Saturday, December 10, 2005
Hurricane Katrina Relief Volunteering
Pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyleyost/sets/1491660/
Hello all!
As you most likely know, I am currently in Biloxi, MS helping a grassroots volunteer organization with hurricane recovery efforts. I typically head off on relatively spontaneous trips when a work project ends and I don't have another one lined up to immediately follow, but this time instead of heading over to Europe to visit a friend (don't worry, Amy, I'll visit eventually....) or to Tucson to train (and yes, Chuck, also to visit a friend) I thought I would try something a little less selfish. After a short bit of research I uncovered Hands On USA (http://www.handsonusa.org/), a volunteer organization that has set up shop in Biloxi. Unlike other organizations like the Red Cross or Salvation Army, this group doesn't require any formalized training or much at all in the way of planning. "Just give us a days notice" they told me. That's my kind of planning ahead, so down I went.
I've only been here three days, but already I'm blown away by what I've seen and experienced. Although the hurricane happened over three months ago, it looks as if it could just have easily happened last week. Destroyed houses are everywhere, crushed, overturned cars are everywhere, large boats sit in fields, the casino barges sit on dry land, it's impossible to navigate by car as virtually all street signs have been blown down, multiple square blocks of formerly residential areas are nothing but rubble. It's absolutely mind-blowing and the scope is so large that pictures simply cannot convey the extent of the devastation. At times I take it all in and think how cool it is to see all of it, as if this were another journey of mine to Africa or the Galapagos or Australia, but then I realize that this is not some cool adventure, and this is America not Sudan, and people's lives have been destroyed and an entire region of the country is hurting in a bad way.
Hands On USA does a little bit of everything; whatever needs are out there in the community that can be staffed by untrained volunteers they are willing to accept as a project. This means that there are opportunities to work at distribution centers handing out supplies, at the Humane Society walking stranded dogs, at the Community Center playing with kids, delivering supplies and medicine to people who are unable to get to distribution centers, and so on. But, by far the largest amount of work to do, and what the majority of the volunteers here are doing is physical reconstruction work. OK, usually it's more like physical destruction work. Gutting houses, tarping roofs, building wheelchair ramps for the FEMA trailers residents are gradually receiving, de-molding interiors, tree removal, and clearing the interiors of houses of everything the person used to own. It's very hard work and it is endless. Amazingly, there seem to be few other charity organizations doing similar work, and the area certainly is not crawling with paid contractors to handle the supply. Why, I do not know, and perhaps I am wrong as this is only my impression, but I am certainly not wrong in that this is over three months old and there is still an endless supply of houses waiting to be cleaned out, gutted, de-molded, and then reconstructed. It seems to me like this area has been killed and then put on pause. Most residents have moved away, and rebuilding exists, but not nearly on the scale expected for the amount of destruction that exists. Currently HandsOnUSA has only 50 people volunteering (around Thanksgiving they were up at 130 and large number are expected in the coming weeks), yet I see other HOUSA teams more than any other charity organization down here. We're working in the poorest county in the poorest state in the country, and 75% of the people did not have flood insurance, so they are quite appreciative to have the free labor. The process we handle for a house typically takes a team of 6-8 about 2-3 days, and that's to remove all appliances (never open the fridge!) and belongings, completely gut the house (remove drywall, molding, window/door frames, ....), and then de-mold (nasty - I have yet to do this), and contractor teams charge about $6-8000 for this work.
So far, I've been involved mostly with clearing out a house and gutting a house. For half of one day I worked at the Salvation Army warehouse, essentially sorting used clothes. The amount of supplies in this warehouse is mind-boggling, but what I'm unsure of is how effectively the supplies get from the warehouse to the people in need. Suffice it to say, though, if you've donated to Salvation Army, it very likely has not been discarded! The day (today) spent gutting a house was dirty, hard work. Being tall was definitely a hindrance for this one, as I got the privilege of clearing all the drywall near the ceiling, and a day of wielding a crowbar over your head will leave you with exhausted arms - believe me! Clearing a house of all belongings was difficult as well, but also the most emotional experience I've had yet. The owner was an 80ish man with cancer, and on the "scouting" mission the previous day he had supposedly gone through with one of our volunteers and identified everything to be salvaged, so we had free reign to destroy and discard to our hearts content. He had had over 15 feet of water in the house (one floor + attic), so everything was a total loss. We rolled through with destruction on the mind and cleared out all appliances and furniture and started shoveling everything else (books, kitchen stuff, toys, everything). I came across his deceased wife's wedding dress and a bag containing literally hundreds of soggy love letters she had written him during the Korean War. I went out to his FEMA trailer in the yard to ask if he wanted to try and salvage them and he was so thankful I had uncovered them.
