Lief, 
Thank you for taking the time to provide us with the thoughtful details
of your experience. It's important for everyone to know the impact on
those people who were traumatized beyond New Orleans. If we relied only
on the nightly news we might never know what happened elsewhere. Thanks
again - you've brought it right home.  Keep up the good work.  bj

Bonnie L. Johnson RDMS, RVT, FSVU
Stanford University Medical Center
Director, Vascular Laboratory Services
Division of Vascular Surgery
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: UVM Flownet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Leif
Penrose
Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2005 7:13 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Katrina Clean Up - A first hand report - very long message

I went to Mississippi this week to help in the aftermath of Katrina.  I
write only to help people understand.

Monday evening (7 days after Katrina) I traveled to Lumberton
Mississippi arriving @ 3:00 AM.  I claimed a picnic table for a bed and
slept on it every night but one.  There were no mosquitoes (I don't know
why).  I'd taken a sleeping pad, pillow and blanket.  Fortunately for me
and the relief effort it hasn't rained once since Katrina passed.
Lumberton is just off I-59 about 25 miles south of Hattiesburg MS and
about 45 miles from the gulf.  Our church has a disaster relief agency
and they had organized at Bass Memorial Academy (BMA).  They were
serving the people of Lumberton and Purvis Mississippi.  The relief
effort there consisted of sending teams into the community to remove
trees and do basic cleanup, provide two hot food kitchens (1 @ BMA and 1
in Purvis), and provide a central distribution site for relief supplies
sent to that area.  All needs for that county were referred to the
organization through the sheriff's office, city police and FEMA.

I took along tools for roofing and cutting trees.  I spent all day
Tuesday at an elementary school cutting up a two acre pile of pine trees
that looked like a stack of 80 foot pick up sticks.  It was a one person
job because the trees were stressed from their falling and every cut
ended with the bent trees and pieces jumping, popping and twisting back.
We couldn't take a risk of having someone else hit when the other person
released a tree.  By the end of the day all of the dangerous trees were
flat on the ground.   It was close to 30 trees that had to be made "Safe
- for routine chainsaw work".  Others came in on subsequent days, cut
into shorter lengths and hauled off the remains.  The elementary school
wasn't so lucky.  Roof about 25% missing (Meaning you could see daylight
from inside) with a total loss of ceiling, insulation, carpet, desks and
80% loss of books.   It was heartbreaking to see the stack of wet books
in front of the school.  At the end of the Tuesday I wa!
 s amazed to see that the line of relief products that I'd seen that
morning was almost totally gone.  What had seemed like a mountain of
materials, diapers, canned food, dry goods, water, hygiene products
etc.. Tuesday morning had been distributed by Tuesday afternoon.  The
people started to line up @ 7:00 AM and the last person came through @
6:00 PM and the line was never empty.  The hot food service served over
4,000 meals between the two sites Tuesday.  The organizers told us they
expected to distribute the next day but didn't know where the supplies
would come from.  After a cold shower and supper I saw a UPS Semi from
Vermont roll in.  It took 40 of us and a hyster driver two hours to
unload the 100 thousand pounds of materials that came in that one truck.
50 Tons of supplies and by the next day most of it was gone.  Nine hours
of chainsaw and 2 hours of unloading a Semi and that picnic table was a
welcome site.

Also, an advance team went on Tuesday to find out if they could get into
the city of Waveland, Mississippi.  Waveland is on the coast about 15
miles east from the Louisiana/Mississippi border.  From what I was able
to see it was one of the hardest hit cities as the eye hit at the border
and the winds are supposed to be the worst to the east of the eye.  They
showed us pictures Tuesday before bed and assigned some to go set up a
site at a flooded out Fred's Supermarket across the street from the
Waveland water tower and Police Department.  The Waveland PD had decided
to wait out the storm in the office, and they did until the water washed
them out of the building.  Two of the officers locked arms around each
other and a bush and held on for two hours until the water receded
enough for them to escape.

