Katrina
I received the following email in this morning. It is from a co-worker I've never meet. Our organization is so big, it has several centers all over the U.S.
Too big. Too heavy. Too much.
HI XXX
I just arrived back to my sister's home. Things are worse than ever imaginable. I got to Diamondhead several days ago to find people everywhere. FEMA or help of any kind are nowhere around our town. It was Thursday before MRE's arrived. The national guard dropped off boxes and said, we'll be back in 4 days with more. Water is brought to Diamondhead once a day, but we don't know when they will arrive so people are in a parking lot in what used to be downtown. With the humidity it is 105 . The majority are 60 years and older. There are also children and infants. The gas shortage has left people unable to run generators for any relief. My husband and his friend have been filling perscriptions. The line outside the main wall still standing is a mile at leat long. I helped the first half of the day there counting pills and helping organize the flow into the nearly destroyed store. We could only work for about 6 hours because after that the sun moves we have no light to work with inside. The only light is the sun shining throught the large holes in the roof that remains over the pharmacy part. Someone found out I was a nurse and came to get me to treat the injured in the parking lot. I held one 80 year old lady who had fell, she died in my arms. There are injured children, people with cuts from chainsaws and many burns. A Dr. from Pensavania showed up at the exit. He ran out of gas on his way to New Orleans and was stranded in Diamondhead. He & I broke into the only clinic there and took supplies that were useable. We treated people in the parking lot. The drugstor can not be entered anymore. It was horrible the days I was there with the raw sewer mixed with the floodwaters and the mold and mildew from the humidity and damp walls and water standing on the floor.
My husband got a call out to a drug supplier. The supplier told him they would get a portable building to us by Friday (this past Friday) The building was stopped in Mobile, Al and we were told it would have to go through FEMA first before it could be taken into MS. I am so angry.
Diamondhead has been forgotten. Some of the residents there stood on the exit ramp of I 10 to try and flag down some of the Military vehicles heading to New Orleans. They wouldn't stop to help. We have water being delivered & dropped off there daily, and now MRE's are starting.
We have no gasoline to run generators. A man there to get his meds threatend my husband and me that he wold bring his gun back and "Blow Us Away" because we didn't have his 5 year olds seizure meds. Water destroyed all the meds on the lower shelves, and the seizure meds were there. People are so desperate. I carried my car full of peroxide, batteries and everything else I could find. I thought i had a lot of supplies. It was all gone in 30 minutes with people begging me for more. I drove all last night to get here to get more supplies to take back. Gas is being rationed to make matters even worse. I had planned to move children & elderly people into my house for shelter, but the sewage system backed up and covered my floors, so we can't go back into the house for health reasons. I have three bathrooms.
Right now I need supplies. Many People in my town only have the clothes on their backs. We are still cutting trees off houses to get to people trapped inside. Please call anyone and ask for help for Diamondhead. Red Cross, FEMA, anyone. Tommy has tried to call Trent Lott to see if he can get FEMA to let the drug company bring us meds and the building. The radio reports say people are rushing in to help. We in Diamondhead are too close to LA and not close enough to Biloxi and GPT to get any help. What is happening is they are rushing right by us heading to New Orleans.
If I can get in and out of Diamondhead, supplies can be brought there. The retirement community of Diamondhead seems like a third world country. People are stealing gas for generators from their neighbors and threatning people who are attempting to help them. It is horrible- the conditions there.
I need to sleep a few hours , get supplies then head back.
I will contact you when I can
XXXX
I"m going to donate to the Red Cross. I'm going to ask my co-workers here in my office for a donation so I can send it to XXXX. I have to do something.