This is definitely no sight-seeing vacation. The work is hard and we work a long day. I camp and am up around 6:30, and then eat a large breakfast, work a full morning, eat an Army MRE for lunch, and then an afternoon of work. Dinner is around 7, and people socialize a bit but generally are to sleep by 10:30 or so. The demographic is pretty interesting. Definitely the very liberal, granola, save-the-world crowd that you'd expect in this environment, but I'm surprised by the number of folks who are here more or less permanently. I'd say a good 50+% of the folks are recent college grads who have not yet started upon a career path with conviction, so this is an expense-free, rewarding place to live and work and be able to hang out with your peers. Then there are a large number of older (50+) folks, many of whom have a relevant skill (MD, RN, carpenter, contractor, plumber, .....). Honestly, I bet I'm the only person here currently between 26 and 44, and in many ways I feel a bit like the odd man out. It's kind of similar to the Africa trip; I don't really get along with the young, kind of immature group, and I don't have much in common with the senior crowd. Like Africa, though, I've found myself gravitating more towards the older crowd, God, how sad.... :)
I'm often asked why I'm here, and the stock answer is that I wanted to help others and experience something unique myself. But, I'm not sure of the real answer. Most of my charity in recent years has simply been donating money, and I do feel like that's just been taking the easy way out to make myself feel like I'm doing something. But, truly, if my sole goal was to make a difference down here then I should be camped outside of Mike Saylor's house and others I know with money and harassing them until I've come up with $5M or something truly substantial. The scope of what's happened down here is so massive, that my personal effort is completely irrelevant in the scheme of it. Yes, it's nice to see an old man smile and thank me profusely when I uncover some 50 year old letters from his wife, but realistically, I think I'm here for the personal experience and to see first-hand a disaster area, but if I can do that in a mutually beneficial way then fine.
Anyway, here are some pictures I have taken. I planned to add meaningful names and descriptions to them, but I need sleep. All of these pictures except 5 or 6 were taken on a "run" I took on the road along the coast. For the most part these homes were large, antebellum homes, and they took incredible damage being right on the water, but they are mostly still standing. The real awe-inspiring views I have yet to photograph, and that's of entire blocks of shanty wood-frame homes that are nothing but rubble.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyleyost/sets/1491660/
Take care,
Kyle
------------------------
Hello again. I am back in DC, safe and mostly sound. I've added more pictures and added descriptions to the pictures in my flickr album at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyleyost/sets/1491660/
I spent a bit less than two weeks down in Biloxi, MS, and all told it was a very rewarding and definitely an eye-opening experience. As I had hoped, I was able to perform a wide variety of volunteering tasks, and aside from a large chunk of drywall that fell from the ceiling and caught me square in the head, I return unscathed. My tasks included working at the Salvation Army regional warehouse sorting and organizing, working at a local distribution center handing out supplies to residents, walking dogs and cleaning pens at the Humane Society (and trying my best to find someone who would adopt a dog so I could bring one home with me....), helping to remove fallen trees from houses, learning to shingle roofs and helping repair the destroyed roof at our home facility. But, mostly I worked on the "Interiors" crew clearing debris from houses and gutting them until only a skeleton of support studs remain. In fact, I became so adept at this task of destruction that I actually became a crew chief for Interiors, at which point I knew it was time to get heading on home before they became too dependent on me. Oh, and of course, I (and 2 others) did cook dinner for 80 one night. Now, that is a lot of work!
