French Quarter Holdouts Create 'Tribes'

AP ^ | Sep 4, 11:28 PM (ET) | By ALLEN G. BREED

[v. crow]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - In the absence of information and outside assistance, groups of rich and poor banded together in the French Quarter, forming "tribes" and dividing up the labor.

As some went down to the river to do the wash, others remained behind to protect property. In a bar, a bartender put near-perfect stitches into the torn ear of a robbery victim.

...

"Some people became animals," Vasilioas Tryphonas said Sunday morning as he sipped a hot beer in Johnny White's Sports Bar on Bourbon Street. "We became more civilized."

[v. crow]

Out of chaos, order. It's interesting how people will organize given a week.

[Americanwolf]

intresting not really its calls survival instinct... whats your next trick?

[Americanwolf]

gee and they would not have had to wait a week if the Gov. of Lousinana had not wasted time while her people drowned

[Americanwolf]

So nice how you just make your one vauge statement.... the nothing... this is a web board that thrives on discussion... and you ain't discussing....

[OldFriend]

The French Quarter doesn't have a drop of water in the streets. They are hoping to get the power back on and get back to business.

As with the beaches in Thailand, it won't be long before tourists are back partying in NO.

[battlegearboat]

Warriors!

Red Dawn

[battlegearboat]

What's your problem?

Can I help?

[stm]

And as time goes on, complaints about the ARC continue to pile up. They were a pain to work with during Ivan and have been placed under investigation (and some people possible indictment) for mismanagement of funds and resources during the relief effort.

Article published Sep 4, 2005 Red Cross bureaucracy causing frustrations

By Billy Gunn bgunn@thetowntalk.com (318) 487-6378
It's been a week since Hurricane Katrina evacuees started arriving, dazed and heartbroken, fearing for loved ones and what the future holds. Many escaped with little clothing, their kids and pets in tow, not much money in their pockets, jobs vanquished.

They grew roots quickly wherever in Cenla they landed: small churches and campgrounds, at least one hotel that let them live in lobbies and fed them.

It was the closest thing to home they've had, and Central Louisiana welcomed them with bountiful generosity.

However, some of the refugees and those who have helped them are frustrated with the Red Cross and its intractable bureaucracy, its tendency to look to the rule book before taking a step, whether it be registering evacuees for shelters and getting help from sorely needed volunteers.

Also, the Red Cross-mandated migrating of evacuees from small shelters to large is ripping some from the small venues where they feel safe to much larger ones where people are placed hundreds to a room with no privacy and a shortage of bathrooms.

Leann Murphy, CEO of the American Red Cross of Central Louisiana, said her agency is in "crisis mode," they're doing the best they can and that she understands the frustrations of evacuees and volunteers alike.

Just walk in the Red Cross' command central on Jackson Street, and one encounters a house almost mad: volunteers dodging each other, cellular phones' different tones sing, a closed door for a much-needed private moment.

But the enormity of the crisis, the influx of refugees (on Saturday the number at approved Red Cross shelters in Central Louisiana was 6,000, with thousands more staying elsewhere), doesn't seem to bring a change in Red Cross procedures.

'Ridiculous'
"The Red Cross, they are ridiculous," said Tim Murry, a manager at Alexandria's Holiday Inn Convention Center, where 100 to 200 evacuees have lived since Katrina's landfall.

The hotel, like many other places with no Red Cross assistance, has sheltered and fed the southeastern Louisiana residents, or former residents, since they arrived: some yesterday, some a week ago.

Murry said he and Raj Patel, whose family owns the inn, on Friday tried to get the temporary tenants registered with the Red Cross but were met with resistance because of the emergency agency's steadfast adherence to its rules.

Before registering, the hotel would have to demand that evacuees leave, then they'd have to find a registration center and fill out a form supplied by a certified Red Cross volunteer, Murry said.

As a compromise, Murry and Patel offered to bring registration forms to the hotel and have evacuees fill them out there to keep their tenants, many of whom have not a buck for gasoline, off the road.

And, they said, the Alexandria Riverfront Center is connected to the Holiday Inn, just steps away.

The Riverfront is one of four big Red Cross shelters in Rapides Parish that continues to take on evacuees; two busloads of New Orleans evacuees arrived Friday night.

But those staying at the Holiday Inn, where in banquet rooms they've made makeshift beds out of chairs, couldn't walk up stairs and register, Murry said.

"I just said screw it. I'm keeping them," Patel said. "The important thing is that they register with FEMA."

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is a critical link to those displaced and needing federal assistance.

Evacuees at the Holiday Inn said Red Cross volunteers did come and tell them about the procedures and what the agency required.

It wasn't a good exchange, said those who've constructed boundaries where families can keep a semblance of privacy in the inn's banquet room.

The Red Cross volunteer "came barging in here and said that we're destructing the hotel," said Christina Rosa of Metairie, who didn't remember the volunteer's name. "They said the hotel does not want you."

"We had problems with the Red Cross being kinda rude to us," said Sharon Sam of New Orleans.

Both women said the generosity of Central Louisiana and especially Patel and the Holiday Inn staff was a godsend: all were fed, local pastors came by to see check on them, local Salvation Army volunteers supplemented their needs, they felt safe.

But, Marco Sosa said, "This changed a lot of people's mind about the Red Cross."