Wednesday I went into Lumberton and Purvis.  The majority of the
immediate cleaning of dangerous and road blocking trees was already done
with only the worst left on the roofs.  The first two places we went to,
needed a crane or bucket to get the trees off so we had to defer.  But
after that, we started to find folks who had evacuated and had not
returned when the initial cleanup was done and so still had roofs to be
cleared.  We had a team of four men with chainsaws and 10 high school
students who would haul away.  We worked until 7:00 PM.  A similar story
again with relief trucks showing up from all over the country and about
the same number of people fed.  (There were 150 high school students in
total from Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida assisting at
our site every day).   The food kitchen from Purvis was moved to
Waveland on Wednesday.  Because of military curfew we had to leave
before dark. 

 

Thursday I was asked to go to Waveland with about 40 of the students.
The food service and food distribution was being organized in
conjunction with the Florida Highway Patrol, Army, National Guard and
our group.  This was now 9 days after Katrina.  Residents who had left
were not being allowed back in.  Only those who had snuck in or stayed
were there when we set up. We had to pass through checkpoints where men
with M-16s looked our group over and asked what we were doing. On the
drive down we saw more and more destruction.  The media is not
exaggerating.  Imagine a Georgia tornado that's 75 miles wide and
travels 50 miles.  The water had come in 15 to 20 feet above ground
level and it was Mississippi delta swamp muck.  There was not one house
in 100 that was not damaged.  Those that survived had 1 to 2 feet of
muck left when the waters receded.  There was no need for chainsaws.
Any house that was still standing will need to be bull dozed.  There
will be no recovery from!
  the muck.  The EPA would not let us sweep the parking lot where we set
up the food distribution because of the contaminants in the dried muck.
The parking lot had been scraped (probably on Sunday) and then after it
had dried a few days we were allowed to set up.  We were told to always
wear our gloves and to thoroughly clean every wound immediately.
There were piles of suspected asbestos from the ceilings of the old
shopping center that the HP officers cordoned off with police tape.  The
smell that would occasionally come with a breeze from inside the grocery
store would turn your stomach.  Nothing had been cleaned out and the
rotting foods and Mississippi mud was all still wet because the sun
couldn't dry out the inside of the store.   Hundreds of cars that had
been washed around were lining the roads (the road crews had simply fork
lifted them off the road surface).  I had to drive around a frame house
that was still intact but now was relocated into the road from it!
 's foundation 100 yards away.  I saw a U-Haul truck sitting up on a fe
nce post.  It had floated there and then perched when the waters went
down.  There were Semi Trailers washed into people yards.  By the time
we got there Thursday morning the people had come and started to get
what they needed but had destroyed the organization that had been
accomplished Wednesday.  You couldn't blame them, , , they are desperate
and in need and there was no one there to keep it organized.   We spent
4 hours organizing and got a supply line going well for a couple of
hours and then had to leave for curfew.  I spent almost my entire day
working a pallet jack.  About an hour before we quit the Forklift
operator gave me a lesson and said go for it, he had to leave that night
for home.  Curfew was still in effect but we could have stayed within
our site , , except that I had riders with me who depended on me to get
them back to base as they were not as self contained as I was (and
weren't amused with the idea of just sleeping outside)

The local people had nothing.  On more than one occasion we had a person
throw, drop or discard their keys...... they didn't need them anymore
because they had no house and no car.  A lady came and asked a worker
(Rita) for Poligrip. She was almost out and couldn't eat without her
teeth.  Rita couldn't find any but told her to come back the next day.
When she returned on Thursday still no Poligrip but Rita asked her to
wait while she looked through a hygiene box that had toothpaste.  In
that box was one tube of Poligrip.  They both cried when it was found.
On Friday afternoon I saw one of our workers a grown man, Dana crying
openly as he walked around at the end of the day mumbling repeatedly
"these people have so much loss".   

