Ok I like every body else have been glued to the TV for the last 5 days.Watching the tragic events unfold on the Gulf Coast.this email has got me thinking................
Just trying to relay info to yall up North. Go to
www.jojamela.us , This is my friends' Mom and Dad's Site. ON it you will see the devastation on the marina where they lived. They are currently residing in BR along with the rest of New Orleans and Jefferson Parish. Baton Rouge has now become their home - There are no words to express how blessed we feel that we were not hit - unfortunately though BR has now become a place that we don't want to be - Thousands of poeple are now living here - gas is scarce - electricity is scarce - food is scarce- shelter is scarce. There is not even one hotel room or apartment left - we are overcrowded and understaffed. Our crime rate is expected to go up 4 points - we sit in traffic for hours at a time just to go down the street - chaos has started. I am asking all Northerners to please pray for us - pray for patience, pray for sound minds, pray for our life, as we knew it. I am counting on all of you!!!! Please tell everyone that we need help, people have lost everything - they have nowhere to go - they can't even cry with their families because they don't know where they are. I could go on and on about how some towns are being called dead zones b/c there is no way to communicate with them, that a hospital in NO is w/o electricity, w/o toilets, w/o air - there are over 500 patients there - try to imagine this - nowhere to go, trapped in a drowned town covered in sewage and gases, inside a hospital with no ventilation, no air, no feeling of hope- the only thing filling your stomach is the stagnant smell floating through the air. I hope this leaves you in awe - that is where we are at right now - in awe. I am sorry I have not been able to contact you all - cell phones are out and we just got our electicity back - others are not faring as well as I. Please now that I am safe and well, my only fear being what lies ahead in this crowded city.
Love Katie
I want to help.I have a couple of ideas.This disaster is bigger than the media can even comprahend.This is going to take the American people to stand together like we never have before
no Demacrats no republicans,no blacks no whites.Just people willing to help standing side by side helping there fellow man.
From donating to the red cross to volenteering time at a food shelter. Or in a parking lot collecting food and loading it into a box trailer.I dont mean just throwing money at this problem but like the people in texas are showing they are tasking care of the people that show up there and need help.
Vintage Chevy van Club had tree members that live in New orleans that made it though Ok. I got an email tonight from Katie from Baton Rouge and sha sounds scared.Baton Rouge is not a very big town to begin with.Towns used to panic when vanners just stopped buy for a freindly vist. I can just imagine having thousands of hungry sick people decend on your town what a tiz it can throw those people in.It is mind boggeling just thinking about the logistics of it
I was thinking we as vanner could pick a shelter lets say in Baton Rouge and show up with a convoy of vans full of stuff. What ever we can get out hands on or collect along the way.Pick a shelter and deliver the stuff,help pass it out if they need us to or drop it off and come back and get another load.Don't stop untill they ether tell us to quit or we can not help in any way.
some of us might only be able to make one run.Some might be able to make a couple.Some might not be able to afford the gas but might know some one that can collect stuff to be picked up. Some body can come and pick it up.
these people need every thing we take for ganted,easly stuff like baby wipes,diapers,stuff that there is plenty of around here but hard to come by for a while down there.After that they will need people to help rebuild down there.Even then they will need stuff from bodies to work. or supplies.There are thousands of little kids that will need school suplies.
The first convoy could a trip to see what we can do to help.What can we bring to them? Right now showing up at a shelter with bacic hygnes stuff like soap deoderanttooth brushed, cans of soup.Stuff that they can use and will not turn away.On the way back can we drop people that do not have rides off at there families.
This is a dynamic problen that is going to be changing from week to week.The Cream will rise to the top the good in people will come out like you have never seen before....................Wookee
<small>[ September 04, 2005, 01:07 AM: Message edited by: wookee ]</small>