My Experience in Mississippi After Hurricane Katrina
I wrote this on September 26-29, 2005. Versions were subsequently published in the newsletter of the Venice Area Democratic Club, the Democratic Times (Newsletter of the Sarasota County, Florida Democratic Executive Committee), and the newsletter of the Venice Interfaith Community Association.
I served for three weeks in September with the American Red Cross in Meridian, Mississippi. I found much of the experience uplifting due not only to the dedicated spirit of the volunteers but also the patience and good nature of Katrina’s victims.
Yes, there were instances where storm victims—people who had lost both homes and jobs and then spent days standing in lines in the heat and rain trying to apply for financial assistance—became angry. Yes, we were sometimes called racists. Yes, we uncovered instances that seemed like attempts by desperate people to defraud the system out of a few hundred extra dollars of relief money. But, I thought that most victims and volunteers alike were extremely civil under the circumstances, and there were a lot of hugs and “thank you-s” all around.
There was also a lot of sadness and grief. Hundreds of thousands of people lost not only their homes and life’s possessions but also their jobs. In many cases those jobs won’t be coming back. In virtually all cases the recovery will take many years.
It was heartbreaking to encounter families—black, white, Hispanic, long-term poor and formerly middle class—who didn’t even have gasoline money. It was heartbreaking to hear of missing family members. It was heartbreaking to just sit and listen to a sweet grandmother recount all of the keepsakes that she lost with her home. It was especially heartbreaking that the one-time financial assistance available from the Red Cross was so small (a few hundred dollars up to about $1500 for a large family). Hopefully, FEMA and SBA and emergency food stamps and other funding will be forthcoming.
My group of Red Cross volunteers slept on the floor of a gym at First Baptist Church of Meridian, were fed our meals by the North Carolina Baptists, and worked outdoors 10-14 hours per day. Our service center was located in the Jubilee Mennonite Church. We provided food, the Baptists cooked it, and we delivered and served it. In our three weeks we served 300,000 meals, sheltered about 3,000 people and issued about 3,000 financial assistance checks. Other volunteer organizations provided medical assistance and housing placement. Overall, I’m told that this relief effort has been nearly 10 times as large as any previous Red Cross disaster response.
I served several functions including dispensing food from vans, delivering food to shelters, damage assessment and crowd care at the Red Cross Service Center. I particularly found satisfaction in the “crowd care” function. In that, we provided water, food, shelter, toilets, trash removal and security for long outdoor lines of applicants for financial aid.
We were often the first point of Red Cross contact for clients, explaining the basic requirements for financial assistance, and directing them to medical and counseling services as necessary. We had to call for an ambulance as often as seven times per day. I shared responsibility with another volunteer for maintaining order and controlling entry to the facility, which included the unpleasant task of cutting the line and sending away those who could not be serviced in a given day.
Many victims were coming from Louisiana and south Mississippi to us in Meridian, apparently because they were unable to get assistance in their home areas. They said that, while Red Cross shelters and food service were available further south, the financial service centers there had thousands of people in line and some had to close because of violence. I can’t confirm this, but I can say that our crowds in Meridian weren’t diminishing by the time I left, and only a small percentage was from the Meridian area.
As an increasingly committed pacifist I have to say that the National Guard, Meridian Police and a private security firm were invaluable to our efforts. In particular, the National Guard—a mostly black unit from just south of Meridian—were wonderful. They were sensitive and caring with the storm victims, and just their presence brought a certain level of calm and restraint. This is the kind of work the National Guard was intended for. I felt very sorry for them when they were told that they could no longer carry their M-16s, leaving them vulnerable on their overnight shifts.
I talked to more military personnel on this trip than I’m used to, and the conversations did nothing to ease my concerns regarding the Iraq War, the prospects for any kind of positive outcome or how our troops have been cared for over there.
I guess another “political” point would be to mention that I never saw a FEMA person during my three weeks in Mississippi. I confess that someone claiming to be from FEMA left a non-working number on my voicemail, and a few victims from the Gulf Coast said that FEMA had been in their neighborhoods. For the most part, though, victims were just trying to get through to the FEMA toll-free number to start the application process. Of course, I was pretty far inland from the catastrophic damage, but the absence of FEMA seemed to be in contrast to our experience in Florida last year.
We were all struck by the poverty of rural Mississippi and Louisiana. We encountered many people whose reading and writing skills were minimal, who lacked teeth and who lived in miserable homes and trailers. These people were in bad shape before Katrina.
But, not all of our “clients” were poor—at least not before the storms. Some of the most bewildered had always had businesses and jobs, and had never asked others for anything.
Still, I don’t think many of the volunteers went away with a sense of despair. In fact, a silver lining of this event is the way individual volunteers and volunteer organizations jumped into the breech. Of course, the Red Cross. And, the faith community. In Meridian, the Baptists, Mennonites, Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians and many others threw open their doors and offered their members as workers to house, feed and console Katrina’s victims.
In the United States it is always the faith and service organizations that stay for the hard, long-term work of dealing with insurance companies and government agencies and rebuilding homes and lives. As Democrats I hope we can increasingly build bridges to these organizations that should be our natural allies on issues of peace and social justice.
This horrible event has revealed domestic poverty and inadequate healthcare and education that remain a national shame. It has also shined the clear light of day on the extent to which the Iraq War has robbed our national treasury and depleted our ability to care for our own people. Hopefully, something good can come from this.
