as Ohio. The Ohio caravan was going down to set up ham radio communications in Mississippi. I know what it was like for me when I was watching this on TV, but being there, seeing the people, seeing FEMA and seeing the devastation, this was beyond even the scope of what you have seen from the media.

I hope these pictures will give you a bit of an idea of what we experienced.

Getting started at 6am, our first stop at Burger King.
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Arriving at the FEMA center (Bayou La Batre Community Center), they were completely full of donations and evacuees. They directed us to the local First United Methodist church across the street, but they were only accepting food and cleaning products. They directed us to World Hope International church, who was accepting the clothing.
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The devastation in La Batre.
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We met up with [our caravan leader's friend], whose home was completely demolished. In the pictures you’ll see the homes along the coast about 300 feet from the sea wall. The locals said the sea surge was anywhere from 20 to 40 feet. It washed away entire homes and deposited a 2nd story of another house as well as a semi trailer.
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A shrimp boat anchor in the yard where their house used to be.
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The trip back.
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You're more than welcome to use the information I sent. Just a few things to pass along to those that want to go down there ... this may be different for each area, so just take this as a FYI.

There are a lot of people that are giving, the problem is where to deliver it. I know Eddie [the caravan leader] and possibly my dad will be heading down again in a few weeks, I don't know exactly when.

If anyone is going to drive to a certain location, be sure they get as much "detailed" information as they can. When we showed up at FEMA they didn't really know where we could deliver the food or clothing, even though the church driveway was less than 25 feet away from the first person we asked.

I asked another FEMA person and a Red Cross person, but they were more focused on helping the people that were there than really knowing where [items should] go, it was the AL State Patrol that had a lot more information. So if anyone is going down, they may want to contact the local authorities or check some of the hurricane disaster web sites.

They can still use stuff down in Bayou La Batre, so if anyone wants to take some stuff down I can give them some contacts. Just let me know.

The media in their typical manner aren't really helping matters with their inciting of blame, race and Bush-bashing. It wouldn't have mattered if the US combined with the whole world had a plan, the devastation is so extensive and so widespread - 90, 000 square miles - that no one could have reached most of the areas with any type of immediate efficiency.

People down there aren't concerned about race, blame, or what could have been done better. All they are concerned about right now is staying alive. Sadly most of the animals were too sick to eat or drink so they had to put them down. The elderly who are dependent on machines simply died during transport into the helicopters. Without their machines they simply died in the 1 minute airlift.

If there is any additional information you need, I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Ronnie