The couple who checked in just before us had fled the West Bank of New Orleans the day before the hurricane and had been driving through Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi ever since. This disaster will be ongoing until the people at the top are relieved of their responsibilities."Īfter inquiring at several hotels, we finally found a room about 45 miles east of Jackson.
#The looter katrina full#
They blocked buses trying to get in, they refused trucks full of water, and they turned down assistance from people in this country and others. Paul Gaskin, who came from central Tennessee, said, "The government expressed their contempt for the victims when they said they should have heeded the warning to get out of the area. The volunteers spoke with compassion and anger. Family members who live south of I-20 interstate can help to relieve their anxiety by phoning one of the following numbers." Soldiers are desperate to know the welfare of their loved ones in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Flyers were posted with job possibilities-local people who were hiring plumbers, carpenters and electricians.Īnother flier posted on the entrance read: "Attention, families of Mississippi National Guard soldiers deployed to Iraq. People with empty apartments and houses had come by, offering permanent housing to people who wanted to stay in Jackson, promising to defer all rent until people found jobs. A man had driven down from Illinois with a carload of food-and then took a family of four back with him to live. Five fully loaded open-air trucks had arrived the day before from Indiana. Volunteers came from as far away as California. Red Cross volunteers were receiving dozens of unannounced deliveries every day. Relief efforts were in full swing at the Jackson Coliseum, where the biggest problem wasn't housing the evacuees, but getting piles of goods to outlying towns where the need is most desperate. No obvious crying, just tears and more tears rolling down their faces, and they had nowhere to go. What we really want to do is get in there and fight the fires, but we'll do whatever's needed."īob McCormack, who lives in Brooklyn said, "Seeing those little kids on the overpass, that's what motivated me. "Everybody wants to go down, everybody's volunteering. "We're here to pay everyone back," said Brian Clifford who works in Brooklyn with the Engine 231. Several of the men worked day and night at Ground Zero after September 11, 2001, and thought that Katrina was an even more massive human tragedy. The FDNY will require them to work an extra 120 hours during the coming year to make up for the lost time, or the time will come out of their vacation allowances. All of the firefighters were using their personal vacation time to help out with the disaster relief effort. The all-volunteer Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) were headed to Baton Rouge for three weeks. The urgent response to the hurricane disaster by 19 New York firefighters in the Jackson airport stood as a stark contrast to the apathy of the federal government. We saw a couple of trucks dragging generators and other supplies that clearly were headed for the disaster area. For example, we saw about five cars pulling trailers, with a makeshift sign announcing that it was for relief. It is a response to the realization that nothing was being done by national, state and local officials to bring help in a timely manner.Įvidence of grassroots relief was everywhere. On the other hand, we saw many examples of the kind of do-it-yourself relief that seems to have sprouted up everywhere. On the way to Jackson, we saw two military convoys, totaling about 18 small vehicles.
She told us that she had only left New Orleans a few weeks before, and shook her head as she pondered all the hardship that her friends and family were now suffering.Īs she was checking our receipt for the baby formula, diapers and feminine products that folks in Covington had requested, we told her jokingly: "You're not just going to let us walk off with this stuff?" Suddenly, she got a serious look, and whispered to us, "If it was my choice, I would."ġ p.m.
As we left the store with supplies for Louisiana (diapers, baby formula, etc.), we told her that we were delivering the stuff to Covington, Louisiana. An elderly white woman at the Walmart just south of Memphis, off I-55, was checking the receipts of people leaving the store.
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