Inspired by
LuckyDog's diary on Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent requests for additional diaries on our experiences, I thought I'd post my first diary on Daily Kos.
I wrote the following personal diary entry on September 9. I'm government help. This was my experience dealing with the evacuees of New Orleans in the wake of the storm.
Diary Entry September 9, 2005
This was my day today:
I worked with Katrina evacuees today. On Monday, 397 evacuees were flown to RDU airport and brought to the former Nortel training facility in west Raleigh to be housed. On Saturday, I got a call from my boss to do some preliminary work for their eventual arrival. The police at the facility were told they'd be there between 1 a.m and 4 a.m. on Sunday morning. That window kept moving and finally got pushed back to Monday.
I arrived at the facility this morning and got a quick briefing from the a Wake County department head. I'd be working for her and helping her office with whatever they needed.
The down and dirty: 397 folks ranging from age two to age 97. Three planeloads of people arrived and two of them were from New Orleans. No one seemed to know where the other plane was from. The first floor of the facility was open to everyone. Offices were being used to hold temporary quarters for employment security commission folks, Red Cross workers, hospital workers, grief counselors, Wake County Public School workers, and everything in between. The most disorganized, confused angry office? The one housing the FEMA folks.
Of the 397 there, I saw three white people and five hispanic people. The rest were black. The black folks were from Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, Nigeria and the US. My job was to be an escort for media reps working on their stories and I'd be fielding a few calls and helping return calls that were coming in from all over.
I am a former reporter and naturally, I fell right back into reporter mode on my first task. I ended up asking more questions than the print reporter I was escorting and she had to pull me aside and tell me to back off (she was asking the wrong questions....). I kept my mouth shut and hung back a little ways.
They had set up portable showers for the "intake." Apparently, they were expecting a few more people to show up. The intake was being done by workers from a nearby hospital. The lead medic told his crew, "I know a lot of you have military experience, but remember: These people don't know where they are. They just got off the plane and we have to be very careful with them."
When you arrived at the facility, you were asked to step over to the showers. Men and women had different facilities, naturally. If your clothes were soiled or too dirty to wear, you were asked to place them in a plastic bag for disposal. You were given a bar of soap and a towel. Hose yourself off and get dry. You were given a one-piece jumpsuit (blue, not an orange one) and some slippers.
Next, you enter the facility and you'd get an ID badge. It had your name, the location of the facility (901 Corporation PKWY/Raleigh) and your picture on it. It had a little lanyard, so you could wear it around your neck. You had to wear it at all times. If you needed clothes, there was a room with new clothes that Wake County had and some donated clothes from the Salvation Army. You also got a room assignment for you to sleep. The training facilities upstairs had been converted to "dorms" for people. They tried to match people up, so families slept together with other families and people were sorted by age and sex. There were cots and blankets and pillows for people.
I started talking to the evacuees and introducing myself...and I fell in love with everyone. These were the nicest people you'd ever want to be around in your life. Everyone had one of two names: "Brother" or "sister." I was expecting a lot of anger and really, I didn't see any. Everyone I spoke with responded with a smile. Everyone asked me how I was doing.
The first man I met was an Austrailian named Steven Hose. A tall man in his 30s with a long pony tail, a scraggly beard and a "Jagermeister" tattoo on his forearm, he had wandered into New Orleans, liked the seediness of the town and found work in the French Quarter working at a strip club doing a little of everything. Bouncer, bartender, doorman, handyman. When the storm hit, he lost everything...including his immigration papers. His one concern was trying to get a message to his mom and dad that he was okay. At the time, there wasn't a phone bank with international dialing access set up, so I took his information and promised I'd try and call for him.
Next, I met a woman from Time Warner Cable who was hellbent and determined to help someone (goddammit). She had called FEMA (not knowing who to call) and introduced herself, said she was a representative from TWC and she wanted to help. The FEMA operator said, "Great. Lower my cable bill." She got in her car and drove over and was looking for a family to help. I got her into the facility past the police officers and she found a couple pretty quickly. Her church had pooled their money and bought a BUNCH of $100 gift cards for Target and Wal-Mart. She drove the several people over to Target to get some toiletries and some clothes....but you know what one of the people she escorted, a woman who had lost EVERYTHING she ever owned did with her card?? She used her $100 gift card to buy stuff for everyone else. She bought a bunch of toys for the kids and clothes for the collection table. "I got my ass covered. I don' need no mo'."
