All posts by Julie

FEMA oblivion

Purely Personal

Well, it was really FEMA’s boss, Michael Chertoff, head of Homeland Security, who had the most astounding interview with Robert Seigel yesterday afternoon on All Things Considered. I listenened in the car on the way home. Seigel asked Chertoff why the thousands of people at the convention center with no food, water or officials in charge were being completely overlooked. Chertoff responded with disbelief – that the people were even there. Seigel said that NPR reporters were there and that is what they are reporting and it was a nightmare. Chertoff said well, you can’t believe all of the rumors. Oh my god. So Seigel replied that these are not rumors. These are experienced reporters that have covered wars and have been in refugee camps. Chertoff said, well, I’m not going to argue with you and the interview ended. It was astounding! Why couldn’t he just say “oh my god, nobody has come to me with this information. I will get on it immediately.” It was like he was a robot. The entire interview was incredible. Chertoff was on the defensive and kept saying “there’s food, there’s help…we have staging areas.” You can listen to it here. Siegel deserves a medal for keeping his cool. It’s a shame that it has to be this way. Our government could have been heroic.

www.acehaid.org

Evacuate with what?

Katrina

According to this page of the US Census Bureau stats for New Orleans:

 In 2003, New Orleans city had 181,000 occupied housing units – 92,000 (51 percent) owner occupied and 89,000 (49 percent) renter occupied. Seven percent of the households did not have telephone service and 21 percent of the households did not have access to a car, truck, or van for private use. Twenty-six percent had two vehicles and another 6 percent had three or more.

21% of 181,000 is about 38,000.

38,000 households represents a lot of people who have no access to a vehicle.

Think about that when reading this statement from the FEMA director in response to the predicted death toll.

“Unfortunately, that’s going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings,” Brown told CNN.

“I don’t make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans,” he said.

“And to find people still there is just heart-wrenching to me because, you know, the mayor did everything he could to get them out of there.”

I wondered too, at first. Why did so many people stay? But then the more you saw on the news, the more you realized that many people just didn’t really have any way to leave. And nowhere to go. And nobody came to get them.



www.acehaid.org

Costco in Colchester Helping me help Gulf Coast victims- you can help too

Vermont

I don’t have a Costco membership, but I just called and got permission to come shopping there for the Vermont National Guard trucks going down to the Gulf Coast that are collecting today and today only. (More info on that here if you are from Vermont.) If you are someone that I know and you would like to make a contribution, email me and let me know how much you would like to contribute. I will purchase that much more when I go this afternoon.

www.acehaid.org

CNN Video Clips – lose the ads for Katrina news

Purely Personal

The ads that play in front of the video clips on CNN.com are getting pretty offensive. The latest is an ad for DOW that talks about how clean they make the water, how great the crops are, how much wonderful medicine there is and how much wonderful food they can preserve. And then cut to the tragedy that is New Orleans. Disgusting. I know the ads are rotated randomly, but hello, is someone paying attention?

www.acehaid.org

Blog venting

Blogging

One of the nice things about having a smart client blogging app that let’s me store posts is that I can write to my hearts content about how I feel about what is going on in the Gulf Coast and rant  to my hearts content about the government’s slow and deadly response. I can get it out of my system and then save it and never even post it if I don’t want to.

www.acehaid.org

Vermont Red Cross offers training to volunteers who want to go to the Gulf Coast

Vermont

A message from the Northern Vermont Chapter of the American Red Cross

“A hurricane of this magnitude is a true act of nature, something totally beyond our control. We can make a difference, though, by responding to those who so desperately need our help now,” said Rob Levine, Executive Director of the Northern Vermont Chapter. “With an upsurge in calls from many people who want to assist the Red Cross, we are offering training sessions over the next week to anyone who can commit to a two week deployment and who can meet the criteria of our volunteer recruitment system. In addition, we welcome new volunteers who might not be able to make a commitment to travel to the affected region but would be interested in learning how they can make a difference right here at home by attending the training sessions.”

Anyone interested in learning more can contact the Community Involvement department at the Chapter by calling 802-660-9130- ext. 104 or by e-mail at mikeh@nvtredcross.org.

by way of Cathy Resmer’s blog: 802 Online



www.acehaid.org

Collection points around Vermont to send food clothing and more to Gulf Coast: Sept 2, 11am-8pm

Vermont

Hooray, I have been looking for this all day. I was even starting to fantasize about hiring a trucker and making this happen, but I’m thrilled that the state of Vermont is doing this. I have lots of clothes already piled up and am going on a shopping spree tomorrow.

From the VPR.NET website

Vermont offers hurricane assistance; Guard deployment to Gulf Coast

 COLCHESTER, VT (2005-09-01)

(Host) At this hour, Vermont officials are outlining a plan to offer assistance to Gulf Coast states in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Governor Jim Douglas and National Guard Adjutant General Martha Rainville announced earlier this hour that about 125 members of the Vermont Guard will be leaving for New Orleans over the next three days. The first of the soldiers will leave in the next 24 hours.

The Guard deployment is one part of the assistance that the state of Vermont if providing. Governor Jim Douglas is calling on Vermonters to donate to the following items at collection points around the state, emphasizing that only items on this are accepted:

  • Bottled Water (Size: Liter and larger)
  • Non-Perishable Food
  • Clothing (new or like-new condition only)
  • Infant Supplies (Formula, Diapers, etc.)
  • Snacks/Protein Bars
  • First Aid Kits
  • Transistor Radios
  • Batteries (Sizes: AA, C, D, 9V)
  • Flashlights
  • Hygiene Products (bar soap, shampoo, toothpaste, etc.)
  • Dog/Cat Food

The drop-off locations for Friday’s collection drive are:

(update: for a more detailed list of addresses of drop off sites visit the Northern Vermont Red Cross website here)

Bennington County: Bennington Town Clerk’s Office

Orleans County: State Police Barracks in Derby

Windsor County: Hartford Fire and Police Department

Washington County: Statehouse lawn

Franklin County: Collins-Perly Recreation Facility in St. Albans

Caledonia County: St. Johnsbury Municipal Office Building and Fire Station

Windham County: State Police Barracks in Rockingham

Rutland County: State Police Barracks in Rutland

Addison County: Vergennes High School

Chittenden County: State Police Barracks in Williston

Drop locations are accepting goods from 11 am to 8 pm on Friday.

© Copyright 2005, VPR

 

This is the online edition of VPR News. Text versions of VPR news stories may be updated and they may vary slightly from the broadcast version.


 


 



www.acehaid.org