The real heart breaker and eye opener to me was the way the supplies
came in.  Those that were organized on pallets and into specific
commodities (with shrink wrap) were the best. The absolute worst was
mixed boxes that were stacked into a semi - not on pallets.  We could
off load a pallet and put it in a distribution line in a few moments
with a fork lift.  The boxes had to be manually lifted and then
volunteers had to sort into the distribution line.  This was very, very
time consuming.  The worst heartbreak is the clothes.  Imagine a garage
sale where you just took all of your clothes and put them in a heap.
There are not enough volunteer workers to sort the clothes.  And then
the people who need them have to dig through and once you dig and find
an item you don't fold it nice and say "not my size, style, color" and
place it back nice and neat.  No it's hot and you're looking for some
underwear because you haven't changed yours in 9 days.  So the people
are not careful w!
 ith what has been sorted.   Our group sorted about half of what came to
us. Then mid afternoon we saw that other relief organizations were
bringing their clothing donations and dumping beside our site.  I
stopped one of them and asked what was going on and they said, "We don't
have the man power to deal with clothes and FEMA told us to bring it
here"  The heartbreak is this, , , the people need it, , the
organization want them to have it, , , , but practically there is not
enough people to sort and organize it.  When I left today there was a
stack of clothing 5 feet high, 100 feet long and 50 feet wide, , ,
unsorted on the ground.  It made us sick but we simply could not sort it
and it came mixed with the other loads.  Loads that were only clothing
were turned away.  But loads that had food and hygiene products would be
accepted and the clothing placed in the "Clothing Area" , , ,unsorted.
The people would leave with bags of clothing but it just made you sick
to know that !
 the people had given and it had arrived but there wasn't a way to do i
t right.  Clothing still in the wrappers were fine (like a 3 pack of
men's underwear) and pallets that were pre-sorted with a box attached
were okay.  But a garbage bag with clothes in it, , , , another story

Friday I returned to Waveland and we had the same opening story, not
quite as bad though except that after we left more trucks arrived.  It
only took a couple of hours to get the organization back and I spent the
day unloading trucks with a fork lift.   We had two fork lifts and a
pallet jack that unloaded all day, truck after truck after truck but the
area where we put the supplies never seemed to get full.  The people
came as quick as the supplies came.  The Highway Patrol, Army, National
Guard and some of our crew started taking trucks into the side streets
and out into the country so we also started loading vehicles as well as
unloading trucks.  Lunch finally came at 5:00 PM and Supper was at 10:00
PM.  There were two of us who stayed in Waveland Friday evening and were
busy unloading trucks, getting fuel for generators and preparing for the
next day. We ran both forklifts until the propane was gone and then
scrounged a tank for one from somewhere (might have been libera!
 ted).  The last truck I unloaded was from Gordon County Georgia (EMS,
Sheriff, and Police).  I recognized at least one of the officers who
accompanied the Mohawk Tractor trailer and helped off load. 

Saturday morning started before sunrise, organizing the distribution
center, setting up the meal area, waiting for the rest of the workers to
come back from Lumberton.  I was on the fork lift as the sun came up and
didn't stop until I left at noon.  It'll take me most of the day Sunday
to be ready for classes Monday...The desk is a mess and the end of the
quarter is this week.

Although people are complaining about the slow response (and it was
slow)  I saw trucks bringing supplies from almost every state in the
country.  It is pouring in now.  I repeatedly heard people say "No, ,  I
just need this much, , , save the rest for someone else who needs it
more than me".  We are a resilient people.  Our very psyche will not
allow us to see our fellow mankind suffer and even more so if they are
fellow Americans.  It may take years to rebuild some areas but not as
long as you might expect if you had seen the damage I saw.  I worked
with people from Tennessee, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia,
Indianna who had dropped their lives while they could and came.  As I
left Saturday Afternoon I counted one convoy of out of state utility
vehicles from one company 50 trucks long.  I saw at least 25 identical
mobile homes being taken down I-59 and when I left you could get Pizza
Hut in Purvis and McDonalds in Gulf Port.   

I'll try to find a good way to let people see the pictures.  

Leif Penrose

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