So, what were my impressions? Well, first that the magnitude and scope of the devastation is so vast that it will take years to rebuild in the best of scenarios. Even if the local and federal governments were efficient and effective and money were plentiful and wisely allocated, the hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses destroyed over several hundred miles of coastline would take years to rebuild. That's the best case and that clearly is not what's occuring. I was struck by how the area we were working in, East Biloxi, is essentially a ghost town and very little work is being done. There is activity along the coastline where the casinos and the big hotels and the large, historic homes are located, but nothing in the poorer areas of town. I spent a day and traveled to New Orleans (about 90 miles west) and the difference was obvious. The French Quarter is rebuilt and reopened and more or less looks and feels as if nothing ever happened (I posted some photos of Bourbon St.). But, even in the poorer, more heavily flooded areas of town (I was not allowed in the just reopened Lower 9th Ward), where virtually every house needs to be gutted and rebuilt, the difference between the rebuilding effort in New Orleans vs Biloxi/Gulfport is blindingly apparent. In New Orleans there are contractors and teams of laborers and pickup trucks full of tools and white contractor vans everywhere. The streets are full of activity of houses being gutted or de-molded or in various stages of being rebuilt. Police cars are driving around. Back in Mississippi nothing is happening, at least in our area of Biloxi, which was the hardest hit area. The mayor of New Orleans and governor of Louisiana, while they are fools who do little other than put their feet in their mouth, have at least been vocal fools and have drawn attention and money to New Orleans. I don't know who's to blame for the lack of activity in Biloxi/Gulfport, but you certainly don't hear of a mayor or governor or congressman yelling and screaming bloody murder that there's no money for rebuilding and no contractors and no progress. Meanwhile the casinos are rebuilding and shortly will be poised to scoop up large tracts of formerly residential land on the cheap. That's my impression, at least.
One thing I had hoped to have the opportunity to do more of than I did was to interact with members of the community. When gutting interiors sometime the owner of the house would be on site living in a FEMA trailer, but even that did not allow for much interaction. However, one of the more meaningful days I had was the day I worked at a distribution center in the heart of East Biloxi handing out supplies to residents. Amazingly, with all the resources that Salvation Army and Red Cross have to bear, this distribution center, which shares half of the Biloxi Community Center with FEMA loan assistance, was started and is completely run by one guy, David Romero. He had some ties to the area, either an ex-girlfriend or a gambling problem or something, but regardless he came down shortly after the storm and hasn't left. This has become the primary distribution center for supplies for Biloxi, and David has received a fair amount of national attention (including a visit from Laura Bush) so he is receiving a decent supply of donations. HandsOnUSA offers up people to help him with unloading trucks, finding a way to fit whatever random stuff is donated into the small area of the center that he has allocated to this, and keeping the shelves full and organized as the residents scramble and search for supplies. I did this work one day and it was quite rewarding and I got the opportunity to speak to a number of residents about their experiences. Go check out http://www.midwesthelp.org/ to read about David Romero, and he's also got a photo gallery with some pretty awesome shots. I've also added some pictures to my flickr album of the center and the day there.
Now I'm home, so what now? Unfortunately Katrina is out of the public's eye and the Bush administration is content to keep it that way so as not to remind the public of the response fiasco. The Salvation Army and Red Cross are each lessening their presences there in the coming months, despite the fact that people are stilling living in tents, in and under abandoned homes, or entire extended families are crammed into a relatives home that has power and water. I learned while down there, and particularly from working at the distribution center, that some supplies are plentiful (bottled water, toiletries, diapers) but others are in great demand. Particulary canned food, dog/cat food and warm clothing. Blankets, sleeping bags, coats, sweaters, long pants are in huge demand. I'm not going to send heavy canned foods down there, but I do intend to collect as much warm clothing as possible and send it directly to David Romero's distribution center. If you have any warm clothing or blankets you would like to add to my shipment, please let me know. Having worked at the center, I can tell you with great confidence that the packages will be opened, followed by great glee by the volunteers at the contents. Then they will immediately be placed on the clothing tables and scooped up by residents within minutes. While it is certainly worthy to give to Salvation Army and Goodwill, I'm quite certain the turnaround time to getting the items to the people who need them is quite a bit longer.
In addition to sending clothing and blankets and such to David's group, there is lots more I would like to do, and I pass along some of the opportunities to you. Contact me if there is interest and I will coordinate with you.
