Friday, September 30th, 2005
Ready to Roll! Willits caravan heads for devastated gulf
If all goes as planned, a caravan of donated trailers filled with items for survivors of hurricanes Rita and Katrina will roll out of Willits on Wednesday.
The goods will be distributed where they're most needed and the trailers will stay on site to be used as emergency housing, says Sue Morganti, who joins Jim Cassetta in spearheading the project.
"As far as where we're going, we'll talk to Lynn Meadows of Ukiah," Sue reports. "(Meadows is) recently back from a two-week volunteer effort as a physicians assistant with Veterans for Peace, which is establishing a relief camp in the area. We will also talk with Pat Tate."
Tate, still in the Gulf area as of Sept. 29, is a former Willits school board member and one of the founders of the Veterans for Peace relief operation.
According to writer Ross Anthony, who interviewed Jim and Sue for this story, the two are calling the project the Common Man Convoy.
"Jim has spread flyers across the area, which has set his phone a-ringing," writes Anthony, who will be joining the convoy. That is if his two-year-old hasn't pulled the phone wire out of the wall.
Jim, minus his two-year-old, will be driving one of the trailers to the Southeast, possibly the one donated by Annie Weller of Ancient Circles and painted with an image of the protective sky goddess Nut (pronounced Noot). A trailer from Sean Barrett, owner of the One Stop Garden Shop, is joining the cause.
"When people finally get that we're bringing the travel trailers down and leaving them there - that the trailer is the thing - they love it! They get really psyched on the idea," Jim reports. "They say, that's just the thing they (the hurricane victims) need. A guy called today and has 200 pounds of personal hygiene stuff all individually packed for personal people dispensing. And we got 50 backpacks from the Girl Scout troop in Willits filled with items for girls."
Sue is attempting to contact a Girl Scout troop in Baton Rouge to help distribute the backpacks.
"We've also got a guy on the coast whos calling, trying to give us a load of bikes," she says.
Wellers trailer, in the parking lot of Curves, the exercise center, has been partially filled with donations from Curves members and staff and others in the community. More items are needed, however, particularly such light-weight bulk foodstuffs as rice, pasta, and beans. Canned goods are welcome, Weller says, but are heavier and, therefore, increase the cost of gas needed for transport. She asks for cooking equipment, bedding, folding chairs and small things that can make people more comfortable, make their lives more normal.
Other items on the list drawn up by Sue and Jim include tents, inflatable boats and other floatation devices, personal care and first aid items, mosquito repellant, sunscreen, disinfectants, empty water jugs, radios, flashlights, batteries, lighters, water purifiers, solar showers, shovels, and rakes.
"Anybody who feels they've been wanting to do something should jump on this bandwagon," Weller says.
Sue points out the bandwagon is a people-to-people project, bypassing the agencies that require funding for administration.
Her purpose, she told Anthony, is to maintain awareness of the need for assistance in the gulf and to promote the idea individual people have the power to do something:
"If you have an idea, you can act on it. You dont have to do it through an agency. Our whole guiding philosophy is based on the power of the individual. Everyone can do something."
While the goods are urgently needed, Jim and Sue emphasize the travel trailers themselves are the main offering, since housing is desperately needed. They urge local people to donate their own trailers or to ask friends and vehicle dealers to do so. Drivers and tow vehicles may also be needed.
Those who want to donate trailers, supplies, or money for gas should contact Jim and Sue at 459-5495.
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Update from Tami McMahon, RN, Seattle, Washington
Worked at a church clinic today in Biloxi, MS. Met the most extraordinary group of women who live in this neighborhood. Many had toddlers/babes in tow. Sat with them and listened after giving tetanus shots. Heard their stories of being submerged in the "black water from the back bay" as it poured into their homes.
They spoke matter-of-factly as they described lifting their children onto the furniture as the water rose above neck level. They described wringing out the bible to find the 23rd Psalm to read aloud as they prayed to God to stop the waters and send help.
Then they passed on thanks to the brother of one amongst them for bringing out his boat to drag them from their window. They shared the heroism of a fellow neighbor and mother who gave her life to save her children as she instructed her partner to let her go in the current and hold onto their sons. They all looked down as they discussed her body not being found until it was washed out from under the house by Rita's flooding. Then they touched arms as they gave words of encouragement for not panicking through the worst of it and all expressed thanks for being alive now to tell their stories.
One told of her favorite possession - a framed peacock made from rhinestones. She thought it might still be in the house but was not allowed to re-enter to find it. She smiled through wet eyes as she then apologized for being greedy to think about such a thing.
They then went on to discuss the now - how they were cleaning up, where they needed to go to get their relief checks (the Red Cross person had not appeared again for the second day since they were processed). They exchanged baby clothes that were given in the wrong sizes and found a toddler that fit them perfectly. Then, after finishing their bowl of gumbo that Mr. Taylor had stewed on an outdoor stove next to the church, they continued their work down the street.
They left us with hugs and words of thanks for those of us who came down to help, not knowing that they had changed our lives forever.
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The Front Porch, Elmo St. House
Update from Ralph, Tennessee
Writing from this porch is a pleasure tonight, with just a small breeze across the bow of this ship.
Speaking of ships, I will tell you of what I saw today. I saw a barge, nearly 3 football fields in length and close to 40 feet tall, sitting in a yard nearly 400 yards from where the levee broke. I mean, it was sitting in their yard. On top of their car. This is a large barge. The type that you see some tugboats steering down the river.
I also saw an oil spill. Not a small small spill. More like someone did an oil change on about forty square blocks. Where there was a definite water-line on houses in some areas, this was an oil-line up to four feet high on brick walls. Cars that floated in the yards were now at rest in the street or neighbors yard, covered in oil.
A small refinery sits just a 1/4 mile away. No EPA, no refinery folks in the area feverishly cleaning this mess up. I did see where they had been using small pumps to empty the drainage ditch of it's oil/water mixture, but that was as efficient as removing water from a swimming pool with a turkey baster -- not helping. No warning signs posted in the area nor yellow tape to cordon off the mess. An oil slick in New Orleans, or Arabi to be exact.
I also saw some doctors giving really great care to sick and still injured people. Nurses are seeing many more folks than they're used to FOR NO MONEY. They are here for no pay and a lot of work. That is some good stuff.
Nice clean folks show up here with some fresh energy and we are quickly reenergized. The cool thing is that what the effort gives back is triple. Some folks can't leave. Helping the victims means too much to them. Some, including myself, leave and return again because the folks here know us now. They have adopted us and we are needed.
I can't say when I can return, but It's definitely not soon enough. I know too much about this place, and have seen the real muck, literally.
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