http://news.ft.com/cms/s/6c3f1632-23d5-11da-b56b-00000e2511c8.html
Heartbreak as Mississippi mops up
By Demetri Sevastopulo in Gulfport, Mississippi
Published: September 12 2005 23:09 | Last updated: September 12 2005 23:09
Two young, girls in matching red T-shirts and blue denim skirts were looking for clothes. One smiled as she held up a pink shirt that took her fancy. Another young girl seemed happy to find a nice pair of shiny blue trousers.
This was not Gap or Benetton, however. The girls were among hundreds of desperate people rummaging for something to wear at a used-clothes dump in a shopping mall parking lot converted into a relief centre for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
“Heartbreaking” was how Jack Quinn, former White House counsel to President Bill Clinton, described the scene at Crossroads shopping centre in Gulfport, Mississippi, one of the most devastated coastal towns along the Gulf Coast.
And heartbreaking it really was. A half-naked man sat forlornly in the scorching heat amidst the piles of clothes that others trampled across in desperation. Along with his friend, a woman who had worked as a blackjack dealer on one of the many floating casinos along the Mississippi coast, he had lost everything – his home, his job, his pride.
“I wake up, I pray. I go to bed, I pray,” he said.
Steven Ewing had words to comfort the man: “If you believe in the Lord, he is going to carry you through.”
One of the legions of volunteers who have flocked to the regions destroyed by Katrina, Mr Ewing, a co-founder of the faith-based Compassion Alliance, was helping co-ordinate the relief effort at the shopping centre along with the National Guard. His organisation helped co-ordinate the arrival of 350 trailers of supplies, one-third from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the remaining two thirds from faith-based groups.
“This has been the epitome of the faith-based [approach],” said Mr Ewing.
While much of the media focus has been on the massive flooding in New Orleans and, until recently, the hordes of residents stranded without food and water, in many ways the devastation along the Gulf coast in Mississippi is even more unfathomable. President George W. Bush was yesterday scheduled to land in Gulfport to survey the damage.
In contrast to the chaotic scenes in New Orleans, however, the relief effort in Gulfport seemed more orderly. Cars lining up to receive supplies – mainly water, ice and MREs, or meals ready-to-eat – were ushered in eight at a time to separate stations, where National Guard members loaded supplies into their trunks.
People waiting in their cars were offered hamburgers prepared by a team of church members from Lagrange, Georgia, who were making the 12-hour return journey a couple of times a week to help. Ray Ham, the church administrator who led the 35-man burger-flipping team, said his group was grilling up to 5,000 burgers a day.
Not everybody could make it to relief centres, however. And as in New Orleans, many of those without cars remained in more dire straits.
“Our dispatchers have to literally listen to people dying on the phone,” said Damon McDaniel, a Gulfport policeman standing guard at the shopping centre.
The message from volunteers and others in the Gulfport community was that private companies were stepping in to help fill the void sometimes left by the federal government and its red tape. Dole Food Company, for example, had delivered several truckloads of pineapples to Crossroads. Other companies have also stepped up. On Thursday morning an Airbus Beluga cargo plane landed in Mobile, Alabama, with 22,000 tonnes of blankets, cots and tents donated by the French and British governments, which were transported to another relief distribution centre in Gulfport.
While some foreign governments and companies have complained about red tape, EADS, the European aerospace and defence company which is the majority shareholder of Airbus, was able to circumvent much bureaucracy by dealing with local officials in Alabama, where the company hopes to build refuelling tankers for the US air force.
Sam Adcock, senior vice-president for government affairs at EADS North America, who co-ordinated the relief effort on the ground and whose parents lost their home in Gulfport, praised the Transport Security Administration, however, for approving the Beluga landing within 24 hours instead of the customary seven days. The aircraft later transported a mobile hospital to Jackson, Mississippi.
Over the weekend, the US State Department said 115 countries and 12 international organisations had offered help, including $650m in pledges. South Korea has pledged two tonnes of disposable nappies. The European Union has also offered support and supplies, with the 25 member states banding together with five non-member countries under its civil protection mechanism, which was used to provide aid to victims of the Asian tsunamis earlier this year.
While the view from the ground showed the extent of the human suffering, the view from the air revealed the absolute havoc that Katrina wreaked along the Mississippi coastline.
Mile after mile along the coast from Biloxi to the now appropriately named Waveland, areas previously alive with restaurants, bars, casinos and beach houses, were reduced to wasteland. Perhaps the greatest demonstration of the power of Katrina, however, were the Copa and Treasure Bay casinos off the Gulfport coast. While the Treasure Bay had been almost completely destroyed at sea, the Copa had been carried inland to a place it was never meant to be.
In contrast to the chaotic scenes in New Orleans, however, the relief effort in Gulfport seemed more orderly
Glad to read some updates, thanks.