My thanks to all of you who have sent words of encouragement.....
PRAYERS.......(really need those big time) and thanks too for the
additional offers for assistance.
I wasn't going to bother y'all with another email from here - but
apparently some of you are sharing them , which is fine as there are lots of desperate
people needing to be heard in general terms.
Since y'all are fielding questions on our behalf I'll take a stab at
answering the ones you have sent to me but remember please that my
experience is just one voice in a very remote rural area.
You have a better idea than I do, likely as not, as to what is going on
statewide. I don't get all that much outside news here.
The state of Louisiana is in one of two worlds.
There is the situation that y'all are seeing on TV.
And then there is the support situation in the rest of the state. That
is mainly those of us coping with the refugees... POST-hurricane alley.
The photos you see on TV are accurate judging from all of the eye
witness accounts of new arrivals.
For once it seems the media is NOT sensationalizing the story. It is
every bit as horrible as you think it is.....and some of the stories we have
been hearing (again - from eye witnesses - not from the rumor mill) will
haunt you forever - so I am not going to share them.
What you are already seeing will last you a lifetime.
The anger and outrage you see is not limited to New Orleans. The entire
state (both worlds) are experiencing it.
It is very, very difficult for us to comprehend why we are unable to get
assistance.???
We understand YOU ARE SENDING IT.....but we are having trouble receiving
it which is a puzzle in our advanced society.
In my area...there is SOME relief present - but it has come slowly and
it has been VERY frustrating to access it.
In addressing the delays in getting it here - eh....
WE are NOT under water.
We have a perfectly clear and dry interstate running into our area from
Arkansas as well as Texas.
We have an international airport twenty miles from here that lands military
planes all the time....cargo planes...
We are having difficulty understanding why the aid can't come in here.
We are the center of the state.
Barksdale Air Force Base is in this state.
We are mystified by the hold ups - for New Orleans and for ourselves.
As I shared with you last night - our specific refugee camp is doing
fine......we are sharing what we have (the refugees and the few local families in
our remote area).....we are NOT fine because the stuff you are sending got
here. Our own self reliance and willingness to share has gotten us to this
point - NOT because any agency has offered assistance or because the government
is helping us.
We just don't understand!
We don't understand why it took the Congress a week to get to D.C.
(they will get there by NEXT MONDAY???) to pass a bill to help us.
We don't get that.???
If you want to help us - ask your elected official where they were
between the point they knew a Category 5 hurricane was FOR SURE going to hit New
Orleans (last Sunday).....between that day - and the NEXT Monday (eight days
later) - where have they been?????
Please ask when they come back after a Senate "fact finding
mission".....or as they convene yet another expensive "commission" or committee
investigation.....or hop over here to ladle a spoonful of food at a real clean and
sanitized shelter before the TV camera - in a week or two - ask them where they were
yesterday - on August 31st???????
We would sort of appreciate it if they would answer that for you.
That might help the next citizens in harm's way.
There will be LOTS of opportunities for photo ops....People will be suffering
for a long, long time.
We don't understand why two nights ago the officials in charge put out a
request for any and all type of boats to evacuate people from New Orleans.
Boaters responded by the hundreds!!!
Every person in our area including refugees answered the call!
OVER 200 boats showed up to help!
When they arrived they were told only twenty would be allowed to go and
assist.????
We don't get that.???
People are dying.!!!
The Cajun boys in boats from around here grew up on
the backwaters and bayous.
They can drive the rivers and channels at night with ease. Why would we
not send them in there???
Their flat-bottom boats and airboats would have done some good as far as
we can tell.
They know the water ways here better than the highways. They are damn
good shots, they are used to alligators.....and they have grit.....They are skilled
in this area.... more so than anyone unfamilar with these water ways!
Why weren't they given a chance???
Central Louisiana organized a bus carvan two nights ago - on our own - to
go and get people out of New Orleans...and they were turned back.????
TODAY they ordered our schools closed here and ordered every bus to come
and help out.
We didn't need to be ordered - we tried to do it a full day ahead of the
order.
