Katrina Assistance
Mark, Bob, and Mike set out for the south. First stop was Alabama and from there we hit Mississippi. We assisted with communications and supply distribution.
I'm not really sure how to describe the things that happened there. It might as well have been another planet. Being in the wake of a disaster in the heart of the American poverty belt isn't something easily described. The people there are just plain different. Before Kanye West starts in on me, it was a predominately white area. That said, I saw some of the shittiest people ever there...as well as some of the nicest. One minute you see people trying to screw each other out of food (it didn't matter if they needed it or not, they wanted as much free stuff as they could get) and the next you hear about the family of 12 up the street living under a tarp who won't come get supplies because they think they have enough.
If you had told me I would actually yell at people coming to a supply depot to pick up food before I went, I would have called you crazy. But when you see one person digging through the bottom of a box looking for food and you see his neighbor making his third trip that day (changing shirts to avoid detection) you find yourself capable of many things.
Then on top of it all, you have a person from the county telling you what you can and cannot request. I was working for the county Emergency Operations Command. They were of the opinion that we could not use their radio networks to submit requests for things that the Red Cross could provide. God damn it, you look the man who just brought extra food he had at his house to share with others in the face and tell him you can't ask for soap. Look him in the face, and try to tell him you can't help him.
Here is our supply depot as it was when we arrived.
See those empty pallets? Watch someone walk around and pick at what's left. Watch one man turn up his nose at the MRE's and another try to find diapers for his baby. Barren as that picture seems, we did receive shipments periodically. We were never short of water, ice or food (even if only MRE's) while I was there. For whatever reason, there was also a MASSIVE quantity of........small white beans.
That, my friends, is the distribution center located in Dedeaux, Mississippi. It was based in a church and run by some locals with help from people from all over the country.
It was around 117°F, but it was never humid. Also, there were just absolute billions of these strange bugs. Harmless, but annoying... they coated everything.
Anyhoo, enough boring stuff. Here are some pictures.
There really wasn't much over waist high for a mile or so inland.
For anyone who reads this: never...EVER...send clothing or food. It takes longer and yields poor results compared to money. The Amerian Red Cross did some phenomenal work down there, as did the Salvation Army. The Red Cross would get you whatever you needed, whatever it took to make it happen. The Salvation Army was out serving hot meals to people out in the places nobody else would go. My choice from now on will be to give to the Red Cross.
They still need help folks.