After finally realizing that some people just weren't going anywhere without their pets, workers started to make some accomodations for people with dogs and cats. I met a man who smuggled a mini-pinscher in a suitcase. He was sprawled out on a cot with this TEENY little thing curled up in a ball between his legs. I introduced myself. He was in his 70s with a full head of white hair and a great white beard that was shocking in contrast to his dark skin. In a cajun accent as thick as Justin Wilson's belly, he explained, "Ah couldn't leave dis heeyah little one anymo than I could have leff my chil'ren."
The local animal shelter and humane society set up a facility behind the place for people who had animals as well. They had a couple of cats and about a dozen dogs. Most of them were in pretty good shape, but there was one dog that had blisters on his paws from walking in the water. Volunteers from the North Carolina State University vet school were checking them out and said the blisters weren't a serious problem and would heal with some salve. There was a schnauser (schnauzer?) that had even saved his owner when the floodwaters came. Once the water came in the first floor, his barks woke everyone up and let them know it was time to leave.
Around 11:30 a.m., I headed over to the cafeteria. I wanted to eat so I could go back to work for all the TV stations that were doing their noon live shots from the plant. The cafeteria was empty so I found a worker and explained my situation. Any chance you could find something for me? This woman put her hands on her hips and indignantly said, "HELLLL NO! BACK OF THE LINE!!!" Her co-worker pointed out that, well...I was the line. They both laughed and disappeared in the back. When they came back, they had a plate full of fries, a burger and some chicken fingers. I sat down at a table beside a couple of old cuban men playing cards. They both smiled, welcomed me, and when I started to eat, they pointed out how good the food had been at breakfast. It was pretty tasty. The executive chef for the cafeteria wandered by and I thanked him for the food.
"EVERYONE's gonna eat here. I don't have everything I need to do it right, but EVERYONE's gonna eat. These aren't refugees! These are Americans and Americans are going to eat!"
Everyone I spoke with about the response from the federal government wasn't surprised by the delay. One lady told me, "You're a fool if you are waiting for George Bush to rescue some poor black folks."
After lunch, I helped coordinate the live shots and then I went over to the employment security commission office. A number of local businesses had offered to get people jobs and even help them find places to stay and rides to work. Several people were explaining their skills and the ones who got jobs seemed fine with the idea of staying in Raleigh. One man told me that a family in Wake Forest had taken in 20 folks in one house.
After that, I went to the FEMA line. It was actually the FEMA/HUD/DMV and VA line. The first thing they needed to do was get people some official identification. The ID badges we made for them weren't going to be much good when they needed to cash a check.
Initially, they passed out numbers and would call people over an intercom. "Numbers 1-25 can now visit the FEMA office." But then buses started arriving. Turns out that Wal-Mart was giving away $100 gift cards too and had chartered buses to take people to a store so they could get supplies. One little old lady wearing a "NEW ORLEANS!!" hat kept asking me, "Is this the bus that takes people to Wal-Mart?" At some point, people realized that FEMA was more important than Wal-Mart...so they didn't want to get out of line. And then people realized that the buses going to Wal-Mart weren't going to be going all day...and then people returning from Wal-Mart figured they had a right to be in line.
Argh.
I quickly called the Joint Operations Office and told them what was going on. They quickly made arrangements for another day of Wal-Mart trips for the rest of the people (Wal-Mart had assumed that everyone had gotten a chance to go). How they are going to figure out who went today and who gets to go tomorrow ought to be interesting. Next, the number system for the FEMA line was abandoned. Next in line was next in line. Arguments were quickly settled though...not by cops or workers, but by the evacuees themselves. "Calm down, brother....ain't like you got somewhere to be."
There was an 80-year-old woman in line who couldn't stand for very long. A young lady who had lived in the Ninth Ward asked me if I'd get a chair. We both took turns moving the chair down the line as it advanced. We started talking about politics. I gave my theory that the feds were being as inefficient as they possibly could so they could finally throw up their hands and say, "Fuck it. Just scrap the system." I told my stories about going through Hurricanes Fran and Floyd. The young lady and the old lady told me their hurricane stories as well. The old lady had been at a nursing home and the nuns, she said, split once the floodwaters came. She said she watched one lady just give up and die, choosing to drown rather than try and escape. At this point, she started to cry and we tried to comfort her. I mentioned that there were some grief counselors here and she ought to talk to them.
"I don't have time for grief," she said. She said she had just lost everything. She had lived in New Orleans her whole life. All of her family had lived there their entire life. Her friends and community and church were there and now it was gone.