The coordination of efforts and resouces is non-existent as best we can
tell. The citizens in general seem more effective (or at the very least AS
effective) as the alleged professionals with all the technology and machinery.
We know you are sending help to us - but they won't let the help we have
mustered GIT ER DONE.???
And while we wait for the outside world to arrive - and the rule pushers
to sanction our efforts ....people are dying.
Thank you for being frustrated with us.
Thank you for your outpouring and compassion.
Thank you for making noise.
We know we are not alone.
And we take extreme comfort in that fact.
We can give generously and completely cuz we know help IS on the way.
Until then the puzzles will continue I expect.
We don't' understand why the Red Cross is refusing to feed refugees
housed in homes all up and down the state.???
We are told they must be IN the shelter to have hand outs from the Red
Cross - and yet the shelters are full - they can't HANDLE the people.???
So hundreds of citizens are taking them in - and assistance is being
denied to those not in the shelters!!!!
The reason given for this - at least at our Red Cross office - is
because "regular citizens" might try and take food they are not entitled to - so they can only
feed those who are in their shelters.
OTHER agencies (not the Red Cross) are addressing that by simply asking
to see an ID verifying that the refugee is from a devastated area. The address
alone is proof they are from areas that no longer exist!
And even after it has been discussed with the Red Cross (that this
person can prove they are from a hard hit area) - still the Red Cross will not give them
food???
The Central Louisiana Food Bank is - tomorrow - opening the doors for my
group....finally (it will be five days after the fact).....finally they will get their
first bit of help from an institution, as opposed to individuals.
So if you are going to give money - I recommend giving it to agencies
who are actually getting the supplies to the needy. Some of the churches have
decided to help by opening their own kitchens as the rules and regulations are
simply not working in this particular disaster.
It might have worked in the past but not this time.
Give the money to your local church.
They will get it to us.
If it helps you - in this area the Methodists and Baptists have
definitely waived all the nonsense and cut through the red tape
and they are feeding people.
Period.
All that money raised from concerts and such didn't feed them tonight.
But lots of upstanding United States citizens did!!! I didn't witness it with my
own eyes but I have heard the Salvation Army is getting food
distributed and they are not worrying about requiring paperwork to get
it. They are feeding hungry people!! Period. Relief workers - whomever.
And I say thank you to them for that!!
It frustrates me a bit that for some reason the Red Cross - who is
getting MOST OF THE MEDIA COVERAGE seems the least responsive
for those of us in the out laying areas.
Which is not for one moment to say they are not going good things - I am
sure they are - but they can't seem to cover it all. So I would like the agencies
filling in the cracks to get recognized too!!!
The Red Cross is a private agency - I think it would be okay to spread
the wealth a bit.
Someone will have to explain to this frustrated individual and others
that have been exposed to the inept behavior by the responding agencies
that FEMA, MEMA, and LEMA all have conducted many table top drills
to write response plans so often that the plan is now a set of manuals bordering
on the size of a set of encyclopedias, which have been placed on their
computers and it will take weeks until each phase is put in place and signed off for.
Then we have FEMA rolled into The Department of Homeland Security and
the dollars being placed into the hands of local emergency response agencies is
used to prepare them for terrorist attacks.
Plain and simple we can only use authorized, certified, card carrying
responders trained in reading the manuals and table top exercises to remove a
cat stuck in a tall tree, how else would you expect them to respond when the
stuff really hits the fan. They are waiting for directions from the guy who
cannot find the page in the manual.
As they used to say; you can draw the horse's ass on paper, but you
cannot make it work!
God Bless those on the Gulf Coast, but please remember it can take place
anywhere.
It is time we begin to place the heat on our elected officials to clean
out the bureaucrats and place thinking people in the positions that have
our lives in their hands when things go bad.
Elizabeth
From Elizabeth's e-mail granting permission to use her article----
PLEASE thank the outside world for loving us so hard that we felt it in
areas so remote we never see strangers. That is a powerful heap of love
y'all are sending to us....and on the nights we were too tired to
think - it was the love and prayers from the other Americans that fueled our effort.
TRULY - God has looked down and Blessed us with the greatest of all
assets - Citizens that care and are not afraid to show it.
Elizabeth