Copyright 2005 by Nelson E. Hay
I served for three weeks in September with the American Red Cross in Meridian, Mississippi. I found much of the experience uplifting due not only to the dedicated spirit of the volunteers but also the patience and good nature of Katrina’s victims.
Yes, there were instances where storm victims—people who had lost both homes and jobs and then spent days standing in lines in the heat and rain trying to apply for financial assistance—became angry. Yes, we were sometimes called racists. Yes, we uncovered instances that seemed like attempts by desperate people to defraud the system out of a few hundred extra dollars of relief money. But, I thought that most victims and volunteers alike were extremely civil under the circumstances, and there were a lot of hugs and “thank you-s” all around.
There was also a lot of sadness and grief. Hundreds of thousands of people lost not only their homes and life’s possessions but also their jobs. In many cases those jobs won’t be coming back. In virtually all cases the recovery will take many years.
It was heartbreaking to encounter families—black, white, Hispanic, long-term poor and formerly middle class—who didn’t even have gasoline money. It was heartbreaking to hear of missing family members. It was heartbreaking to just sit and listen to a sweet grandmother recount all of the keepsakes that she lost with her home. It was especially heartbreaking that the one-time financial assistance available from the Red Cross was so small (a few hundred dollars up to about $1500 for a large family). Hopefully, FEMA and SBA and emergency food stamps and other funding will be forthcoming.
My group of Red Cross volunteers slept on the floor of a gym at First Baptist Church of Meridian, were fed our meals by the North Carolina Baptists, and worked outdoors 10-14 hours per day. Our service center was located in the Jubilee Mennonite Church. We provided food, the Baptists cooked it, and we delivered and served it. In our three weeks we served 300,000 meals, sheltered about 3,000 people and issued about 3,000 financial assistance checks. Other volunteer organizations provided medical assistance and housing placement. Overall, I’m told that this relief effort has been nearly 10 times as large as any previous Red Cross disaster response.
I served several functions including dispensing food from vans, delivering food to shelters, damage assessment and crowd care at the Red Cross Service Center. I particularly found satisfaction in the “crowd care” function. In that, we provided water, food, shelter, toilets, trash removal and security for long outdoor lines of applicants for financial aid.
We were often the first point of Red Cross contact for clients, explaining the basic requirements for financial assistance, and directing them to medical and counseling services as necessary. We had to call for an ambulance as often as seven times per day. I shared responsibility with another volunteer for maintaining order and controlling entry to the facility, which included the unpleasant task of cutting the line and sending away those who could not be serviced in a given day.
Many victims were coming from Louisiana and south Mississippi to us in Meridian, apparently because they were unable to get assistance in their home areas. They said that, while Red Cross shelters and food service were available further south, the financial service centers there had thousands of people in line and some had to close because of violence. I can’t confirm this, but I can say that our crowds in Meridian weren’t diminishing by the time I left, and only a small percentage was from the Meridian area.
As an increasingly committed pacifist I have to say that the National Guard, Meridian Police and a private security firm were invaluable to our efforts. In particular, the National Guard—a mostly black unit from just south of Meridian—were wonderful. They were sensitive and caring with the storm victims, and just their presence brought a certain level of calm and restraint. This is the kind of work the National Guard was intended for. I felt very sorry for them when they were told that they could no longer carry their M-16s, leaving them vulnerable on their overnight shifts.
I talked to more military personnel on this trip than I’m used to, and the conversations did nothing to ease my concerns regarding the Iraq War, the prospects for any kind of positive outcome or how our troops have been cared for over there.
I guess another “political” point would be to mention that I never saw a FEMA person during my three weeks in Mississippi. I confess that someone claiming to be from FEMA left a non-working number on my voicemail, and a few victims from the Gulf Coast said that FEMA had been in their neighborhoods. For the most part, though, victims were just trying to get through to the FEMA toll-free number to start the application process. Of course, I was pretty far inland from the catastrophic damage, but the absence of FEMA seemed to be in contrast to our experience in Florida last year.
We were all struck by the poverty of rural Mississippi and Louisiana. We encountered many people whose reading and writing skills were minimal, who lacked teeth and who lived in miserable homes and trailers. These people were in bad shape before Katrina.
But, not all of our “clients” were poor—at least not before the storms. Some of the most bewildered had always had businesses and jobs, and had never asked others for anything.
Still, I don’t think many of the volunteers went away with a sense of despair. In fact, a silver lining of this event is the way individual volunteers and volunteer organizations jumped into the breech. Of course, the Red Cross. And, the faith community. In Meridian, the Baptists, Mennonites, Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians and many others threw open their doors and offered their members as workers to house, feed and console Katrina’s victims.
In the United States it is always the faith and service organizations that stay for the hard, long-term work of dealing with insurance companies and government agencies and rebuilding homes and lives. As Democrats I hope we can increasingly build bridges to these organizations that should be our natural allies on issues of peace and social justice.
This horrible event has revealed domestic poverty and inadequate healthcare and education that remain a national shame. It has also shined the clear light of day on the extent to which the Iraq War has robbed our national treasury and depleted our ability to care for our own people. Hopefully, something good can come from this.
Copyright 2005 by Nelson E. Hay
posted by Nelson Hay | 10:16 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home