First of all, while working at the distribution center I collected information on families that came through with young children. I've got info on 7-8 families and a total of 20 or so children ranging in age from weeks to 13 or so, and I thought it would be sad if they received no gifts for Christmas. If you want to cover a whole family or just throw in a toy or ball or doll into the pot for me to divy up across families, let me know because Christmas is approaching and delivery service is questionable down there so I may have to send to HOUSA and ask them to try and hand-deliver, so I'd like to get stuff out by this weekend.
Finally, there are plenty of opportunities through other organizations to provide help from afar. I asked around at HOUSA and came up with the following list of organizations they endorse. If you are interested in any of these, let me know and I will give you the contact information that I have.
Mercy Ships: Sponsor a Home Rebuilding - organization provides volunteer labor to rebuild homes, however the cost of materials must be covered by donations. $4000 covers full sponsorship of complete rebuilding of a home.
Adopt a Family - http://www.family-to-family.org/
The local Center for Prevention of Child Abuse manages an adopt a family and annual sponsorship program. I don't see it on the website http://www.mscpca.com/, however.
-Kyle
Follow-up:
Hello again. I apologize once again for the mass email. This will be the last, I promise.
I want to thank everyone who "adopted" a family and covered their Christmas gifts. You have made the holiday season for 9 families and almost 30 children! I also want to thank everyone who gave me clothes and/or gear or sent directly to Biloxi. If you live in the DC area and have warm clothes or blankets or camping gear that you don't use and want to give, I lucked out and found someone who is driving down to Biloxi on Friday morning and has a pickup truck, so I can avoid the cost of shipping. We just need to get together to get me the stuff by tomorrow evening if you do have you'd like to donate.
Finally, if you have stuff and want to send directly, here is the mailing address for the distribution center:
Biloxi Community Center c/o David Romero
591 Howard Avenue
Biloxi, MS 39530
Be sure to make it obvious that it is for David Romero, as his group shares the building with FEMA and supposedly mislabeled or ambiguous packages have languished unopened on the other half of the building.
Thanks again everyone! Happy Holidays!
-Kyle
Hello all!
As you most likely know, I am currently in Biloxi, MS helping a grassroots volunteer organization with hurricane recovery efforts. I typically head off on relatively spontaneous trips when a work project ends and I don't have another one lined up to immediately follow, but this time instead of heading over to Europe to visit a friend (don't worry, Amy, I'll visit eventually....) or to Tucson to train (and yes, Chuck, also to visit a friend) I thought I would try something a little less selfish. After a short bit of research I uncovered Hands On USA (http://www.handsonusa.org/), a volunteer organization that has set up shop in Biloxi. Unlike other organizations like the Red Cross or Salvation Army, this group doesn't require any formalized training or much at all in the way of planning. "Just give us a days notice" they told me. That's my kind of planning ahead, so down I went.
I've only been here three days, but already I'm blown away by what I've seen and experienced. Although the hurricane happened over three months ago, it looks as if it could just have easily happened last week. Destroyed houses are everywhere, crushed, overturned cars are everywhere, large boats sit in fields, the casino barges sit on dry land, it's impossible to navigate by car as virtually all street signs have been blown down, multiple square blocks of formerly residential areas are nothing but rubble. It's absolutely mind-blowing and the scope is so large that pictures simply cannot convey the extent of the devastation. At times I take it all in and think how cool it is to see all of it, as if this were another journey of mine to Africa or the Galapagos or Australia, but then I realize that this is not some cool adventure, and this is America not Sudan, and people's lives have been destroyed and an entire region of the country is hurting in a bad way.
