DEVESTATION IN THE SOUTH

I, like many Americans, and citizens of the world, was appalled as I watched last August the New Orleans area under water and our government doing virtually nothing to help. Soon after I volunteered thru the American Red Cross and eventually went to work in a shelter in Florida. I am continuing my work with them today on a local level.

In January I went to New Orleans after receiving an email from Habitat for Humanity, who has loaned their support to the St Bernard Parish Project to help clean up the debris still in people's homes. I could not believe what I saw upon landing there.

Imagine if all of Alameda County was bombed, and 6 months later there was still no gas, electric, water or phone service. Rubble and debris that was people's homes and businesses lay in ruins for miles. 4 kinds of poisons snakes, displaced by the 6-30 foot standing waters that were there for weeks, nest in the homes that volunteers are cleaning up. Not to mention mold and who knows what kind of vermin as spring approaches.

Imagine if on a daily basis you have to drive by and live in the same garbage that was in front of your home and business 6 months ago, never getting to start the healing process from what was the worst month of your life. If you are constantly having to fight a bureaucracy that promotes itself as the greatest and most humane in the world. Imagine if realizing that an entire nation does not know or care about a major area of the United States. This is the gulf region as it exists now.

In the presidents last state of the union address, he spoke 10 seconds out of 53 minutes about the worst disaster in the United States. He claimed that 16 billion has been "committed" to rebuilding the gulf. If that has been sent to help the people who live there, why does it still look like the floods just happened 3 weeks ago? Why will the federal government not give a straight forward answer to how the levees will be by June 1st, start of hurricane season? Why has he continued to give no bid contracts to Halliburton and Bechtel, but won't restore utilities so locals and businesses can come back?

Why are the firefighters I interviewed only guaranteed pay thru FEMA until April 1, 2006? Why are the firefighters required to be safety officers on the house cleanups on their days off (= no pay)? Many of the public officials live in little FEMA trailers, 6 inches from each other, while their families have been sent to live in other states.

No private hospitals have any plans to rebuild since the Army Corp of Engineers will not give a straight answer on the condition of the levees. 90% of the physicians in New Orleans have left. People have to go literally to tents set up in buildings for medical care. In Chalmette there is a double wide trailer in a Wal-Mart parking lot. 1000s of FEMA trailers sit waiting to be delivered out of state. FEMA will not release them unless you have utilities to hook up to. Little has been done to restore the utilities. People have died from heartache and suicide waiting for help.

Some would argue, "Why rebuild, why should we risk it?" The truth is there are many major areas in the world below sea level, and they have solid levee systems. We know in the bay area we are at risk for earthquakes, so we build homes, roads, etc to standard. We know hurricanes, ice, snow and tornados are a part of life in other areas, and we prepare accordingly. These people deserve the same. These are our friends, our neighbors, our Americans. Please don't allow our politicians to continue to ignore them.

What can you do? Contact your state senators, Bush, Homeland Security; tell them that you too are appalled by how the federal government has abandoned the gulf. Volunteer and or donate to the St Bernard Fire Dept, Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, etc. Go to the sites of Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisana or "women of the storm" for more information and suggestions to help.