Posted on 09/01/2005 9:18:00 PM PDT by snowsislander
BILOXI -- Help began arriving Thursday for the beleagured Mississippi Coast, but long lines awaited anyone trying to get it.
The death toll continued to rise even as desperate rescue efforts continued, and officials feared a massive public health crisis from poor sanitary conditions -- including tons of spoiling shrimp and chicken strewn through neighborhood streets.
President Bush planned a visit to the area today and planned to ask Congress for $10 billion in aid, but it was the Federal Emergency Management Agency trucks full of ice, bottled water and prepared meals that most victims of Hurricane Katrina wanted to see.
At some distribution points, people clapped, cheered and yelled, "Thank you, God!" when supply trucks showed up. At others, sheriff's deputies and National Guardsmen had to hold off a rush of people desperate for food and water.
A line of cars five miles long waited to get ice and cartons of water at Ocean Springs Middle School. The hard-hit town east of Biloxi hadn't seen any aid until Thursday, officials said. "We've got thousands and thousands of people out here who need help," said Dave Martinez, a part-time Jackson County sheriff's deputy.
The middle school, supposed to be a staging point for police, had been pressed into service as a shelter for more than 200 people who had nowhere else to go, including many elderly people in need of medical assistance.
"We weren't turning anyone away," Martinez said.
Wednesday night, the city's mayor and police chief sent an officer to the emergency operations center in neighboring Harrison County to beg for supplies until FEMA arrived.
Help didn't reach everyone, especially in small communities such as the village of Lakeshore in far southwestern Mississippi.
James Gibson, a 45-year-old man with a heart condition, was still waiting Thursday for a crew to bulldoze a house out of the road so he could get by to check his own home.
"There's no FEMA. No Red Cross. No help. People are sick. The water is like toxic gumbo," Gibson said. "We're the forgotten little town that got blown away."
Even as help started to pour in to many areas Thursday, search-and-rescue teams continued looking for people trapped under debris, and emergency officials began trying to prevent a disease outbreak from insects and deteriorating drinking water.
Six thousand National Guardsmen from throughout the country have received orders to report to the Mississippi Coast to aid in the relief efforts, Harrison County Civil Defense Director Joe Spraggins said.
One hundred people have been confirmed dead in Harrison, Hancock, Pearl River and Jackson counties. More bodies were being discovered under debris and in waterways.
"You name it, that's where we're finding them," said Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove. There's hope survivors may still be found, as well. Some were pulled out of collapsed buildings as late as Wednesday. Officials couldn't give a specific number but said there are stories from all over the Coast.
Firefighters rescued a 7-year-girl Monday two blocks from the beach in the attic of a collapsed building, Long Beach Fire Chief George Bass said. She only had scratches on her face.
A young couple was found at the site of the Patio Apartments, where they had survived by clinging onto a tree, Bass said. And two days after the storm, an 80-year-old man was found about four blocks from the beach.
As part of the effort to protect public health, emergency workers started scooping up 40 tons of decomposing chicken and 1 million pounds of rotting shrimp throughout several neighborhoods.
National Guardsmen were sent into the communities with shovels and front-end loaders. The chicken was strewn from downtown Gulfport west to Long Beach when Katrina's tidal surge hurled shipping containers out of the State Port at Gulfport.
The shrimp, which came from a seafood storage plant, was scattered from D'Iberville to Biloxi. "We could get diseases of all types," Spraggins said.
Portable toilets are also critically needed. Spraggins said the county had ordered 2,500, but they had not arrived.
He worried that truck drivers were not bringing in equipment and supplies because they're unsure they can get hotel rooms. He appealed to them to come anyway.
"Please help us," Spraggins said. "Bring the gas and the food. We'll make it as good for you as we possibly can."
The White House said President Bush will visit the devastated Gulf Coast today. He asked his father and President Clinton to lead a fund-raising effort, as they did for the Asian tsunami in December.
Congress is also expected to reconvene from its summer recess today to pass emergency legislation to aid victims of Katrina.
Bush will fly to Mobile, Ala., and survey the destruction by helicopter, then land in Mississippi for visits. The White House wasn't saying Thursday exactly where he will go.
Anywhere aid arrived Thursday, long lines formed as people waited in cars and on hot asphalt parking lots for their chance to get water and ice.
Others lined up at gas stations, in a vain hope that fuel trucks might show up. The one gas station off Interstate 10 that was pumping gas had a line of cars more than a mile line snaking onto the highway.
Some people had to push their cars, because they didn't have enough gas to start them every time the line moved.
A sense of desperation was clear on many faces.
"We have no water at all," said Sam Rosado, a Gulfport resident who waited for ice starting at 8:30 a.m. in a Stein Mart parking lot. "What little food we've got left for six or eight people at the apartment isn't going to last."
The trucks he and hundreds of others waited for weren't there when officials said they would be, so all they could do was stay and hope they would show.
When the three semis finally showed up more than two hours later, people honked their horms. One man climbed atop his SUV and cheered: "The trucks are here!" Others praised God.
Rainer Shelley, one of the truck drivers, said he loaded up in Ocala, Fla., Monday, then met up with more than 300 other trucks in Tallahassee.
"I'm looking for the next load," Shelley said. "I'll keep working."
Tanika Butler was beaming as she pushed a shopping cart full of supplies.
"We haven't had ice or water since Tuesday," said Butler, who has 11 family members staying at her house. "We got by on what our neighbors, friends and family gave us."
The distributions didn't help everyone. Matthew Hall of Ocean Springs lost his home in the storm. His car won't start, and he has a flat tire and no way to change it if he did.
He said there are rumors that FEMA and the Red Cross may come into this neighborhood with supplies.
Until then, he's still waiting.
Hmm. No reports of looting. People waiting in an orderly way and complaining some about lack of help but law abiding all the same. Quite a contrast to that large city to the West.
Also note that the first trucks left on Monday and just arrived yesterday and today. It does take time for this many trucks with food and water to get to a rather isolated part of the country.
I'm guessing the long transit time has a lot to do with the road conditions in the area plus waiting for FEMA decisions about where to direct the trucks. The latter may have more to do with it than the former.
Comment on spoiling shrimp and chicken - what? They don't eat beef in Biloxi?
I'm convinced that the complaints from people who have survived are not as petty as the bulk of what we're reading and hearing on the mainstream media.
very astute. There are small two-lane roads into the Gulf Area from Laurel/Waynesboro..those are blocked by trees.
There is a major hwy 49 to the coast, it's getting cleared but also obscured by huge falling pines.
I-10 is impassable from water on one side (LA) and covered by debris in the other (MS).
My guess is that some of the Navy ships will stage off the MS Gulf Coast and provide aid that way until some roads get cleared off.
Hmm. Long lines? When there are so many thousands of people who need assistance, how could you avoid long lines?
There's no way that I can think of reasonably avoiding long lines in these circumstances. I think that the balance of the article is positive, and I wish that the headline writer had let a bit of that good news slip into the title.
Do you have an address handy for the nearest standing Salvation Army store, in that area?
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