Hands On USA does a little bit of everything; whatever needs are out there in the community that can be staffed by untrained volunteers they are willing to accept as a project. This means that there are opportunities to work at distribution centers handing out supplies, at the Humane Society walking stranded dogs, at the Community Center playing with kids, delivering supplies and medicine to people who are unable to get to distribution centers, and so on. But, by far the largest amount of work to do, and what the majority of the volunteers here are doing is physical reconstruction work. OK, usually it's more like physical destruction work. Gutting houses, tarping roofs, building wheelchair ramps for the FEMA trailers residents are gradually receiving, de-molding interiors, tree removal, and clearing the interiors of houses of everything the person used to own. It's very hard work and it is endless. Amazingly, there seem to be few other charity organizations doing similar work, and the area certainly is not crawling with paid contractors to handle the supply. Why, I do not know, and perhaps I am wrong as this is only my impression, but I am certainly not wrong in that this is over three months old and there is still an endless supply of houses waiting to be cleaned out, gutted, de-molded, and then reconstructed. It seems to me like this area has been killed and then put on pause. Most residents have moved away, and rebuilding exists, but not nearly on the scale expected for the amount of destruction that exists. Currently HandsOnUSA has only 50 people volunteering (around Thanksgiving they were up at 130 and large number are expected in the coming weeks), yet I see other HOUSA teams more than any other charity organization down here. We're working in the poorest county in the poorest state in the country, and 75% of the people did not have flood insurance, so they are quite appreciative to have the free labor. The process we handle for a house typically takes a team of 6-8 about 2-3 days, and that's to remove all appliances (never open the fridge!) and belongings, completely gut the house (remove drywall, molding, window/door frames, ....), and then de-mold (nasty - I have yet to do this), and contractor teams charge about $6-8000 for this work.
So far, I've been involved mostly with clearing out a house and gutting a house. For half of one day I worked at the Salvation Army warehouse, essentially sorting used clothes. The amount of supplies in this warehouse is mind-boggling, but what I'm unsure of is how effectively the supplies get from the warehouse to the people in need. Suffice it to say, though, if you've donated to Salvation Army, it very likely has not been discarded! The day (today) spent gutting a house was dirty, hard work. Being tall was definitely a hindrance for this one, as I got the privilege of clearing all the drywall near the ceiling, and a day of wielding a crowbar over your head will leave you with exhausted arms - believe me! Clearing a house of all belongings was difficult as well, but also the most emotional experience I've had yet. The owner was an 80ish man with cancer, and on the "scouting" mission the previous day he had supposedly gone through with one of our volunteers and identified everything to be salvaged, so we had free reign to destroy and discard to our hearts content. He had had over 15 feet of water in the house (one floor + attic), so everything was a total loss. We rolled through with destruction on the mind and cleared out all appliances and furniture and started shoveling everything else (books, kitchen stuff, toys, everything). I came across his deceased wife's wedding dress and a bag containing literally hundreds of soggy love letters she had written him during the Korean War. I went out to his FEMA trailer in the yard to ask if he wanted to try and salvage them and he was so thankful I had uncovered them.
This is definitely no sight-seeing vacation. The work is hard and we work a long day. I camp and am up around 6:30, and then eat a large breakfast, work a full morning, eat an Army MRE for lunch, and then an afternoon of work. Dinner is around 7, and people socialize a bit but generally are to sleep by 10:30 or so. The demographic is pretty interesting. Definitely the very liberal, granola, save-the-world crowd that you'd expect in this environment, but I'm surprised by the number of folks who are here more or less permanently. I'd say a good 50+% of the folks are recent college grads who have not yet started upon a career path with conviction, so this is an expense-free, rewarding place to live and work and be able to hang out with your peers. Then there are a large number of older (50+) folks, many of whom have a relevant skill (MD, RN, carpenter, contractor, plumber, .....). Honestly, I bet I'm the only person here currently between 26 and 44, and in many ways I feel a bit like the odd man out. It's kind of similar to the Africa trip; I don't really get along with the young, kind of immature group, and I don't have much in common with the senior crowd. Like Africa, though, I've found myself gravitating more towards the older crowd, God, how sad.... :)
I'm often asked why I'm here, and the stock answer is that I wanted to help others and experience something unique myself. But, I'm not sure of the real answer. Most of my charity in recent years has simply been donating money, and I do feel like that's just been taking the easy way out to make myself feel like I'm doing something. But, truly, if my sole goal was to make a difference down here then I should be camped outside of Mike Saylor's house and others I know with money and harassing them until I've come up with $5M or something truly substantial. The scope of what's happened down here is so massive, that my personal effort is completely irrelevant in the scheme of it. Yes, it's nice to see an old man smile and thank me profusely when I uncover some 50 year old letters from his wife, but realistically, I think I'm here for the personal experience and to see first-hand a disaster area, but if I can do that in a mutually beneficial way then fine.