Riverfront Center
In the Riverfront Center, hundreds lay on cots and milled around in the over-cooled complex Saturday, and Marion Smith missed the smaller confines of Northwood Elementary, where she and other St. Bernard Parish evacuees had stayed. "I loved it there," she said. "It's so crowded here."

Then Cynthia Jate, who drove the St. Bernard bus passengers to safety, told Smith, "I got hold of your son. Pack your bags, he's coming (from Houston) to get you."

Stunned and teary, Smith said nothing, just listened.

"He said he's been to Marksville to Mississippi, Lafayette, lookin' for you," Jate said. "He's so tickled."

Jate told other St. Bernard residents "anything's better than here. You don't know these people.

"All the St. Bernard people, I'm trying to get them out," said Jate, clearly in charge.

A volunteer
Leatha Basco also is mad at the Red Cross. Though disabled, she thought she could do something, anything, for refugees pouring in from the southeastern part of the state.

So, she left Forest Hill Friday morning and drove to the Rapides Parish Coliseum's Exhibition Hall, one of the big-venue Red Cross shelters, the one landmark she knew how to get to.

She put in a couple of hours, cleaning the restrooms and helping by lending her cellular phones to refugees desperate to find loved ones and wanting news on their homes.

Basco then attended training, where "they said that if you can't put in eight, 12, 24 hours (at a time), they don't want you. I just got up and walked out."

"There's a lot of people out there that give a little time," she said. "I guess I'm good enough to clean the toilet but not good enough for anything else."

Murphy, the Red Cross CEO, said her manpower resources are stretched thin, and that might deviate from agency rules and let volunteers work shorter hours.

The minimum-hours rule, she said, is in place for more orderly scheduling.

Town Talk reporter Mandy Goodnight contributed to this article.

[Paleo Conservative]

As with the beaches in Thailand, it won't be long before tourists are back partying in NO.

Your're too late. The partying has already started.

New Orleans Begins Counting its Dead (While Decadence Parade Held in French Quarter)
AP ^ | Sep. 04, 2005 | ROBERT TANNER

Posted on 09/04/2005 11:49:39 PM CDT by tgslTakoma

[Americanwolf]

no problem on my end... I don't see the post as being meant here by this poster as a feel good story... I think it was meant more as a look what the people did because the Govt was there kinda post..

[battlegearboat]

You picked a fight right out of the box.

[denydenydeny]

Lord of the Flies.

[Americanwolf]

plus it is obvious this is another hit and run post
.... there have been a ton of them today..

[Americanwolf]

let say I don't think this poster had good intentions from the start...

[v. crow]

I'm too used to just lurking, I guess, but I noticed nobody had posted this interesting anecdote after several hours so I took a chance and just did it myself.

What do I think about it? Well, you're right; it's natural and part of our survival instincts to organize and work together (divide labor) for mutual benefit. It's great and inspirational to see it in action.

[MEG33]

snip

Simon Henderson, 47, an electrician, carpenter and plumber who stepped off a refugee bus from New Orleans a week ago, is now helping out other refugees at his new residence, the Reliant Center across the street from the Houston Astrodome.

On Saturday, he helped relief workers build 16 new shower stalls. On Sunday, he was helping a team of paramedics.

"They're feeding me. They're housing me," he said, while rushing bags of batteries for blood pressure gauges and hearing aids into the center. "This is the least I can do."
snip
There was more to the story...

[Americanwolf]

Thanks for responding.. I do truly appreciate seeing that you do have an opinion on this. We get far to many that like to do hit and runs.. trying to stir up disruptions and things of the like.

That being said. I apologize for my previous hostility towards you. With the amount of disruptor that we have had lately I some times have a tendency to try to flush them out right away...

Btw I agree it is good to see people working together in the worst of situations..

[rineaux]

I've stayed at the H.I. in Alexandria before, and attended a conference there in July. Nice of Patel to do that. You walk outside or take the escalator up and your are in the conference center. There is a hotel, Bently I think, that closed not to long ago. Im sure they have about 100 rooms in there that could be utilized.

Speaking of the Red Cross. Hate to kick a fella when he's down, but. I went to the Reunion Arena today to volunteer. No one was in charge and no one knew what they were doing. They just tried their best to look cool in their RC vests.

You fill out an application, go through a one day training course, background check, than they put you on a list to help. I am sending them money only because my company is matching what we donate.

[v. crow]

"no problem on my end... I don't see the post as being meant here by this poster as a feel good story... I think it was meant more as a look what the people did because the Govt was there kinda post.."

I think you meant "wasn't there". Actually, they'd probably have set up their own government given enough time, people and isolation. Government is part of the beneficial division of labor; ideally it's the oil in the engine for a society (Rule of Law). These folks had a sort of informal government among themselves just by following implicit rules of behavior, and by posting part of the labor pool as sentries and security. That's the law and the police in a nutshell!

-

I read your last post as I was typing this. Don't worry about it. I'm more inclined to read what others post than to open my own mouth, but nobody felt like posting this so I finally registered and did.

[Prime Choice]

Before registering, the hotel would have to demand that evacuees leave, then they'd have to find a registration center and fill out a form supplied by a certified Red Cross volunteer, Murry said.

It is this sort of crap that makes me an unholy terror in every meeting with every bureaucrat at every place I work. It's finally come to the point that they acquiese just so I'll shut up.

Not optimal, but I'm okay with it.