From a friend. More updates from one family affected by Katrina ....
Talked to Dad myself on Friday night. He has been coordinating relief
efforts at East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie, La. for six
days.
His spirits were high, particularly regarding the security situation.
"We are the Independent Republic of Jefferson, and you do not want to
mess with us!" He described helicopters straffing, snipers on the roof,
and Guardsmen, federal agents, deputy sheriffs, and hospital security
guards, all armed with automatic weapons and sporting kevlar jackets.
All hospital guests are locked down in sleeping quarters each night at
7:30, and EMTs do leave the hosptial without police escort.
The hospital had just received shipments from Sam's and FEMA, including
a new generator which allowed them to restore air conditioning. Water &
sewer systems were back online, although garbage was piling up. They
are set for the forseeable future with food & water ... what they need
are personnel.
For example, only 2 cooks are on-hand to prepare food for 2,000. Doctors
and nurses have been on shift for days. Childcare workers are nowhere
to be found.
He wishes the newsmedia would quit emphasizing the lawlessness in the
area:
his hospital is secure. The constant coverage of thuggery is not helping
matters when people with crucial skills are afraid to return to the
area.
Still, he was confident that things are looking up. He made a trip to
Baton Rouge Thursday, and was encouraged by all the supply and tanker
trucks headed into New Orleans. He also received a phone call from
Nome, Alaska, saying that the proceeds from this year's Iditarod dog
race would go to relief efforts at East Jefferson.
Grant is continuing his efforts to clean the yard in Mandeville, and
secure our home from potential looters. He and some buddies drive in
from Baton Rouge everyday, and deliver supplies (especially ICE) to
neighbors.
.............................................
Sunday, Dad's 61st birthday ... His spirits were as low as they had been
high two days before. FEMA and Red Cross are impossible to work with,
he says. Assistance is coming too slowly and East Jefferson is being
excluded from important planning sessions. Other area hospitals are
taking credit for EJGH's extraordinary efforts, and the staff, already
exhausted, are now livid. Morale is bottoming-out. Refugees (many not
even sick) continue to pour into the hospital seeking shelter.
Hospital staff who have now been working for a full week are getting
sick.
About a third have developed upper-respatory trouble. (Dad is still
well.) Additionally, the hospital is now receiving an influx of suicides
and suicide attempts. Several police officers have taken their lives,
and many others are turning in their badges and leaving town.
The hospital is in DIRE need of fresh staff, but the FEMA screening
process is too cumbersome, he says. Qualified volunteers, ready to
assist, are being slowed down, if not turned completely away, by
bureacratic red-tape.
Today was a tough day for Mom, too, when she realized she had been a
refugee for a week now.
..........................................
Monday ... Dad is still fed up with feds. "Politicians posturing for
camera time is ridiculous! It appears to be all about who will get
credit for the rescue."
Security is now at "overkill" levels, as Natl Guard units from other
states continue to arrive. FEMA, he says, is "arrogant, insulting, &
incompetent". They have "federalized" the facility and all patients,
and their behavior seems completely random and capricious. (But they
sure are dressed nice....)
Dad is just as frustrated with the Red Cross: "If Red Cross had been
here on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, we could have saved lives."
The hospital has more bottled water than they'll ever need. What they
NEED is personnel, but people are unable to return to Metairie because
of snarled traffic & gas shortages. Not to mention the teams of
volunteers (including
doctors) being turned away by FEMA for not being federal employees.
To be fair, Dad has nothing but praise for the Louisiana Air Natl Guard
who have provided security & support since the crisis began. And of
course, he is awed everyday by the resilience of the extraordinary
hospital staff that keep on working in spite of all else. "I have not
seen or heard any waiver from our mission and values. The principles
of care for patients and each other is stronger than ever."
Dad, like so many others, has turned to their faith for strength. He
reccomends the Book of Lamentations as appropo for this situtation.
Thanks to all for your continues prayers & support.
Boyd
PS - Dad suggests www.wwltv.com for the most accurate news coverage.
Local media are not under the same pressure to sensationalize as
national news sources.
****************************************************************
by Malik Rahim
http://www.sfbayview.com/083105/thisiscriminal083105.shtml
[Note: Malik Rahim, a veteran of the Black Panther Party in New Orleans, for decades an organizer of public housing tenants both there and in San Francisco and a recent Green Party candidate for New Orleans City Council, lives in the Algiers neighborhood, the only part of New Orleans that is not flooded. They have no power, but the water is still good and the phones work. Their neighborhood could be sheltering and feeding at least 40,000 refugees, he says, but they are allowed to help no one. What he describes is nothing less than deliberate genocide against Black and poor people.]
---
New Orleans, Sept. 1, 2005 -- It's criminal. From what you're hearing, the people trapped in New Orleans are nothing but looters. We're told we should be more "neighborly." But nobody talked about being neighborly until after the people who could afford to leave -- left.
