Posted on 09/06/2005 12:17:01 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
HOUSTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - In the last week, Joseph Brant lost his apartment, walked by scores of dead in the streets, traversed pools of toxic water and endured an arduous journey to escape the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in his hometown New Orleans.
On Sunday, he was praising the Lord, saying the ordeal was a test that ended up dispelling his lifelong distrust of white people and setting his life on a new course. He said he hitched a ride on Friday in a van driven by a group of white folks.
"Before this whole thing I had a complex about white people; this thing changed me forever," said Brant, 36, a truck driver who, like many of the refugees receiving public assistance in Houston, Texas, is black.
"It was a spiritual experience for me, man," he said of the aftermath of a catastrophe al Qaeda-linked Web sites called evidence of the "wrath of God" striking an arrogant America.
Brant was one of many refugees across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi who gave thought to religion on Sunday, almost a week after the floods changed their lives, perhaps forever.
At the Astrodome in Houston, where 16,000 refugees received food and shelter, Rose McNeely took the floods as a sign from God to move away from New Orleans, where she said her two grown children had been killed in past years in gunfights.
"I lost everything I had in New Orleans," she said. "He brought me here because he knows."
Nearby, others looked for a different kind of higher ground and smoked marijuana in the shade outside the Astrodome.
Inside, Gerald Greenwood, 55, had collected a free Bible but sat watching a science fiction television program above the stands in an enclosed stadium once home to Houston's baseball and football teams. "This is the work of Satan right here," he said of the floods.
The Bible was one of the few books many of the refugees had among their possessions. Several Jehovah's Witnesses walked around thousands of cots to offer their services.
THE WAGES OF SIN
The Salvation Army conducted an outside religious service that included songs such as "What a Friend We Have in Jesus."
"Natural disaster is caused by the sin in the world," said Maj. John Jones, the group's area commander. "The acts of God are what happens afterwards ... all the good that happens."
Others took a different view, including Tim Washington, 42, who on Saturday waited at the New Orleans' Superdome to be evacuated. "God made all this happen for a reason. This city has been going to hell in a handbasket spiritually," he said.
"If we can spend billions of dollars chasing after (Osama) bin Laden, can't we get guns and drugs off the street?", he asked. Washington said he stole a boat last Monday and he and a friend, using wooden fence posts as oars, delivered about 200 people to shelter.
The Salvation Army's Jones was one of many trying to comfort victims in Sunday services across several states.
At St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Baton Rouge, several hundred local parishioners and storm survivors attended Sunday services. "I wish we could take your broken hearts and give you ours," Rev. Donald Blanchard told the gathering.
Some people walked out of the church in tears mid-service.
At St. Francis Xavier Church, a black Catholic Church in Baton Rouge, the mood was a mix of frustration, bitterness and profound joy. As evacuees stood one by one to introduce themselves, parishioners clapped and cried, celebrating their guests' good fortune in simply being alive.
"For those who were alone in the water, alone on the roof, you might ask 'What did we do to deserve this?'" the Rev. Lowell Case said. "A lot of us think being black may have had something to do with it, being poor and black in New Orleans."
Churches in many states have taken in evacuees and organized aid for people who in many cases had lost everything. But at least some bristled at the role of religion in helping the afflicted.
"We're getting reports of how some religion-based 'aid' groups are trying to fly evangelists into the stricken areas and how U.S. Army chaplains are carrying bibles -- not food or water -- to 'comfort' people," Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheist, said in a statement.
"People need material aid, medical care and economic support -- not prayers and preaching." (Additional reporting by Jim Loney and Michael Peltier in Baton Rouge and Mark Egan in New Orleans)
Thanks for the LINK.
I didn't get in on my search.
Bump!
I saw where cities like Philly and Cleveland were 'reaching out' to the NO blacks. Strikes me as a desperate attempt to keep the ranks of the dependency class filled.
I apologize. I did a search and was floored it hadn't been posted. But ....
But this isn't totally the government. There are hundreds of volunteers going and helping these people from all over the United States.
From doctors and architects to retirees and gang members, more than 150,000 Louisiana residents have landed on this city's doorstep. Some will be here for days and months, but many will simply stay.
They will be looking for jobs and apartments. They will put their children in schools. They will figure out how to navigate the city in a bus.
These are not just the poor, dazed people seen in pictures of the shelters — many of whom are finding family and moving out.
They are professionals searching for nice houses and leasing them for the entire school year, said Terry Cominsky with Karpas Properties, who has helped six such families in the past week.
None has a clue whether they will ultimately buy a home and stay here, she said. Dozens of important questions come first, like how to collect insurance money and what happens to the mortgage back home.
But they might stay. And the effect on Houston could be "profound," said Mayor Bill White, without offering specifics. Certainly the city's budget will go up, as will tax revenue. Which will rise higher is anyone's guess, he said.
Other changes are happening fast.
The 70,000-unit apartment glut is disappearing overnight. The Port of Houston is speeding up a dredging project because many weighted-down boats that normally offload in New Orleans first will dock here.
State professional boards are working with licensing issues for Louisiana doctors and nurses.
Eventually, someone will point out discreetly that most of our potential new residents vote Democratic.
As Houston City Council authorized spending up to $10 million for Katrina-related costs Monday, expecting it would be federally reimbursed, members posed questions and some concerns for the mayor.........................***
Bump!!
"Ah, failure to pay attention in the 4th grade vocabulary classes when the teacher wrote MANDATORY on the blackboard.....?"
Ouch, that will leave a mark.
I am not surprised.
Also, as we can see, a lot of people who stayed were elderly and/or ill.
Our pastor pointed out the obvious. Federal, state, and local GOVERNMENTS have all experienced a massive loss of credibility. Now it's the Church's turn to step up to the plate and demonstrate which God truly CAN be counted on.
bttt
who says atheists don't believe in God...
bttt
They're a strange bunch.
Bump!!
City to Offer Free Trips to Las Vegas for Officers***NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 4 - A day after two police suicides and the abrupt resignations or desertions of up to 200 police officers, defiant city officials on Sunday began offering five-day vacations - and even trips to Las Vegas - to the police, firefighters and city emergency workers and their families.
The idea of paid vacations was raised by both Mayor C. Ray Nagin and senior police officials who said that their forces were exhausted and traumatized and that the arrival of the National Guard had made way for the officers to be relieved.
"I'm very concerned about individuals who have been here, particularly since the first few days, and have been through a lot of hardship," Mr. Nagin said in an interview.
He said most of the police officers, firefighters and emergency medical workers "are starting to show signs of very, very serious stress, and this is a way to give them time to reunite with their families."
Mr. Nagin, who has been demanding more federal assistance for days as his city struggled with despair, death and flooding, said he had asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay for the trips but the agency said it could not. He said the city, therefore, would pay the costs.
He said he believed there were now enough National Guard members in the city to allow the police to take a break and still keep the city secure, and he brushed off questions about whether such a trip might look like a dereliction of duty.
"I'll take the heat on that," Mr. Nagin said. "We want to cater to them."............They said that they were trying to get the first officers on their way on Monday and that the first stop would be Baton Rouge, about 75 miles from here.
There the officers will be given physical examinations and inoculations against possible infection from the polluted floodwaters, said Col. Terry Ebbert, the director of homeland security for the city, who has authority over the police and fire departments and other emergency services. ..........***
Awesome graphic. And oh so true...
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