Anyway, here are some pictures I have taken. I planned to add meaningful names and descriptions to them, but I need sleep. All of these pictures except 5 or 6 were taken on a "run" I took on the road along the coast. For the most part these homes were large, antebellum homes, and they took incredible damage being right on the water, but they are mostly still standing. The real awe-inspiring views I have yet to photograph, and that's of entire blocks of shanty wood-frame homes that are nothing but rubble.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyleyost/sets/1491660/
Take care,
Kyle
------------------------
Hello again. I am back in DC, safe and mostly sound. I've added more pictures and added descriptions to the pictures in my flickr album at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyleyost/sets/1491660/
I spent a bit less than two weeks down in Biloxi, MS, and all told it was a very rewarding and definitely an eye-opening experience. As I had hoped, I was able to perform a wide variety of volunteering tasks, and aside from a large chunk of drywall that fell from the ceiling and caught me square in the head, I return unscathed. My tasks included working at the Salvation Army regional warehouse sorting and organizing, working at a local distribution center handing out supplies to residents, walking dogs and cleaning pens at the Humane Society (and trying my best to find someone who would adopt a dog so I could bring one home with me....), helping to remove fallen trees from houses, learning to shingle roofs and helping repair the destroyed roof at our home facility. But, mostly I worked on the "Interiors" crew clearing debris from houses and gutting them until only a skeleton of support studs remain. In fact, I became so adept at this task of destruction that I actually became a crew chief for Interiors, at which point I knew it was time to get heading on home before they became too dependent on me. Oh, and of course, I (and 2 others) did cook dinner for 80 one night. Now, that is a lot of work!
So, what were my impressions? Well, first that the magnitude and scope of the devastation is so vast that it will take years to rebuild in the best of scenarios. Even if the local and federal governments were efficient and effective and money were plentiful and wisely allocated, the hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses destroyed over several hundred miles of coastline would take years to rebuild. That's the best case and that clearly is not what's occuring. I was struck by how the area we were working in, East Biloxi, is essentially a ghost town and very little work is being done. There is activity along the coastline where the casinos and the big hotels and the large, historic homes are located, but nothing in the poorer areas of town. I spent a day and traveled to New Orleans (about 90 miles west) and the difference was obvious. The French Quarter is rebuilt and reopened and more or less looks and feels as if nothing ever happened (I posted some photos of Bourbon St.). But, even in the poorer, more heavily flooded areas of town (I was not allowed in the just reopened Lower 9th Ward), where virtually every house needs to be gutted and rebuilt, the difference between the rebuilding effort in New Orleans vs Biloxi/Gulfport is blindingly apparent. In New Orleans there are contractors and teams of laborers and pickup trucks full of tools and white contractor vans everywhere. The streets are full of activity of houses being gutted or de-molded or in various stages of being rebuilt. Police cars are driving around. Back in Mississippi nothing is happening, at least in our area of Biloxi, which was the hardest hit area. The mayor of New Orleans and governor of Louisiana, while they are fools who do little other than put their feet in their mouth, have at least been vocal fools and have drawn attention and money to New Orleans. I don't know who's to blame for the lack of activity in Biloxi/Gulfport, but you certainly don't hear of a mayor or governor or congressman yelling and screaming bloody murder that there's no money for rebuilding and no contractors and no progress. Meanwhile the casinos are rebuilding and shortly will be poised to scoop up large tracts of formerly residential land on the cheap. That's my impression, at least.