Then she got pissed.
"God's going to get George Bush. He's got to."
I personally don't believe in God, however, if there IS one, I'd like to second her motion.
That was the end of my shift and it was time for me to go. As I was leaving, I bumped into my Australian friend. An international line was set up and he had gotten through to his mother and father. He had a note that he was getting ready to give to someone to hand to me.
"Tell the man from the City that I talked to my mom and dad and I'm alright."
Other things that stuck out from yesterday:
I mentioned seeing three white folks. One was the Austrailian, another was a young college student. A Red Cross volunteer was taking him around trying to find some help for him. When she found me, I thought she was taking Harry Connick, Jr. around. He had the same drawl and the same handsome features.
He was a community college student in New Orleans and was wondering if he could enroll in a college here. I asked him what college he wanted to attend and he said, "I'd really love to go to either Virginia or Virginia Tech."
Okay...but do you realize you are in North Carolina?
He didn't. That's when I started to realize the level of disconnect that was going on with these people. In many rural parts of the south, you have plenty of folks who NEVER travel more than 30 miles from the spot where they were born. Just imagine...you live in New Orleans. Your family is here. Your friends are here. You don't travel. Your entire community is here. Everything you own is here.
Suddenly, that's all gone. Your friends and family are either dead, stranded or scattered. You LITERALLY get plucked out of a bowl of shit and put on a plane. Next thing you know, "Welcome to North Carolina!" Or Massachusetts or Oregon or Salt Lake City, Utah.
I called the local community college for this guy and got him a name and a number to call. It turned out that he never graduated high school, so the Red Cross worker and I urged him to use this time to go ahead and get his GED. It shouldn't be a problem for him and it wouldn't take any time. Then we pointed him towards the office where people were offering evacuees jobs. They'd probably have something for him that would tide him over until he could get everything settled with school.
The other white guy was a man who was a little odd. He had one of those hats where the brim comes up and snaps on the side. He also carried around luggage, which was strange. He had a little travel case with rollers and it had two shopping bags bungee-corded to it. He took it with him everywhere. I assume he was worried about it getting stolen.
Other people who made an impression....
A couple from Nigeria who had come to the US on vacation. They had saved and saved so they could see America and ended up getting stranded in New Orleans when their flight home got cancelled. They lost everything they brought with them. Money, tickets, passports, clothes...they were also really worried about their people back home fretting over them. Immigration officials were supposed to come today (Thursday) and help them out. I imagine the airlines would be willing to cut them some slack on the lost tickets.
A beautiful young woman from Jamaica who had a head full of dreads bundled up in one of those white, pillowcase-looking thingies. She had a young daughter (equally gorgeous) of about seven that was following her around. She had been a maid in a hotel and didn't own a TV or have access to the news. She didn't even know about the hurricane until it was on top of her. She went to work and it started to rain. Then it rained harder and harder and then it flooded and the next thing you know, the city is being destroyed. Fortunately, she brought her daughter to work that day and the kid was playing in the back of the hotel when everything went down. She had no way of getting home and her daughter would have had no way to get to her.
One more pet story, a guy came in that was in pretty bad shape and he had a Sheltie with him. This guy really needed to go to the hospital, but he would NOT allow anyone to seperate him from his dog. Apparently, he had been a pretty tough person to evacuate until they told him he could bring the dog. The medics tried to explain that they had shelters ON SITE for animals and his pooch would be taken care of. Finally, a volunteer from Wake County came over and told him to hand him the leash and he would personally look after the dog. He'll take him home with him and he'll walk him and his family will love on him and he SWORE that he'd do right by the dog. Not only that, when this guy got out of the hospital, he promised that the first thing he'd see when they brought him back was his Sheltie. Yesterday, the guy got out of the hospital and I watched the Wake Co. worker walk the dog over to the ambulance and held him up. Sure enough, when they opened the doors, the first thing this guy saw was his buddy.
Agencies that deserve a shout-out (that I normally wouldn't hail):
The Southern Baptist Convention sent a mobile facility down for dental screening. There's an article in this week's New Yorker about how poor people often consider dental health care to be a luxury and let it go. So they lose their teeth...and then they can't eat fruits and veggies and it just snowballs on them.
Wal-Mart - yes, corporate evil...but they were really great with the gift cards and they do deserve thanks for that. I understand their CEO has promised a CONSIDERABLE response from the company.