Plenty Volunteers Report from Gulf Coast Trip
Hello Friends,
After an intense week of hurricane relief preparations and distribution, Thomas and I are back in Austin. Thanks to everyone who donated time, money and sent us good wishes, for making it possible. Below is my attempt to account for all the energy you sent with us to aid the victims of Katrina.
The flurry of activity began when we found out we were going to be part of the Plenty Hurricane Relief Team (www.plenty.org) on Sat. Sept. 10th. We moved the furniture out of our living room and set up a mini warehouse to receive and sort donations and begin the assembly line of packing boxes.
We left Austin on Thursday September 15th; 17 days after Katrina hit, in a cargo van filled with 52-40 lb. boxes of survival family packs, which included everything from candles to food and other supplies. For a complete listing of what was in our family packs and what other supplies we had check the attachment.
Shortly before we reached the TX LA border we noticed that our windshield was thick with splotches that couldn’t be washed off by our wipers and sometimes it sounded like rain, but wasn’t raining. That was our first introduction to “love bugs.” We found out that we were in “love bug” season, the annual swarm of mating black orange-headed bugs that fill the Louisiana air. They don’t bite, but at times were very thick and our van became an official love bug exterminator, caking the grill and windshield with their splatters.
We arrived that night at Camp Casey 3, located at the Land O Pines Campground about 5 miles outside Covington, LA. To appreciate the changing nature of this Camp and the disaster situation check the Vets message board at: http://vfproadtrips.org
We connected with the rest of the Plenty crew and signed in as numbers 150 and 151, making Camp Casey over full. We pitched our tent amongst a sea of tents, vans and buses surrounded by fallen pine trees that had smashed into vacationers RVs or lay on the ground with roots and clumps of dirt exposed everywhere.
The park was also a temporary home to electric workers and telephone workers living in mobile homes next to us with generators roaring 24/7, making it necessary to use ear plugs for a decent night's sleep.
The next morning at 7:30 am the medical team, consisting of about 10 people including doctors and nurses, were beginning their daily meeting. We delivered our medical supplies directly to them and knew by their dedication that they will be used quickly and wisely. Everyday they decide which teams will go where to set up their clinics. Sometimes they set up their own clinics in places of need and other times they go to existing clinics and pitch in.
Then it was time for coffee and breakfast served by Foods not Bombs and the 8 am daily meeting of the Camp Casey volunteers. Gordon, one of the Vets for Peace organizers, led the meeting and told us that the camp was closing on Sept. 24th because FEMA people were coming in and they were kicking us out. Apparently, FEMA people could pay more for the space than we could. Announcements were made and then the group scattered into smaller circles.
After meeting with the Plenty crew for a while, Thomas and I helped load the supplies that were leftover from the Camp’s warehouse. The Camp had been using a warehouse to store the many supplies that kept coming in, but were asked to leave the day before because, “We weren’t supplying the right people,” Gordon told us. The ‘right people’ apparently were white and Camp Casey volunteers don’t discriminate need by color.
We then hooked up with Laura and Ben on a journey to distribute our supplies. Laura had also gotten to the Camp the night before after driving a Penske truck filled with 8,000 lbs. of supplies from CA. Laura’s cement company funded her trip and her church helped load the supplies, which included 3 generators and too many items to mention. Ben, an Austinite, had lived at Camp Casey 1 and 2 in Crawford Texas and then went on to Camp Casey 3. He had been scouting needs and distribution sites to the north of Covington for several days and led us to Franklinton where we stopped at the local activists lawyers office to further plan our journey. Ben stayed there while Laura in the Penske truck, and Thomas and I in the van, took off for more northern parts.
Because Katrina was a Category 4 Hurricane the 125 miles winds, which stretched 120 miles out, ripped out electric and phone lines, and folks all the way inland up to Mississippi felt its devastating effect.
Our first stop was 5 miles out in Richardson to a fire station that had called Plenty in TN a week earlier asking for help. There was still no electricity or water, but by the time we got there they were supplied with MREs (meals ready to eat) lots of bottled water and an ice truck. Robert, the fire chief, said they were OK at that time and that electricity and water should be coming back within days. The roads were crawling with electric workers and so we believed he was right.
We then got a call from Ben saying that there was a distribution center at the Plainview Baptist Church in Mt. Herman, a town about 10 miles away next to the Mississippi line, and they needed help. We wound through the narrow hilly roads following Laura, looking at the fallen trees out the windows, debris on peoples’ lawn and an occasional damaged house.
Finally we found the Hurricane Relief Center at the Plainview Baptist Church and got in touch with the Pastor, Albert Brumfield, who is also the president of the fire station there. Albert, a man in his 50’s, had just come from sawing a tree off an elderly woman’s house. He said he’d had two back surgeries and shouldn’t be doing the work, but somebody had to do it because the rain was coming.
