I just returned from spending 10 days in Southern Mississippi volunteering for the Red Cross.
Hero: Nurse from LA, on the ground in Picayune, MS, probably as early as 9/1 or 9/2. The community hospital across the street from the high school where a Red Cross shelter was established had discharged several elderly folks with chronic problems, 4 blind people - while 2 died in the shelter - she was able to find locations to take the sick, and transportation for them before any established resources and guidelines emerged.
Heros: elderly retired couple from Michigan, on the ground 9/2. Living in primitive conditions, eating MREs the first week, no bathing for a week - drove a Red Cross vehicle equipped to feed hundreds per day for 2 weeks.
Heros: young 20-something-americans (men and women) driving Red Cross trucks (rented ryder trucks). Despite the disorganization in the distribution warehouse and no training and despite all the frustrations of dealing with an overwhelmed disaster relief agency - they figured out what the people in their neighborhoods needed, wrangled and finangled ways to get the goods, and delivered them daily - food and supplies.
Heros: the unit of nurses (men and women) from Michigan who raised money, drove their own vehicles and gathered supplies, hired their own security - found a way to get affiliated with the state and county gov’t health agencies so that they could practice nursing in the disaster area - deliver immunizations like tetanus, deliver IV medications if necessary, connect ppl with other healthcare resources. It took time, effort and initiative - lots of it. They went door to door looking for ppl to help.
DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistance Teams) from FEMA - set up mobile hospitals and primary care clinics. Staffed with docs, RNs, paramedics, EMTs, pharmacists, security, and communications and logistics guys.
Project Hope on the USS Comfort - supplied docs and nurses as well as a hospital ship. Gov’t donated ship and supplies, the health professionals volunteered their time - think they were military folks.
Point is - there are lots of folks down there trying to help out. They are all heroes in my book.
Many of the folks we have in the shelters at this point are ppl who were homeless to begin with. They have few resources or coping skills. It’s sad. Folks with homes or property are camping out in tents on their property or living with relatives whose homes were not damaged.
No outbreaks of communicable diseases - thank god.
Lots of damage, but the roads are clear. Much of the electricity has been restored. Water below I-10 is dodgey still, and folks are being told not to drink it. The hospitals in the areas have all reopened. Individual doctors whose offices were destroyed are showing up at free clinics to provide care. Walmart and Rite Aid are providing prescriptions to people free of charge. Schools are set to open 9/26 through 10/3. FEMA has promised to send trailers for temporary housing, and pre-fab houses as they did in Florida for the 2004 hurricane season.
Lots of folks whose places of employment (i.e., the casinos in Gulfport) are leaving the state to find jobs and homes elsewhere. The tax base will be hurt, and will take years to be reestablished.
The areas on the shoreline have been decimated, the communities south of the interstate, I-10, have been damaged badly, but the communities north of the interstate are not as badly damaged and will bounce back within a year.
Got go. Sorry for the stream-of-consciousness writing. But, haven’t really processed it all yet. This is the first day back and first opportunity at a computer.
Bodo
for the reason why.