One thing I had hoped to have the opportunity to do more of than I did was to interact with members of the community. When gutting interiors sometime the owner of the house would be on site living in a FEMA trailer, but even that did not allow for much interaction. However, one of the more meaningful days I had was the day I worked at a distribution center in the heart of East Biloxi handing out supplies to residents. Amazingly, with all the resources that Salvation Army and Red Cross have to bear, this distribution center, which shares half of the Biloxi Community Center with FEMA loan assistance, was started and is completely run by one guy, David Romero. He had some ties to the area, either an ex-girlfriend or a gambling problem or something, but regardless he came down shortly after the storm and hasn't left. This has become the primary distribution center for supplies for Biloxi, and David has received a fair amount of national attention (including a visit from Laura Bush) so he is receiving a decent supply of donations. HandsOnUSA offers up people to help him with unloading trucks, finding a way to fit whatever random stuff is donated into the small area of the center that he has allocated to this, and keeping the shelves full and organized as the residents scramble and search for supplies. I did this work one day and it was quite rewarding and I got the opportunity to speak to a number of residents about their experiences. Go check out http://www.midwesthelp.org/ to read about David Romero, and he's also got a photo gallery with some pretty awesome shots. I've also added some pictures to my flickr album of the center and the day there.
Now I'm home, so what now? Unfortunately Katrina is out of the public's eye and the Bush administration is content to keep it that way so as not to remind the public of the response fiasco. The Salvation Army and Red Cross are each lessening their presences there in the coming months, despite the fact that people are stilling living in tents, in and under abandoned homes, or entire extended families are crammed into a relatives home that has power and water. I learned while down there, and particularly from working at the distribution center, that some supplies are plentiful (bottled water, toiletries, diapers) but others are in great demand. Particulary canned food, dog/cat food and warm clothing. Blankets, sleeping bags, coats, sweaters, long pants are in huge demand. I'm not going to send heavy canned foods down there, but I do intend to collect as much warm clothing as possible and send it directly to David Romero's distribution center. If you have any warm clothing or blankets you would like to add to my shipment, please let me know. Having worked at the center, I can tell you with great confidence that the packages will be opened, followed by great glee by the volunteers at the contents. Then they will immediately be placed on the clothing tables and scooped up by residents within minutes. While it is certainly worthy to give to Salvation Army and Goodwill, I'm quite certain the turnaround time to getting the items to the people who need them is quite a bit longer.
In addition to sending clothing and blankets and such to David's group, there is lots more I would like to do, and I pass along some of the opportunities to you. Contact me if there is interest and I will coordinate with you.
First of all, while working at the distribution center I collected information on families that came through with young children. I've got info on 7-8 families and a total of 20 or so children ranging in age from weeks to 13 or so, and I thought it would be sad if they received no gifts for Christmas. If you want to cover a whole family or just throw in a toy or ball or doll into the pot for me to divy up across families, let me know because Christmas is approaching and delivery service is questionable down there so I may have to send to HOUSA and ask them to try and hand-deliver, so I'd like to get stuff out by this weekend.
Finally, there are plenty of opportunities through other organizations to provide help from afar. I asked around at HOUSA and came up with the following list of organizations they endorse. If you are interested in any of these, let me know and I will give you the contact information that I have.
Mercy Ships: Sponsor a Home Rebuilding - organization provides volunteer labor to rebuild homes, however the cost of materials must be covered by donations. $4000 covers full sponsorship of complete rebuilding of a home.
Adopt a Family - http://www.family-to-family.org/
The local Center for Prevention of Child Abuse manages an adopt a family and annual sponsorship program. I don't see it on the website http://www.mscpca.com/, however.
-Kyle
Follow-up:
Hello again. I apologize once again for the mass email. This will be the last, I promise.
I want to thank everyone who "adopted" a family and covered their Christmas gifts. You have made the holiday season for 9 families and almost 30 children! I also want to thank everyone who gave me clothes and/or gear or sent directly to Biloxi. If you live in the DC area and have warm clothes or blankets or camping gear that you don't use and want to give, I lucked out and found someone who is driving down to Biloxi on Friday morning and has a pickup truck, so I can avoid the cost of shipping. We just need to get together to get me the stuff by tomorrow evening if you do have you'd like to donate.
Finally, if you have stuff and want to send directly, here is the mailing address for the distribution center:
Biloxi Community Center c/o David Romero
591 Howard Avenue
Biloxi, MS 39530
Be sure to make it obvious that it is for David Romero, as his group shares the building with FEMA and supposedly mislabeled or ambiguous packages have languished unopened on the other half of the building.
Thanks again everyone! Happy Holidays!
-Kyle