Mt. Herman is a town of about 2,000 mostly poor black residents. They had not had any assistance from the Red Cross or FEMA. A church group had brought some supplies before, but they were extremely grateful to get more. That day they were told they wouldn’t be getting electricity for another 3 weeks, which also meant no water either. Laura, Thomas, and I realized the journey for our supplies had ended. This community could really use what we had brought and their distribution center was set up for helping those in need.
Albert then went out in his pick-up and came back with 12 strong young black men, (a few we learned were foster kids from New Orleans). The kids, a few churchwomen who had joined in, Laura, Thomas and I proceeded to unload the truck and van amidst love bug swarms and sweat into their gymnasium. It took an hour or more before everything was unloaded.
During that time some people came in looking for supplies. I was able to guide a young woman and her child to where the diapers, formula and wipes were and put a family pack into another woman’s car. She was really happy to know that dried beans were included in the pack.
When finished the unloading, we exchanged contact information with Laura, Albert and one of the churchwomen. We all hugged and expressed gratitude and then formed a hand holding circle (kids included) while Albert said a prayer of thanks. It was very heart warming. We left feeling satisfied that we had found the right place to put the goods and had formed a bond of love with strangers that neither of us would ever forget.
By that time it was obvious the rain was coming on and we needed to get back to camp to put the rain flap on our tent. On our way back we listened to the 24-hour public radio station that was taking call-ins from people, addressing people’s questions and supplying updates. Most people were talking about how they couldn’t access the $2,000 that the government said they were giving for displaced folks. Apparently there is a 1-800 number people are to call, which is always busy. People flat out said –“It isn’t working.” No matter what time of day they called the number was busy and there were no walk-in sites available for people to register their need.
On our way back we continued to see damaged homes, mostly roofs, lots of big fallen trees and power lines, and twisted street signs and billboards.
When we got back to the camp we found that the folks had already covered all of the tents – the security crew at work. We exchanged stories with people about the day and later in the night greeted a couple of new Plenty volunteers that had just arrived. Elaine, an RN was there to join the medical team and Neil, an experienced builder, was there to help repair people’s houses. There were now 9 Plenty volunteers.
It was decided the next day that Thomas and I would go to a Baton Rouge house to load up on boxes of supplies that had been shipped from all over the country to aid Katrina’s victims. A nice family let their front driveway be used for a Fed Ex drop off. We didn’t really know what exactly was in the boxes, but we knew they were sent with love and compassion and so loaded our van with hundreds of boxes of all sizes and headed back up north to Franklinton to the lawyers’ offices for more direction.
One of the paralegals at the office, Misty, lived close to a town called Angie, which was directly east of where we had been in Mt. Herman and next to the Mississippi line on the north and east sides. She said the eye of the storm came through there at 125 miles an hour the people hadn’t received any help from the government.
We followed her and her husband who were pulling their own trailer of boxes north. Several miles out of town we saw a mile line of cars on the left hand side of the road heading one by one into a distribution site that was handing out water and supplies. It looked like a scene one would imagine from Depression days – waiting in the hot sun for rations.
Along the way we saw more fallen trees, twisted signs and damaged roofs. Finally got to Angie and as we had no contact, Misty asked someone at the fire station if we could park our vehicles under the tree next to the station and pull out the boxes for distribution. I made a sign, but before I was finished people starting coming.
It became a mad scene of Misty her husband and Thomas and I ripping open boxes and yelling out – “Diapers over here. Food and toilet paper over there.” People came out of nowhere and descended on the free supplies. I asked one woman if they had been receiving any help and she said, “Over in Sandy Hook they’re giving out stuff, but only to certain people.” When I asked what she meant by ‘certain people’, she said, “Well not people like us.”
I took that to mean not black people and handed her a bag to fill up with whatever she needed. As we’ve all seen Katrina didn’t affect everybody the same and the aftermath is no different. It took about an hour for all the stuff to be gone.
Thomas and I drove back to the camp that night and almost immediately I fell asleep. The next day was Sunday and it started all over again for Camp Casey. The medical team meeting was at 7:30 am and the Camp meeting was at 8:00 am, another day of scrambling to help those who are in such great need. We pulled ourselves away from the meeting and began the long journey home. Thanks again for allowing us to do it!
Peace,
Karen and Thomas Heikkala
Plenty Austin and Plenty International are accepting donations for relief and reconstruction efforts on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Plenty volunteers are working with local families and community organizations at the Houma Reservation southwest of New Orleans and in Biloxi Missisippi to provide health care services and rebuild homes.
Checks can be mailed to:
Plenty Austin c/o Karen Heikkala
502 Arbor lane, Austin, Tx 78745
For more information call 512-912-1429, send an email to chuck@plentyaustin.org,
or go to the Plenty International website.