If you ain't got no money in America, you're on your own. People were told to go to the Superdome, but they have no food, no water there. And before they could get in, people had to stand in line for 4-5 hours in the rain because everybody was being searched one by one at the entrance.
I can understand the chaos that happened after the tsunami, because they had no warning, but here there was plenty of warning. In the three days before the hurricane hit, we knew it was coming and everyone could have been evacuated.
We have Amtrak here that could have carried everybody out of town. There were enough school buses that could have evacuated 20,000 people easily, but they just let them be flooded. My son watched 40 buses go underwater - they just wouldn't move them, afraid they'd be stolen.
People who could afford to leave were so afraid someone would steal what they own that they just let it all be flooded. They could have let a family without a vehicle borrow their extra car, but instead they left it behind to be destroyed.
There are gangs of white vigilantes near here riding around in pickup trucks, all of them armed, and any young Black they see who they figure doesn't belong in their community, they shoot him. I tell them, "Stop! You're going to start a riot."
When you see all the poor people with no place to go, feeling alone and helpless and angry, I say this is a consequence of HOPE VI. New Orleans took all the HUD money it could get to tear down public housing, and families and neighbors who'd relied on each other for generations were uprooted and torn apart.
Most of the people who are going through this now had already lost touch with the only community they'd ever known. Their community was torn down and they were scattered. They'd already lost their real homes, the only place where they knew everybody, and now the places they've been staying are destroyed.
But nobody cares. They're just lawless looters ... dangerous.
The hurricane hit at the end of the month, the time when poor people are most vulnerable. Food stamps don't buy enough but for about three weeks of the month, and by the end of the month everyone runs out. Now they have no way to get their food stamps or any money, so they just have to take what they can to survive.
Many people are getting sick and very weak. From the toxic water that people are walking through, little scratches and sores are turning into major wounds.
People whose homes and families were not destroyed went into the city right away with boats to bring the survivors out, but law enforcement told them they weren't needed. They are willing and able to rescue thousands, but they're not allowed to.
Every day countless volunteers are trying to help, but they're turned back. Almost all the rescue that's been done has been done by volunteers anyway.
My son and his family - his wife and kids, ages 1, 5 and 8 - were flooded out of their home when the levee broke. They had to swim out until they found an abandoned building with two rooms above water level.
There were 21 people in those two rooms for a day and a half. A guy in a boat who just said "I'm going to help regardless" rescued them and took them to Highway I-10 and dropped them there.
They sat on the freeway for about three hours, because someone said they'd be rescued and taken to the Superdome. Finally they just started walking, had to walk six and a half miles.
When they got to the Superdome, my son wasn't allowed in - I don't know why - so his wife and kids wouldn't go in. They kept walking, and they happened to run across a guy with a tow truck that they knew, and he gave them his own personal truck.
When they got here, they had no gas, so I had to punch a hole in my gas tank to give them some gas, and now I'm trapped. I'm getting around by bicycle.
People from Placquemine Parish were rescued on a ferry and dropped off on a dock near here. All day they were sitting on the dock in the hot sun with no food, no water. Many were in a daze; they've lost everything.
They were all sitting there surrounded by armed guards. We asked the guards could we bring them water and food. My mother and all the other church ladies were cooking for them, and we have plenty of good water.
But the guards said, "No. If you don't have enough water and food for everybody, you can't give anything." Finally the people were hauled off on school buses from other parishes.
You know Robert King Wilkerson (the only one of the Angola 3 political prisoners who's been released). He's been back in New Orleans working hard, organizing, helping people. Now nobody knows where he is. His house was destroyed. Knowing him, I think he's out trying to save lives, but I'm worried.
The people who could help are being shipped out. People who want to stay, who have the skills to save lives and rebuild are being forced to go to Houston.
It's not like New Orleans was caught off guard. This could have been prevented.
There's military right here in New Orleans, but for three days they weren't even mobilized. You'd think this was a Third World country.
I'm in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, the only part that isn't flooded. The water is good. Our parks and schools could easily hold 40,000 people, and they're not using any of it.
This is criminal. These people are dying for no other reason than the lack of organization.
Everything is needed, but we're still too disorganized. I'm asking people to go ahead and gather donations and relief supplies but to hold on to them for a few days until we have a way to put them to good use.
I'm challenging my party, the Green Party, to come down here and help us just as soon as things are a little more organized. The Republicans and Democrats didn't do anything to prevent this or plan for it and don't seem to care if everyone dies.
-----
Malik's phone is working. He welcomes calls from old friends and anyone with questions or ideas for saving lives. To reach him, call the Bay View at (415) 671-0789.
******************************
No comments:
Post a Comment